and then nachos covered with fluorescent cheese and a pocket dog at the hockey game.

Don’t think this was a classic first-day-on-the-wagon slip up - I planned it this way. Hey, I never said I was giving up all that was bad for me all the time. Free Flames tickets come along very rarely, as do babysitters, and we planned to do it up right with some Saddledome food in order to complete the experience. (I’m not the only one – the concessions selling nachos, burgers, popcorn and all forms of dog had lineups a mile wide, while The Good Earth staff stood around with no one to talk to – it would appear a hockey game is not the correct venue for cappuccinos and banana bread.)

Because we were walking I didn’t bother bringing my camera (and because I’m pretty sure you know what nachos and cheese look like), but I kind of wish we had – then we could have asked the drunk guys in front of us in Flames logo MC Hammer pants high fiveing and chest butting each other (and us – luckily the Flames scored five times) and yelling give ‘er!! to take a picture of us. Or we could have had them pose with our nachos. (Mike bets that at least one of the pyjama pants guys has a ’71 Chevelle under a tarp in his back yard that he swears he’s going to rebuild someday.)

We also finally sought out the Pocket Dog my boyfriend keeps raving about – a $5.75 wiener stuffed into a section of baguette that has first been poked and inseminated with mustard, ketchup, cheese sauce and Ranch dressing. It was impossible to eat eloquently. And there was significant shrinkage. I was a little disappointed in the experience.

Not so with the nachos, which were everything I imagined. I had been daydreaming about them, nestled in warm, spicy cheese (still improper cheese:chip ratio) all day, so that by the time I had them in my lap the whole thing was gone 5 minutes into the first period. Yesterday, while curled up in the fetal position, I worried that I might not be up for the game tonight. But then sometime this afternoon my appetite came back and was all, I missed you so much. We have lots of catching up to do.

At that point I had gone to do CBC, then ran some errands, and still hadn’t eaten solid food since Sunday night. Because it didn’t seem like a wise choice to send nachos and cheese straight down to the front lines a day after a full evacuation, I paved the way with a smoothie this afternoon. Smoothies are the perfect sick food, especially when you have half a bag of wrinkled kiwi you’ve lost the gumption to do anything else with. (They freeze very well, by the way, just plain old in their skins, and you can peel them and throw them in frozen.) A smoothie makes the perfect sippable meal or snack to set beside the bed or couch; its easier on the stomach than a plate of food, and its cold, smooth texture soothes sore throats. Bananas contain potassium and vitamin B6; orange juice and frozen berries are high in vitamin C (although vitamin C hasn’t been proven to prevent colds, it can ease their severity and shorten their duration), and yogurt contributes protein and calcium. A drizzle of flax oil is a great way to deliver essential omega-3 fatty acids – 1 tsp. has as much as a 3 oz. filet of salmon.

I always assume smoothies don’t require a recipe, but for some they might:

Soothing Orange Banana-Berry Smoothie

1 banana, peeled and broken into chunks
1-2 cups frozen berries – my blend has strawberries, blueberries and blackberries
1-2 peeled kiwi fruit
1 cup plain yogurt
½ cup orange juice, milk or soy milk
2 Tbsp. honey (or to taste)
1 tsp. flax oil (optional)

Put all ingredients in a blender and pulse until smooth, adding more juice, yogurt or berries as you need it to achieve the right consistency. Serve immediately.

Serves 2.

Per serving: 269 calories, 2.5 g fat (1.3 g saturated, 0.6 g monounsaturated, 0.2 g polyunsaturated), 8 g protein, 58 g carbohydrate, 7.5 mg cholesterol, 3.6 g fiber. 8% calories from fat

Now some of you might think I’m not really serious about this healthy living thing, since the very first day after professing my dedication to it I go and eat garbage. This is the way of life. I don’t believe in the concept of cheating when it comes to food. When the nacho days outweigh the non-nacho days you have a problem, but it’s what you do most of the time that matters, not what you do some of the time. It’s not all or nothing, and it can be balanced out. We walked (including up 256 stairs to get back up to our neighbourhood), and we shared – we would never get two dogs or two burgers or two orders of nachos. And I consider it an achievement that since getting home I did not say “what the hell, I already ate junk, I might as well knock back a few Lindt chocolates and start tomorrow”, which would have easily been my rationale last week. Every bit helps.