Day 9

Day 9

So, Vegas. Not as easy as I had thought, but also not totally impossible. Some things that happened.

After have a productive morning of laundering towels and sheets, getting Tessie to the kennel, seeing the cleaning ladies off, taking a shower, having a small shake for breakfast, and getting packed for the trip, I forgot to grab my leftover salad for lunch and instead just hit the road.

I decided to have breakfast at the Baja Fresh half-way in Barstow. By the time I got to Barstow, though, they were closed because of a power outage. Everything was closed, actually. Except Panda Express. So I got the orange chicken with white rice. Now, I’m not 100% sure what goes into the orange chicken, but I’m certain it can’t be good. I finished a bit more than half, and about half the rice, washed it down with a bottle of water, and hit the road.

Once in Vegas, I got checked in, diddled around the hotel for an hour or so, then headed to the Strip to meet up with my step-dad and little brother for dinner.

The restaurant was Valentino at the Venetian. My discipline at the restaurant hasn’t matched what I’ve managed to do the past week or so. I had a risotto (I’m assuming if something is creamy then it’s no good), and a steak. Not the worst things on the menu, by a long shot, but I didn’t get a shrimp and couldn’t avoid getting an appetizer. I did, though, manage to skip dessert, and the dessert list was deadly-good.

After dinner, I played in a poker tournament. $60 buy-in. And, I finished in the money!!! $280 profit (though I tipped out the dealers $30), so a profit of $190. Not too shabby! I was high as a kite from the win, and grabbed my car and headed downtown.

Mentally, things got tricky at this point. Under normal circumstances, I would be smoking pot and stopping for fast food, or at a Denny’s, or getting a hot dog from somewhere. And gambling. And blowing my money. I resisted, though, and stopped at a 7-Eleven and got two bananas (one for now, one for breakfast), and a large bottle of water.

Once in my hotel, I wasn’t even remotely tired, but it was 1:15 a.m. and I needed to sleep. As the prior night had been sleepless, I chose to take two Tylenol PM pills and medicate myself to sleep. I have avoided taking Tylenol PM thus far into this detox because I don’t want to become dependent on the drug for sleep, but last night it was necessary. With a poker tournament starting at 2:00 a.m. in the hotel lobby, sleep was the best way to combat it.

Anyway, it worked. I’m up, eating my banana and drinking the rest of the water, writing this, and getting ready to head back to the strip to meet up with the family again.

The only other thing to report from yesterday is that I got almost no exercise. I did take Tessie for a long walk in the morning, but didn’t get much else. Sure I wandered around the casinos, but not as much as I would have liked. Hopefully today I’ll get some movement going.

So, the facts:

Day 8 Food:

Shake (three heaping tablespoons non-fat yogurt, blueberries, splash of OJ, ice)
Orange chicken (3/4 order) and white rice (1/2 order)
Water
Cosmopolitan
Glass of red wine
Porcini mushroom risotto (ate every last drop, it was damned good!)
Veal carpaccio (one slice from my brother’s appetizer)
Bread (one piece with a tomato spread (no butter!!))
Filet mignon with three dipping sauces (none cream based!) and a small potato thing (small and dry, so it couldn’t be that bad, could it?)
Water
Banana
Water

Daily weight: ??? (no scale here at the hotel!)

Daily exercise: Not very much at all

So that’s about it. I’m going to have lunch with my brother today, but I shouldn’t have any problems picking a salad from the menu, and them something for dinner… Not sure what, stay tuned for that.

Thanks for reading!