Traversing restaurants

Challenging yourself not to imbibe a foodstuff isn't easy, but it can be manageable at home. At home, you can observe strict adherence to any rules (or lack thereof) that you choose. Avoiding any one foodstuff is in a way easy: you simply don't purchase items with the offending ingredient.

But of course, one doesn't spend all of one's time at home. It is necessary to go out, socialize, and work. This is really where I feel there is the most difficulty. Out in the wider world, there are many pressures to relax with friends, or pressures on time due to work and other exciting life events like shopping for cold medication.

Which is a roundabout way of saying it is far more difficult to avoid sugar when outside than it is inside. In my own case, I work at a waterfront restaurant, in which questionable food of indeterminate ingredients is abundantly available and I constantly moving. Therefore, I am always hungry. But because I am keen to avoid sugar, I am unable to devour anything and everything as I usually would. I have to take the time and ask the questions.

Luckily, I work in a well put together operation. The chef knows his shit, and when I ask him if sugar is included in this or that he almost always can tell me without hesitation. He offered me a bit of his meal (By the way, if a chef ever offers you some of his own food, take it. It will likely be one of the tastiest things you'll ever eat), and when I asked him the sugar questions he knew instantly it did not. I was pleased, as it looked delicious; a bit of sauteed lamb with pasta and tomato sauce.

However, when  I began to eat it, I tasted a distinct sugary taste to it. This is something I have come to find in the past few day: my palette has become very sensitive to the taste of sugar. Unhappily, I couldn't eat it. I picked out the meat and very reluctantly gave the rest away.

My coworkers are also sympathetic to my plight. January is often the month when people are still struggling with resolutions and cutting things out of their own diet, so they applaud the effort of others, as it bolsters their own morale. A couple of my coworkers, for instance, have given up alcohol for the month.

It has led to some interesting conversations as well. One coworker was unaware of the sugar that was in ketchup and was unhappy to know just how sugary it was; he had been placing it in the 'somewhat good for you' column. Another didn't believe she would be able to do it, were she in my shoes. I explained that I had done it before, or something similar, and I really was feeling fine without it. But to her, it was as if I were undertaking one of the herculean labors.

Make no mistake: I miss sugar. I crave it. But the lack of it is not making me crazy, or sad, or angry. I don't need it, I just want it. Absence makes the heart go fonder, after all.