a peek inside the fishbowl

Yesterday, the three of us motored over to Kingston to visit the eldest at Queen’s and have an early birthday dinner for our youngest daughter. You see, it’s family tradition that the four of us have dinner together, so we couldn’t let a bit of distance get in the way, right?

I snuck out to Strawberry Blonde Bakery before we left Ottawa and bought some of their amazing (AMAZING) Nanaimo bars. They’re vegan and gluten-free, which is now something we have to pay attention to in our family. (Long story, but a couple of family members have issues with gluten.) I also tucked a candle in my pocket as well as our BBQ lighter for an impromptu pre-birthday treat for the youngest upon arrival.

Once we hit Kingston we stopped to get coffee. It seems wrong to have Nanaimo bars without coffee! The youngest got a chai latte.

Of course, it’s always a sweet reunion, with or without Nanaimo bars. The eldest lives in Leggett Hall, which has a really nice common area on the ground floor with huge windows and comfy leather couches. While the girls were out of sight I whipped out the candle and stuck it into one of the bars and lit it.

Have I mentioned how delicious those Nanaimo bars are from Strawberry Blonde? I didn’t even have time to take a photo, that’s how quickly they were eaten.

We hunkered down with our treats, chatted for a bit and then dropped off some stuff in her residence room. We also had to drop off an emergency parcel for a friend, which we did, and then parked and wandered around downtown Kingston. I bought a dollar’s worth of moss (YES. MOSS.) and a little bunny figurine at a cute little shop I always look forward to visiting called Minotaur. It’s a very fun little gift/toy/card/puzzle/kid/adult/plant store. They have all sorts of doodads, and it’s hard to leave without buying anything.

They have cute cacti, for example:

FYI, I used my new moss (it’s dead, dead moss, ok?) to cover the base of one of my orchids, whose roots are getting a little unsightly. I hope this doesn’t kill it somehow.

Anyway, wandered a bit more and later enjoyed a really nice family dinner at Kingston Brewing Company – I would recommend that place to anyone – and all too soon it was time to drop her back off at school and head back home.

It’s hard to believe that the eldest is actually DONE her classes and is studying for final exams. (Some of you fishies may remember when she left and how I felt at the time.) Her first year is almost done! The good news is that she’ll be home for the summer and the four of us will be together again. I couldn’t be happier.

What can we do to address the extraordinary advantages and disadvantages that fortune plays in all our lives? Please watch my recent @TEDxKanata talk, ‘Running, luck and the ovarian lottery’ to find out: https://t.co/MjwCZ0IMK8

— Mark Sutcliffe (@_MarkSutcliffe) April 4, 2018

• When You Can and Cannot Say ‘No’ When Someone Asks to Switch Seats With You on an Airplane, melmagazine.com
• Mexico and Hungary tried junk food taxes — and they seem to be working, vox.com
• Jon Hamm Would Like to Buy a Time Machine, wealthsimple.com
• Will We Stop Trump Before It’s Too Late?, nytimes.com
• What Everlane gets right about marketing to women, washingtonpost.com
• Being A Teen Girl On Social Media Is Like Having A High-Pressure, Full-Time (Unpaid!) Job, chatelaine.com
• What about the Breakfast Club?, newyorker.com/

On the nightstand: The Throwaway Children

The last days of Whole 30 were probably the hardest, not because I was ready to throw in the towel, but because there were more obstacles than usual.

Good Friday was officially our Day 30. We had Easter dinner at my inlaws and I ate as per the plan although I was sorely tempted to slather a couple of biscuits with butter and cram them into my mouth while no one was looking. But I didn’t. I wasn’t perfect though. Notably, Easter hams are traditionally basted with some kind of sugar but I let that one go and ate the ham, along with a salad and potatoes. No wine or dessert for me, though.

The night before really tested our mettle. You see, Mark lucked into a pair of tickets to see the Sens game. Under normal circumstances, the overpriced beer, hot dogs, and popcorn would be easy enough for me to avoid but these tickets were in one of the suites. This means food service, and a fridge stocked with beer/cider/pop and also wine. The food on offer included pizza, mini-burgers, and Golden Palace egg rolls.

If you follow me on Instagram you have seen my story about it but I’m linking to it here so the rest of you can imagine my woe. ;)

There were ALSO big bowls of popcorn and potato chips. I could give pizza a pass, same for burgers, (egg rolls are a little harder, I admit) but popcorn and chips are my Achille’s heel.

I was feeling a little weak, as you can imagine, but as Mark pointed out, it’s only food. Who’s in control here? (Answer: me.) What helped was that I stuffed a bag of roasted cashews from home into my purse, so we had something to eat with our bottled water. Sigh.

After awhile the nice lady from CT Centre whose job it was to take care of the patrons in the suite, gave up asking Mark and I if we wanted anything. Thankfully, no one asked why we were only drinking bottled water and sneaking cashews from my purse.

Saturday was the first day post Whole 30 and I was happy to finally enjoy a proper coffee. I took a sip of milk before heating it up. It was so sweet, sweeter than I had remembered. Weird how your tastebuds change, eh? The coffee was good, obviously not as bitter as my daily espresso, but it also tasted weak to me. I will have to tweak my morning brew.

I also enjoyed my regular breakfast of granola/All Bran and fruit. There was no yogurt in the house so I had to make do with milk. It was nice to have a light breakfast again, but on the flip side, I was hungry two hours later, long before lunch. I found that interesting because that never happened to me when I was eating Whole 30 approved breakfasts. I always felt full and happy.

I should mention that we travelled to a family wedding this weekend. In terms of “life after Whole 30” there was no gentle re-introduction of foods as per the author’s instructions. The wedding dinner was, surprisingly, almost entirely Whole 30 compliant: soup, chicken breast/veggies. And then there was the rest of it. The wine was flowing (of course I had some) and there were also cupcakes (of course I had some of those too). As one does when one travels, there were stops for coffee and snacks, breakfast sandwiches, chips, pop etc. etc. Also, Easter chocolate. I wouldn’t say that I totally fell off the bandwagon. I ate without overthinking and had no regrets because I was in control of my choices, even though they weren’t all healthy choices. I ate mindfully, and I was ok with that. Even when we ordered that pepperoni pizza from Domino’s on our return home.

If we hadn’t been travelling I would have probably taken a different approach in these first days after the Whole 30, but I am fine with how it went down and being gentle with myself.

Now that we’re done the Whole 30, I did want to take a moment to talk about a few things that bugged me about it.

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