Downfall

I have been trying really hard on the eating-and-exercising front. Before my dad was readmitted to the hospital, I think I may even have been succeeding.

But the way visiting hours are structured, it's hard to eat more than breakfast at home, and that means lunch and dinner (and snacks) are generally not as healthy as they could be.

Case in point: Right this very second, I have the following healthy foodstuffs sitting in my refrigerator, not being eaten:

• asparagus


• broccoli


• Brussels sprouts


• cauliflower


• spinach

And what did I have as a midafternoon snack at the hospital today?

Three scandalously unhealthy chocolate-chip cookies. Slightly underdone, just the way I like them.

In fairness, I did bring a semi-healthy snack to the hospital: cheese and whole-grain crackers and a little bag of baby carrots.

And I ate the cheese and whole-grain crackers and baby carrots.

I just supplemented them with slightly underbaked chocolate-chip cookies.

And in further fairness to myself, I only purchased one slightly underbaked chocolate-chip cookie, along with a bottle of water, at the café I pass every day in the lobby of the hospital.

The other two were waiting for me when I got upstairs.

Actually, the other three were waiting for me when I got upstairs.

Because my mom, well, she knows my proclivity for slightly underbaked chocolate-chip cookies. And so she bought a trio of them at the very same café on her way into the hospital today.

It took remarkable self-control to let that last cookie go begging.

And it's going to take even more self-control to go completely cold-turkey tomorrow.

But it must be done.

I've already beseeched my mom not to buy any more slightly underbaked chocolate-chip cookies for me.

But I'm also putting up this post to keep us both honest.