But first, a BSI update:

The Blogger Secret Ingredient contest is now up and running, and the ingredient of the week is dates! I love dates. Especially first ones because I generally don’t have to pay for dinner when I’m on them :-). JOKE (sort of). Anyway, Tri to Cook has gotten the ball rolling with a re-submission from a former BSI: Date & Butternut Squash Puree. What are your date tricks?

Now, onto the cake …

That’s right, more cake arrived on the conference room table right next to my desk today! When it rains it pours. I still had last night’s post-sugar reaction in the front of my mind, so I decided to take a moment and decide how to proceed instead of losing my head and going into my free-food survival mode.

The best way to contemplate this type of decision is with a healthy and hearty snack. I carefully sliced my apple into many pieces, spread peanut butter on each individual slice, and stuck the raisins one-by-one on top of the peanut butter as I glared at the cakes out of the corner of my eye and sent them this message via brain waves: Cake, you don’t bother me and I’m in no rush to see you because I am savoring a beautiful snack without your help right now:

I’m sorry, cake. You can’t hold a candle to this crunchy peanut butter bliss:

I thought a little bit harder while working on this mini chocolate ball from Belkis:

And then I stopped pretending that I don’t love cake. Because I do love cake, and I wouldn’t be me if I let this opportunity slip by. I got one plate of cake. And then another. And then another. In the end, I collected three plates of cake (one piece of peach cake and two pieces of real authentic carrot cake):

But score one million for me because these beauties went right into my emptied lunch tupperwares rather than into my belly! Right now, they’re resting comfortably in my freezer so that they are ready for their next assignment when I am.

Lest you think that I’m a saint, immune to refined sugar in all its forms (though how you could think that if you read this blog, I don’t know), this end of a piece did go into my belly:

It is carrot cake, after all. And nothing beats carrot cake with real cream cheese icing … except maybe my oatmeal-turned-carrot-cake.

I followed the carrot cake with a palate-cleansing mini candy cane because I hadn’t already eaten five pillow mints or anything:

Next up was running club, and ohhhh man, did my legs feel like lead tonight! I was lagging wayyyy behind the rest of the group, and this super classy dude to my left kept spitting every 10 seconds. I almost told him to swallow it, but instead, I let myself lag even more to get some distance. Do you know how unnerving it is to have a constant spitting sound three inches away from your left ear? Ick, I’m getting chills thinking about it. At least I finished the run! Stats for four miles plus an additional seven-minute warm-up/jog: 51 minutes, 415 calories, average heart rate 150, highest heart rate 173.

On the subway ride home, I dove into the giant orange I had packed plus my first Quaker True Delights bar sample: Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond. Before I say anything else, this bar was DELICIOUS. It did not have the vague berry-ness of other granola bars but rather a very specific and natural raspberry flavor enhanced by the visible raspberry (and dark chocolate, of course) chunks:

However, I couldn’t help but notice that this Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond bar was lacking the critical almond component — I couldn’t even detect any essence of almond flavor. And I was looking! In fact, not until the very last bite did I discover any evidence at all:

Again, the bar was delicious, but it needs either renaming or more almonds (obviously, my preference is the latter!).

After the subway, I raced home, packed (and nibbled on) tomorrow’s lunch, showered, and now it is finally bedtime. This week has been going non-stop, and it’s only Tuesday, ahh!

Good night!