Berries.... The Gateway Carb

As promised, here is installment two of my struggles with staying on course...British Edition.

Months ago, a friend who is VERY into Jane Austen found this Jane Austen Regency Tea in Carmel, IN and asked if I wanted to go. If you've known me long enough, you know I don't really read, so can't say I had read any Jane Austen and my only movie memory of Jane Austen books made into movies is one that stars Kiera Knightly. And the only thing I remember thinking about that movie involved two male friends commenting on how long her neck was in a Pirates of the Carribean movie and me staring at said long neck. So... Brit Lit isn't really my thing. But... hanging out with friends for a fun experience.... THAT IS MY THING.

So we bought tickets in April, never imagining by June I'd be in a totally different meal plan world.  The event was at Tina's Tea House... this is a legit, owned by a Brit, tea house. She takes her tea seriously. Now, British tea is not just about the drink... there are traditional foods that come along with a tea. NONE of which were really Virta friendly. Finger sandwiches... cucumber and cream cheese, coronation chicken salad, and some cheddar with tomato jam.  Then there were sausage rolls. And then pastries. Cookies, Cakes, Tea Cakes, and scones. Lots of sugary coverings such as lavender jam. The only food 100% Virta friendly was clotted cream.  And boy did I like it. If you've never had it, it's sort of a middle ground between butter and cream cheese... super creamy, super smooth. And so good I brought a jar home with me.

So I tried to Virtafy my foods as much as possible, but have you ever tried to lick cream cheese off of white bread. It doesn't work. I had a bit of success with the chicken salad and pulled the cheese off the other ones. I released my sausage from its phyllo dough casing, and just tried to eat the sausage, but have you ever tried to get all the phyllo dough off of sausage? Not as easy as it sounds. When they came to collect my plate, it looked like I had massacred the pillsbury dough boy with high piles of discarded carbs. In retrospect (like 2 days later retrospecting, I probably could have asked them for sandwiches minus the bread... a few cucumbers with a dollop of cream cheese, a scoop of chicken salad, and a few slices of cheese....but hey..i'm really new at this. :) )

But then there was cake.  I love cake. They were small pieces of cake. Like 1inch by 1 inch. So that wasn't too bad. I only had two. And the cookies were small and only had 1.. but then there were the scones. I needed a carrier for the Clotted Cream... so I chose to just have half of a scone that someone had left behind. And it was all amazing.  For a night, I really didn't care how these choices might affect my numbers.

Virta tells you to expect lapses and relapses. I highly doubt they expect it to be planned.... but for the night that was preplanned, prepurchased, and full of fellowship I decided to put aside the meal plan for the night and play out our Jane Austen tea (sans costumes- some came dressed in full Regency garb, and to them I applaud your time and effort to leave the house wearing a bonnet! )

So I left the tea, happy and with no shame for making alternate choices... I want to live my life and realize I'm running a marathon and not a sprint... so this is all to be expected. The next day I was back on track.... well, until my next social scene... July 4th. Stay tuned for the Fireworks edition....