My friends, I need a clear ... (I did it Orlistat's way)

The times (and body) they are a-changing. Last night, after saving up enough Weightwatchers points to accommodate a veterinary practice and chips, we went went to a local Italian "bistro" for Mother's Day. An odd place, it effectively does (reasonably priced) bland pub food, but with added words like "Barga" and "traditional Italian" to the front of the occasional dish name.

Suffice is to say, I used to love it - or at least not see what D had against. But last night marked an interesting change. For a start, the Mothering Sunday atmos was not condusive to a nice meal (particularly one we had been studiously saving our POINTS for over the last week). We sat in an almost permanent draft, the service was slow and erratic, and for some reason the management saw fit to allow a huge darts player of a man, with a granny's landing strip beard, to serenade the restaurant from a corner with his Casio keyboard. As we nibbled on our starters, he urged the gathered diners to sway from side to side to a bellowed "That's Amore!" and an electronic beat. If this was to aid the peristalsis, then it failed.

Of course, what really matters in a restaurant is their food. I ordered deep fried haggis balls, a fish medley (thankfully not provided by the Rat Pack Bobby George in the corner) and waffles, chocolate sauce and banana. And the funny thing was - I didn't really enjoy it. This IS the type of food I previously would have wolfed down with a wolvish grin. In fact, scratch that. In times of depression, times of stress, times of dull mundanity, this is the type of food that was a highlight of my whole week. Now it just seems (to use the word of the moment) "meh". Has bland pub food always seemed like this to most people? I even started to resent the amount of saturated fat that was clearly swimming around on my plates; the trade-off between that and any kind of melt-in-the-mouth tastiness seemed to be pretty slight. I suppose the fish was nice, but only in the sense that it inspired me to think: "I could make this at home ... "

So, maybe, just maybe, saturated fats, carbs and sugars are no longer my friends - or least, I'm less likely the read their updates on Facebook. I took so much pleasure from a meal I had exactly a week ago (steamed vegetables and noodles in a veggie restaurant) that I can't quite believe how I now look on these pub-type meals as being nothing more than salty fat to chew on ...

... Anyway, WW again tonight! Wish us luck!