#13

Lucky 13.

It’s now the first of March and winter is still with us. Here in the Northeast we have some of the white stuff on the ground and more in the predicted forecast.

So my list of ways to cope with the long winter continues.

Clean something.

Not just organize. That’s another posting.

But give something a real good going over with a bit of elbow grease. You’ll end up organizing in the process.

I chose my fridge.

Oh, I forgot to mention. Only you will take joy in this completed task. No one else will notice. No one else will care. Ever. At all. But you will. You will notice and you will care.

Back to me. I chose the fridge because it was time. Way past time. After the holidays. After the kids have returned to university. After ignoring it. After giving it a swipe here and there.

A refrigerator is a big to do. The big guns needed. Taking out drawers and such. Scrubbing the fossilized lettuce on the clear plastic bin. Gosh, I think it’s lettuce. But who can really be sure.

It’s a place of hope. For that half used something or other. The promise of what could be.

With just one more recipe. In the near future.

It’s like I imagine the would be thoughts of jalopies resting in a junkyard. “Maybe someone out there will need a used part and come get me. So I’m not a has been.”

That promise never happens. At least in our house.

But what does happen, and I will admit it makes me sad and happy at the same time, is this. Sometimes those hard choices about promises are just taken out of our hands. Decisions made for us. Not by us.

At first glance it looks to me like one of those fabulous aerial views showing us beautiful little islands and possible volcanoes in the middle of a Habanero salsa.

Or dead field mice.

Oh my gosh! A picture can tell a thousand stories. Like a Rorschach test.

For the record. I have a ton of glass containers so I am not even sure how that can even made it into the fridge. Please don’t judge me. But it did and happily resided there for awhile. A quiet and unassuming neighbor pushed into the background. Not needing any attention. Until it was time to spruce up the neighborhood.

Then it had to go.

I cleaned that fridge until it looked shiny and new. Every drawer pulled out and washed. Dried up puddles from old vegetable goop all gone. I sniffed containers of sour cream and eyeballed the cream cheese packages. If anything looked like it could be a candidate for the next new antibiotic I heaved it.

I will leave off for now.

Secure in the knowledge that you will wisely choose a smaller cleaning project. That you will never accept an invitation to eat at my home. That you wont ever crave my pumpkin pie.

Have a lovely weekend! If it’s snowing be careful on the roads. If it’s not snowing be careful on the roads.

Spring is almost here.

 

 

 

 

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Cleanse

My dear friend, Nancy and I were discussing a “cleanse.” No, not of the spirit. But of the body.

She was telling me about a liver cleanse that is supposed to assist you in losing weight. Who’s not interested in dropping six pounds?

I was totally listening. But I do have to say the first thing that popped into my mind is this. Our livers would be totally cleansed if we stopped going to Nancy’s house every Friday evening.

Back to topic. Apparently you have to experience a bit o’ hunger for a few days during the juice/broth fast. In essence, a liquid diet.

So, being the curious sort, I did a little surfing of the web. Because that’s where one can find all the answers. And sure, as with any fad diet, you will lose a few pounds AND keep it off. If you return to a fruit and vegetable centered diet. Why not just start off with a fruit and vegetable centered diet first and see how that goes?

I am not sure that coffee enemas and broth for three days would ever be for me. Although, to be fair, I do have three cups of coffee each morning.

But the program might be for others. I am, as always, speaking my mind. And my thoughts.

My thought is this. I am no expert. But I have been around trainers talking carbs, fats, whey protein shakes, etc. I have observed friends wrestling with the South Beach Diet. Or at least wrestling with the slicing, dicing and cutting of the numerous veggies. I have seen people hepped up on the Atkins’ Diet. And way into the controlled meal plans of Jenny Craig.

And most of those folks have gained back the weight they lost at the beginning of their diet.

If you want to lose weight then write down EVERYTHING you put in your mouth. And don’t forget the BLTs. Not our favorite bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich but bites, licks and tastes! That’s from Weight Watchers. Hat tip to them.

Quick fixes are quick but they don’t fix. You need to know what you are putting into your body. We think we already know that but if you keep a log of everything for a few days you might be surprised.

Cooking a red sauce and tasting a spoonful. A cup of coffee with milk and heaps of sugar. The small handful of M&Ms at the hairdresser’s while waiting for a shearing. Licking the spatula after making the icing. Eating the leftover food on your child’s plate. Those little things don’t count, right?

Wrong. Every little thing adds up. But no one realizes it until they actually write it down. And no one knows better than me that if you didn’t document it then it didn’t happen.

Someone asks you, “What did you eat today?” You replay the day and think in terms of meals. I had breakfast, lunch and dinner. Or I had one meal. And our brain quickly skims the last eighteen hours to figure out whether it was a healthy breakfast, lunch or dinner. But the gray matter is not tallying the BLTs for you. It’s like not noticing the horrid images on cigarette packages. Subconsciously erased.

You just have to know what you are eating, study it and then make changes. It doesn’t cost a dime.

Doesn’t have to hurt or be horrible. Just a little tweaking. More fruits and vegetables. A little less meat, fat, and bread.

I don’t agree but I do start a lot of sentences with, “For the love of God…..”

People can give up many things in their lives. But the one thing you cannot give up is eating. Because you will die. We will always need food. So it’s not like we can swear off it and then stay away from people who do eat. Or not frequent food establishments because of what goes on in there.

Maybe a little less of this. This is the correct pronunciation.

Just small changes.

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