When I get back home tonight I’ll upload the pictures of all the goodies piled on our meeting table these past few days.

I resisted almost everything, but yesterday I did open the cookies and had 3 of them, which were probably about 100 calories (they’re pretty small). They weren’t very good, and for that I’m very grateful, because 2009 will be full of meetings in this building and those cookies are likely to be present almost every time - and it will be SO MUCH easier to turn them down knowing they are not so good.

The chocolate I already know is not so good from other trips here. Although the packages are cute as hell, the chocolate itself is only milk chocolate (and I prefer dark) and is that too-sweet German variety where you almost gag with the cloying sweetness in the back of your throat. Still, it’s chocolate, and therefore can’t always be resisted - but by bringing my own bars of the good stuff in my suitcase I can avoid eating the junk and instead allow myself a small amount of the good dark chocolate in case of need.

Yesterday we had this big platter of desserts that were obviously too big a size for anyone to dare to eat. After about 2 hours my boss got the idea to cut each one into thirds and then she passed out plates. The only one that vaguely appealed to me was the apple pie, and luckily my three colleagues each took that, making it very easy for me to say “No, thanks” and reach for another piece of fruit instead.

The big bowl of fruit was in fact the good news. It had grapes, bananas, clementines, oranges, apples and kiwi. I had a banana, clementines & an orange.

I think in the future I’ll add to my food diary when I travel a line about all the temptations around me that I manage to pass up — sometimes it’s quite an impressive list!