Did I ever blow it: Unconscious Decadence on Valentine's Day.

Man, oh man, did I ever blow it this Valentine's/President's day weekend. Went to a party Saturday night where all my gourmand wine loving friends were in attendance. I probably had 2.5 glasses of wine. I did not do terrible damage on the food having brocolli and cabbage salad, spinach/shrimp wraps, a small cup of yummy roasted poblano chili and corn soup and some scallops with a coconut milk red thai chili sauce. Oh, and a bite of homemade baklava. I could have done worse. The real problem came on Valentine's day when my husband took me wine tasting in the incomparable Paso Robles region (like Napa only better). You know how that wine tasting is: they pour you little tiny amounts so you can't calculate how much you have had. At the first winery (Tobin James) I actually had one sip of a few varietals and dumped the rest. The next winery (Silver Horse) I had a few more sips of some yummy cabs. The THIRD winery I spied some chocolate covered strawberries that went a little too well with that syrah. Hmmm. 4 Chocolate covered strawberries. I was waayyy beyond "Conscious Indulgences" and deep into Unconsciouscious Decadence. Then we went to the fourth winery. The owner there was so enthusiastic that he poured me a full glass of Mouvedre (excellent: Cass Winery) and THEN a half glass of the most fantastic Grenache. I vaguely remember going into the men's room at the advice of the owner to check out a naked female mannequin. I have no idea why she was in there, but so was the other owner--using the urinal. Did I turn on my heels and leave? Nooooo. I started chatting with him about the mannequin and his fantastic Grenache. Lord! My husband yanked me out of that place as fast as he could, but not before I had purchased a case of said Grenache and joined the wine club.

All this took place before 6 p.m. and I had not yet had dinner. We went for Thai food. There was not a thing on that menu that fit within the O2 Diet. I had some kind of fish dish with a curry sauce and vegies and a green papaya salad. The good news is that I ate only half of each dish. The bad news is that I had already severely blown the diet with all that wine.

Well, I sure did pay for it today. My tummy was NOT happy with such a shock. So I had a handmade Scharffenbergers Chocolate chunk cookie at the Brown Butter Cookie Bakery in Cayucos after breakfast. Sound reasonable? Those chocolate chunks were still melty when I ate it. God.

When I got home tonight, I set to work cooking up some no-fail meals for the weak. I steamed up a bunch of broccoli, asparagus and fish, made a giant salad and some delicious cauliflower celery root soup. I am going back on Phase II where it is safe. I will have one Conscious Indulgence next weekend, and it will NOT be wine. Chocolate maybe. I think I'll stick with one of the recipes in the book.

What can I do but get back in the saddle and keep on moving forward?

Oh yeah, and today I read in the book that in Phase III we are only supposed to have one Conscious Indulgence PER WEEK---not PER DAY! I think I had enough for 2 months.....