100 Days toward a healthier life - Day 16

16Breakfast:  Yogurt, blueberries
Lunch:  Eggs, scrambled with jalapeno
Snack:  Most of an Atkins bar, some kind of caramel and nut thing; saving the rest for breakfast tomorrow.
Dinner:  Artichokes, big salad with mushrooms, zucchini, tomato, cauliflower, celery, bacon, iceberg

Since someone asked:
Egg = 1 egg
Eggs = 2 eggs
I think 2 eggs is my limit, but if it changes, I will say so.
I drink a lot of plain water, a lot, at least a gallon a day, and sometimes have a cup of coffee or tea, except on Saturday mornings when I try to behave as though I am training for the Olympic coffee swilling team.  I have coffee divas all over the Midwest, willing and able to keep my damn cup full of brew as bitter as their restaurants will allow to be sold.  I am never happier than when I get the bottom of the pot.  Yum.

I did only a little cleaning today and some gathering of art materials for donation.  But, I am feeling better.  Hooray!  Much less coughing and I think that, well, I do not know what the hell I know, but I feel better.

So, anyway, artichokes.  They are so beautiful.  It seems a shame to cook them sometimes.  Their perfect globeyness, that mossy green...or is it artichoke green...with those sweet purple accents.  I think that most people do not eat the outer leaves, but I do, loving that bitterness.  And, that is my ode to artichokes and still one more proof of what an idiot I truly am.  Fortunately, I do not care a whit and am happy to embrace my dorkiness.  Really.  It has taken me decades to be comfortable with all of it, although I wonder, sometimes, how easy it is to be my friend.  Oh, well.

No cake today.  Man, that was a rough two days.  Cake.  Like it more than artichokes.  Eating that first bit of cake on Saturday created two days of cravings.  They are gone today, although I feel hungrier.  Tomorrow is lunch out with a friend and a test of whether or not I have completely brought down my self control.  They have sushi there.  Lordy.

Oh, even though I am not going many places, if I were, I would not be using my cane.  And one of the retinal wafer thing detachments managed to fold itself in half during the night and is almost half the size it was.  Maybe now it will sink more quickly.  After all this time, you would think that I would stop responding to it and swatting at the air like there was a huge bug in front of my face.  No new blood splatters in either eye since a week ago.

I bought bilberry to help with my eyes and turmeric for my nerve damage...or, is it the other way around?  Anyway, I will start taking them sometimes this week.  The fiber tablets are keeping my colon happy.  What else?  Nothing, I guess.  Oh, one more thing.  There was this gel mat at the pharmacy that you can put under the sheets and it is supposed to help you stay cooler at night.  I bought the smaller, pillow-sized one and tonight will try it.  If it saves me from having to buy a window air conditioner, it will be twenty bucks well spent.

O.K., one more critter GP.  Named, Cock-a-doodle-don't:

100 Days toward a healthier life - Day 15

Breakfast:  Yogurt, blueberries, 4 or 5 ounces of the roasted duck, 2.5 inch round piece of cake
Lunch: Green peppers, yogurt dip (a little powdered ranch dressing mix)
Dinner: 3 ounces of Snapea Crisps, two beers, conversation with two online friends

That freaking cake.  I managed to not finish the yellow cake from yesterday and I tossed the other sweets, but I missed that muffin-shaped one and I ate the damn thing.  Now, just for dinner, awfully late by the way, I started with a beer whilst on-line chatting with a couple of friends, one just across the little pond and the other in Australia.  I like them both so much and our conversations are always funny, and mostly irreverent.  I especially like the sassy parts.

Looking back on the day, I guess that I did not eat a lot of crap, just that cake piece.  It was so good.  It was so satisfying and if there is cake around her again I will eat it without any real guilty feelings.  It just tastes so good.  All of the homemade yogurt, fresh fruit and whole grains simply cannot hope to compete with a nice piece of cake.  Lordy.  Looking back on the day indicates that the only fiber I got was from the berries and peppers, which is not enough to keep my colon happy.  So, more fiber before bed.

It was a long and lazy day.  No energy for getting anything done.  Even a three-hour nap did not help.  Nor did resting.  I do battle with WW tomorrow and I hope I actually get out and do that.  My lungs are loggy or soggy or something.  Breathing hurts, even with using the inhaler.  More decongestants and more rest.  It has been a month since this last bout began and whilst I am slowly getting better, I still feel like crap.  This week has only the basics and I am hoping to visit my daughter and the babies.  Even to myself, I cannot make any promises.

You know, I look at my calendar now, with all of the past-their-usefulness-commitments gone and it looks so empty.  I am glad to have it so, and will be glad for the summer break, as well.  But, it looks so empty!!!  I guess that I am never satisfied.  I am yearning for travel, but the next time is a single day to an adjoining state and it is not for more than a month.  Maybe I will just take the little pond ferry over and then back on Thursday.  I cannot spend a week or even a few days at the place I could stay in town because, well, I shared that already and I do not want to add any sadness to the end of a respectably decent day.

Too tired today to make a new GP, so here is one that makes me laugh.  It is named, "What's up doc?":

100 Days toward a healthier life - Day 14

Breakfast:  Eggs, bacon, coffee, many, many cups
Lunch:  Pho, half a bowl, half of a spring roll
Snack:  Cake on the drive home
Dinner:  Rest of the pho, rest of the spring rolls, more cake

Holy crap, it is now two weeks since I decided, reluctantly, to become a healthier person.  I hope that this is not a pattern, a continuing two-week of pretty dam good and then a backslide where the cake is concerned.  But, it is not my fault.

Really.  After breakfast and taking my friend on her errands, which I enjoyed very much, finding a few lovely craft materials things for myself and my mentee and the grandbabies.  Then, I dropped her at home and went for pho.  The older man there took my order and encouraged me to try a spring roll with pork.  It was very good and I think that I might ask for more help from him sometime.

I did have a moment today, though.  At breakfast, the errand friend needed change for a ten dollar bill.  I gave it to her in singles and a dollar's worth of change.  Cool, yes?  Then, I went to pay my bill for lunch and the ten spot was nowhere to be found.  I had left it on the table at the breakfast place.  With the tip I had already left, our lovely (truly, I like her very much) waitperson received a 150% tip today, just from me.

I was like totally freaked for a minute or two and then realized that it was likely the least expensive lesson I have ever learned.  It was offset by the mind-blowing sale that I got for a tiny, wooden barn and animals that I bought for our newest grand-nephew.  It was on sale for 50% off and then for another 75% off of the sale price because it was damaged.  I have to replace the screws in the hinges of one of the doors and two of the animals are missing, although the tractor was still there.  My mind is still blown over that one.

Where was I?  Lunch.  After, I walked to the Asian market next door and shopped for treats for my daughter and the boys, including daddy in that count, some herbs and a whole roasted duck.  You can choose your own duck from the pile of carcasses in the case, but I let the guy do it and he then hacks it to pieces and puts it into two, large carry-out boxes.  He does not give me the head, but that is fine.  Having my dinner looking back at me, bill and all, makes it impossible to disconnect myself from that lovely, rich, meaty goodness and the abrupt ending of the ducky's life.  He sure is delicious, though.

So.  The cake.  In this market you have to pay for the duck separately, as it is in the deli section.  No problem, except that today the corner of the place was packed, and I mean really, seriously packed, with sweets.  Asian sweets are not like those in any other part of the world.  They are made from sugar, of course, but also a stunning variety of starches, beans, rice and who knows what else.

I chose a wedge of this yellow cake that seemed strangely resilient in it's Styrofoam  and cellophane package.  Then, there were these rice things and those bean things and before I knew it, there were four small packages of sweets joining the hacked-up meat pieces, formerly known as ducky.

I sampled each one in the car on the way home.  The first taste is almost always the best, no matter what something is, and these were no exception.  Except for the cake.  Goodness.  And goodness does describe it.  It is moist.  It tastes of egg and not too much sugar.  It is sort of the airy, chewy texture of angel food cake, but more dense.  Lovely.  Charley and I have been snacking on it all evening.

I never should have bought it.  I will not buy it again.  I should not be eating it, but I am and the rest will be put out for the critters in the morning, along with the other sweets.  All of them, the sweets, cost only $6, so added to the lost $10, not a completely horrible day of wasted money, especially when I remember the huge meat waste I had a month or two ago.  Shudder.  That was shameful, but today's lapse is just a lapse.  Gonna move on.

I tried the new decongestants last night and have felt a little better all day.  Still not using my cane, and using less pain meds.  I bought fiber today and my colon is very happy.  It is a good day when your colon is not sad.  I am personally less sad today because I managed to get over the fact that my friend sort of stole my place to live in town.  At least I think that I am over it.  At this moment I no longer feel the need to stop helping at the gallery and I will try my best to not be upset and all grudge-holding with him when we next meet, which will be Friday.  Yeah, I am pretty sure that I am not upset about it anymore.  Pretty sure.  Maybe I do need a little more time to grieve the loss of that safe place, but I do not plan on using more than a few days for being sad about it.  Yeah, I can do that. No, he did not sort of steal it, he wrangled, pushed and punched my sorry ass right out of that place.  Bastard.  O.K., I am fine now.  Yeah.  I am, but that felt good.  Smiling now.

Tomorrow is back on the healthy wagon.  No cake for anyone.  I have some sewing that I would like to do and I promised to make some doll clothing patterns for a friend and, oh, there looks like there will be time for a nap in the early afternoon, altogether a fine prospect for a Sunday. 

On Monday I call the travel place and plan another short trip or two for the summer and I still have to join WW.  I am ditching the whole getting a new checking account and debit card thing and opting for paying the higher week-at-a-time fee for each week that I go there.  Maybe the extra $3.88 each time will help me value it more and make better use of the program.  That is an easier solution to the other stuff, and it is certainly much better than forgetting to keep enough money in that extra account so that I do not get hit with overdraft fees.  Now, that would seriously amp up my cranky-factor.

So, tonight's GP is one that makes me laugh.  A lot.  It is named Come here often? and there are several interpretations of what this depicts.

It might be:

1. Two of the microbes/germs/bacteria/bugs in my ailing body having a conversation whilst my white blood cells wander around taking long breaks, getting hyped on coffee and angsting about the meaning of life instead of doing their jobs.
2. A couple of citizens of other planetary systems, meeting out at Area 51, in honor of the couple of new books about the place.
3. Two Eastern European countries, redistricted by the machinations of their inbred leadership.
4. Two people from around here, transformed by the Rapture (or is it Raptor, I cannot ever remember),  making connections with the other left-behinds.
5. A pair of new lifeforms found in my refrigerator.