JUNK LIKE A CHEESE STEAK

(Originally posted on the website Heron Flight)

“…because, when you get too hungry from not eating at all, you’ll be crazy by lunchtime and more likely to eat junk, like a cheese steak.”

As I wrote yesterday, I failed on the first two days of fasting for the detox program. More correctly, “we” were not able to make it through the whole weekend on green tea and water alone. We tried. We tried valiantly. We failed gracefully. (Again, more on the “we” another day.)

I say gracefully because we have salvaged the plan. I was going to fast with green tea again today until after work. But then decided that the other half of the “we” was correct in the quote above. I probably would have given in by lunchtime and ended up consuming a big ol’ cheese steak with considerable gusto… and not a small amount of guilt. Having made it mostly through each of the two days of the weekend before finally eating, some good most have been accomplished. So, we decided to continue with the last five days of the diet, which consist of eating mainly vegetables and fruit. We can have brown rice and most fruits and vegetables (no corn, no grapefruit). We can drink as much green tea and water as we wish. Primarily, what we cannot have is sugar, coffee, alcohol, oils (only 2 tablespoons of olive oil per day), nuts, dairy products, wheat, oats, and condiments. We can use salt, pepper and any other seasonings. That is what our diet will consist of for this week.

This is actually not such a hard thing. We have been deliberately trying to eat more vegetables and less meat, more fruits and less sugary snacks. We raided the cookbook section of Barnes and Nobles and came away with armfuls of vegetarian cookbooks. We have already experimented with several vegetarian dishes. (Have you ever had broccoli coleslaw in a spinach wrap with feta cheese and black olive spread? Ahhhhh! If I could only have cheese this week!) The snacks have been hard to cut down on. Eating less meat has not been. For a while now, I’ve been teetering on the edge of becoming a complete vegetarian. The detox program may just be the catalyst to pushing me over that edge. It did save me from inflicting a cheese steak upon myself at lunch today.

Several readers have asked for information on this detox diet. The book we have been reading is called “7-Day Detox Miracle” by Peter Bennett, Sara Faye, and Stephen Barrie. Click on the title to purchase the book from Amazon.com.

HAPPY EASTER!

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(Originally posted on the website Heron Flight)

This is the first article of the original Heron Flight website.

It’s Easter. A good day for a new start!

The last time I posted a journal entry was… well… quite a while ago! Too much time has transpired. Circumstances have changed. Events have happened. People have come and gone. Too much has gone unnoted.

Easter… the day of resurrection… new life. What better day for revival and renewal?

For some time I have been wanting to redesign my website. Of course, intentions and available time tend to avoid each other. I had the best ideas at the most inopportune moments and pitiful ambition when free hours surrounded me. Then today I installed Moveable Type. Now my web publishing life has become much simpler! Moveable Type’s available templates and easy archiving system have taken much of the difficulty out of the whole process. There is much that I need to learn about Moveable Type. For now, at least the site has a new design and provides a place for me to finally write again.

I need to write. I really need to write. The need has finally gotten to the point where it had to happen NOW! If you love to write you will relate to what I’m saying. Writers HAVE to write. Whether we write poorly or brilliantly, we HAVE to do it. Surely we want to write something amazing each time we sit before our computers or take a pen in our hands. No one wants to write poorly. But to not write at all is worse than the worst of the worst writing.

So… Today…

We spent the afternoon at my mom’s house. (Yes, “we.” The “we” will be explained another day.) My sisters and my niece were there. It was an impromptu gathering. Mom had been sick this week. So, no one was sure if we would get together or not. My stepfather had to work. (Doesn’t THAT suck?) We brought flowers over for Mom and ended up staying. Since none of us were prepared for this we ended up buying sandwiches, chips and chocolate at Quick Chek. Yes, we BOUGHT chocolate on Easter. Damn Easter Bunny! Poor Mom was sick and he didn’t even have sympathy enough to leave chocolate! Anyway… We had fun watching my niece find Easter eggs. We talked and laughed a lot. That was good in light of recent circumstances (also to be explained another day).

The only downside to the day was that I had been attempting a seven day detox diet. The first two days of the program allow you to have nothing but green tea and water. I started yesterday. I made it to 8 PM, then broke down and ordered Chinese food. Heh! Today I made it until 3 PM, then rushed to Quick Chek. Oh well. It’s a holiday… bad time to start any kind of diet. I did lose five pounds between Saturday and Sunday though! Not too shabby!

Tonight I came home and fiddled with the ol’ website until… *POOF!* Here it is! All brandy new!

There are plenty of things to write about, plenty to catch up on. But right now I’m tired. Time for a shower… maybe a movie… and then bed.

More later…………..