Fail to Plan; Plan to Fail

First of all, I overslept. No biggie. NutriSystem is convenient. You can just grab your entree and go, if necessary. So that's what I did, I grabbed an apple scone on my way out the door. Being hypoglycemic, I chose mostly egg-based entrees with my shipment. The scone was part of the free week that came with it. I didn't have the extra minute it would have taken to nuke the eggs so I went with the scone. Only problem was that I didn't grab a serving of protein to go along with it.

So, I eat the scone at 8 a.m. as I drive to work. As a gastric-bypass patient, carbs and I don't really get along. But the scone is dense and I'm able to carefully chew it so that it doesn't get stuck on its way down. So far, so good. Two hours later, I'm amazed that my blood sugar isn't going haywire like usual. That must be due to the low-glycemic index ingredients NutriSystem says they use in their foods.

Feeling the need for caffeine, I grab a soy latte from the cafe at work and forego my standard morning chocolate croissant (yes, usually scone give my tummy trouble but croissants never do....go figure). At my desk, I use one Splenda to sweeten my drink. Not bad.

When it's time for my mid-morning snack, I realize that I left everything at home. No mid-morning snack, no lunch, no nada.

I decide the soymilk in the latte is enough protein to constitue a mid-morning snack and vow to wait till lunch for more food. Knowing there isn't a whole lot of program-friendly options at work to eat, I invite a friend to the local Thai restaurant for lunch.

On the way to the restaurant, I'm talking to myself. At first, I think I'll order a salad until I recall how sugar-laden Thai dressings can be. So then I decide to order my favorite dish, which features chicken, basil and eggplant. As usual, I skip the rice. Pretty safe, right?

But when we get to our table, my friend and I are both ravenous. She orders the Thai version of vegetable tempura as an appetizer. I tell myself I won't have any, but when it comes to the table, I can't resist the golden-fried goodness of the green beans, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli and zucchini. I indulge...a lot.

When our entrees arrive, I decide that I will only eat till satisfied -- not overly stuffed. That happens within a few bites and I push my plate away. I nibble a little more here and there until the server comes to grab our plates. As my friend boxes hers up, she comments that I didn't touch her rice. I told her the deep-fried veggies were indulgence enough.

We laugh ... and the day goes downhill from there. Next stop is Starbucks. She gets a Frap; I get a sugar-free vanilla soy latte. And at the last minute, I order a cookie -- not even thinking about it!

As we head to the office, I tuck the cookie in my bag. I don't need it; I'll just throw it away when I get back to work. People have done stranger things.

At the office, things are crazy as always and I forget all about that cookie until it's time for my afternoon snack and I am yet again foodless. So out comes the cookie for just a nibble. One nibble turns to two and three...and well, that's how the cookie crumbles and makes its way into my belly.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

By 5 p.m., my blood sugar hits rock bottom, and I'm struggling to stay alert enough to leave my desk. A brisk walk to the car helps perk me up a bit. But true to the back-to-back-to-back nature of my life, I'm off to the next thing. I have an ice cream social to attend.

Original plan had been to eat my NutriSystem dinner entree at work before the social, and then enjoying my extra veggie and protein servings when I got home. But I still didn't have any program foods with me, which meant I was at the ice cream social with snake-belly low blood sugar, an empty belly and absolutely no will to resist left in me.

Dairy is not my friend; I almost never have ice cream. Honestly, the pain isn't worth it. But when my blood sugar is low, I haven't eaten in more than two hours and my next option to eat is more than two hours away, I'm not exactly rational. So I serve myself a small amount of sugar-free vanilla ice cream, thinking I just need to elevate my blood sugar a little...next come whipped topping, a cherry and a little dab of that Magic Shell stuff that used to impress me so much as a kid. So much for moderation, right?

An hour into the social, I'm feeling the effects of the ice cream. Blood sugar is plummeting lower than before, tummy is seizing, life is not good. But what's a girl to do, aside from enjoy a couple more bites of ice cream to elevate her glucose yet again before heading home.

By the time I got home, I was miserable and contemplative. What went wrong? EVERYTHING!

OK...not exactly true. Simply put, I failed at my program yesterday. Why? Because I failed to plan appropriately for my day.

So, despite feeling crummy, I set out last night before bed to plan for today. I leave the house at 7 a.m. and I won't set foot back in the door until 10 p.m. Planning is key. I start by sauteeing onions and red pepper to add to my eggs in the morning. I also made a green salad that I topped with NutriSystem chicken salad and sunflower seeds for lunch. I packed two small apples and two portions of cottage cheese. Dinner will need to be an entree nuked and eaten on the run. Not sure how I'm going to work in my veggies, but I have 40 minutes to mull that over.

Challenges for the day: Noontime press conference featuring cake and cookies from my favorite bakery; dinnertime meeting that only offers cookies and coffee as refreshments.

If previous days are any indication, eating according to the plan will ensure I'm not hungry during either of these tempting events. The key, of course, is eating according to the plan. I have the plan; all I need to do now is following it.