Yesterday was our monthly Beach Cleanup day (which I host).

Yesterday was very tightly scheduled for me: After Beach Cleanup,I had an event on the other side of town (with the kids) and a meeting after that. There really wasn't TIME for everything I had to do.

We decided to stop for food near the beach, on the way home. (Windy day, we were all hugely thirsty, so this played a role.)

The place we stop is one of our favorites. Everyone in the family knows what they're having before we walk in. My husban? Calamari basket. My son? Gator tail basket. My daughter, who hates seafood? Cheeseburger. Me? Seafood burrito.

Except that's now off-limits. So I actually had to LOOK at the menu. A lot of what they serve is either in a sandwich (or tortilla), or comes breaded and fried.

I wound up getting a grilled shrimp salad. "Garden or Ceasar?" Ceasar, hold the croutons, please.

First? Been a while since I had a cesar salad. Forgot how good they can be.

Second? I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a shrimp so much. They were grilled up in this oily sauce with lots of lemon juice and a few spices I couldn't separate out to identify, but that blended perfectly.

Every time I ate one, my eyes closed and the world went away for just a minute.

Last night, after that incredibly full day (with just time to shower/drop off kids between commitments) My last "thing" was a meeting, at the dinner-hour. Potluck.

I knew what was going to be at the potluck: "Turkey, and all the fixins". "All the fixins" looked like nothing I could eat: Stuffing, potatoes, sweet potato casserole, with marshmallows... Pie.

These carb-heavy potlucks are part of what's been keeping me from re-committing to LC for the past few years. They typically come at the end of a day that's as scheduled as yesterday (where for 12 hours, my only down-time was what we spent eating lunch), so I haven't got time to cook.

I stopped at the grocery. I grabbed a salad and some dressing (1 carb per serving on the dressing, though I was in a hurry so didn't read too closely), and some (unadulterated) iced tea.

My dinner plate last night had a good helping of turkey, some brussels sprouts that looked safe, and some salad. No one remarked that I wasn't eating (as they would have if I'd only had the turkey -- I know from experience and recent experience), I was satisfied, and I was able to be as on-time-as-humanly-possible.