Sept. 11/05 – No one wants to hear this, and I never get any sympathy, but I have to whine every now and then: It’s hard to lose weight when you get asked to eat out all the time!
After being positively saintly all of last week on week 1 of Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet (no booze, pasta, potatoes, rice, sugar, fruit or bread) my wife Ramona and I headed out to Feast of Fields at Vista D’Oro in Langley today. Feast of Fields is a big fundraiser for Farm Folk/City Folk and since I wrote about my previous experiences at the Feast in Shared Vision this month, they sent me an invitation. 
Imagine being given a wine glass, a napkin, and free rein to roam around a farm, stopping to snack at offerings from some of Vancouver’s top restaurants, while washing down local ingredients with fine BC wines. Who wouldn’t cave in?!
Well, I did have to drive back to Vancouver, so I took it easy on the wine, and tried to avoid dishes offering a lot of starch on the plate, or should I say, as the plate, as no plates are used by any restaurant. They are either edible or organic in nature, such as scallop shells, skewers of lemon grass or banana leaves.
One of my favourite offerings today came from ZIN Restaurant and Lounge, Jerked BC Bison Shortrib, with heirloom tomato jam, and organic pea greens, all served on a crisp plantain cracker. Yum!
I was quite full within about an hour of walking about, and although I managed to put 3.4 km on my pedometer, I felt like I had just done a big cheat on my diet. But y’know, ya gotta live a little!
Coming up this week on the line: I’m back in Vancouver to picket this week, and I’ll blog about the tips I’ve received from Kevin Hunter, an exercise therapist from Personal Best Exercise Therapy. I’ll also have more word later this week on a BBQ I’m helping to plan to ‘celebrate’ our first month on the picket line. Yves Veggie Cuisine has donated a bunch of veggie burgers and dogs and I’ll be staffing the barbecue on Hamilton Street this coming Thursday. Back at you soon…
Don
p.s. I found an article about our strike vote in an old copy of the Globe and Mail I came across today dated July 20, 2005. Quote: But CBC spokesperson Jason MacDonald said yesterday the strike mandate is not a surprise. "We expected it," MacDonald said. "A positive strike mandate does not mean there will be labour stoppage. Employees recognize what [a strike] could mean for the corporation."
Hello? I guess management didn’t recognize what a lockout could mean for the corporation!!!
