Cover me, comrades ... I'm going in!

If I needed a blood transfusion this very minute ... emergency services would need to hot tail it to C*sta Coffee and demand 3 lts of hot chocolate STAT. Yup! I've drunk so much hot chocolate today that I have pure liquid chocolate running through my veins! I kind of feel like I've been on a SlimF*st liquid diet today ... oh, stop it! Hot chocolate with a 1/2 inch sludge of chocolate in the bottom is so the same as what's in a can of SlimF*st! *Smiles*

***
As predicted, my coffee soiree with my friends (yes! the lovely, the sexy S joined us! Absolute pleasure doing business with you, darling! LOL!) turned into dinner. Trying to decide on a place to eat without banging on about needing soft food wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We spotted an Indian restaurant. We peered at the menu outside the restaurant. A quick scan and I thought, "Gawd! This is going to be awful!". My first restaurant experience with mates and I was sharing it with one who knew about my weight loss surgery and the other who didn't. I stood at the front door, took a big breath and muttered to my imaginary army, "Cover me, comrades .. I'm going in!". Once seated, I studied the menu with the intensity of a devoted scholar. Gawd! Chunks of meat. Rice. Naan bread. Soft food wherefore art thou? Oh! There you are .. in the vegetarian section. How exciting. I chose aubergine in a yoghurt curry sauce and a glass of water (so as not to look like an anti-social knob!).

When the papadums arrived to start the meal, I looked lovingly at them for 5 minutes ... then, when I couldn't resist anymore, I nibbled on a portion of papadum .. thoughtfully chewing it into a disgusting paste. Sip of water - it was oh, so small but pastey papadum does need to be washed down I discovered. Dinner arrived.

I still can't believe that in the time it took me to eat 9 chunks of aubergine (no skin), my mates polished off their curry, side dish and bread. It's just such a weird experience. Totally foreign. Totally bizarre. It's all about mindful eating .. tuning in with your body. After the said 9 chunks of aubergine, I felt comfortably full. Don't get me wrong. I could've kept eating. But I wasn't hungry and I wasn't stuffed. For shame, I did order some sorbet but only got 3/4 through the first of two scoops and really had to call it a night.

***
Since eating dinner, I have had some fabulously fiesty gas and tummy pain (lower abdomen) .. kinda like period pain. It's too soon after eating for it to have been caused by the food but man! Am I generating some natural gas or what! Sorry, you were eating?!