Happy Easter everybody!  I hope you’re all having a fantastic day!

Justin and I celebrated by getting to church at 7:30 for church set up and music practice.  Our regular music pastor is finally back after being out of the country for 3 weeks getting his kids from Rwanda, and I got to sing with one of the other ladies, too, and it was SO MUCH FUN!  It was a great service.  And we collect shoes for Soles for Souls (it’s barefoot Sunday) and the front of the stage was covered in TONS of shoes, so after the service a bunch of us stayed around tying pairs together and bagging them up for delivery.  So we got home around 1:00 and then showered and then I took a nap because that whole thing was exhausting.

This morning I had sliced up turkey meat wrapped up in romaine lettuce for breakfast.  It was actually really yummy.  And then I had cucumbers while practicing.  And lots of water.  I stuck a granola bar in my purse, just in case I started to feel faint, but I didn’t end up needing it.  And I felt really alert this morning, which was an exciting change.  Usually I’m sleepy in the morning, and while I didn’t have to get up as early as I have to on a regular work morning, I got up around 6:30 and felt just fine.  It’s exciting!

Yesterday was fruits and veggies and a couple bananas.  I had a banana for breakfast.  And then I went and made a smoothie with frozen berries and fruit mix and a fresh banana and pear and some applesauce to thin it out and it was *delicious.*  I felt fine the rest of the day, still easily worn out, so climbing up and down the stairs a couple times made me more winded than it should have.  And really warm, but that might have been something in the air because Justin was warm, too.

No fruits today, and I’m missing it.  I get tomatoes today, and we were going to get some from the grocery store, but apparently all the grocery stores are closed today!  So we’ve got some all natural canned tomatoes that are just going to have to work.  We’ve got great dinner plans, with spaghetti squash and tomatoes and ground beef.  It’s going to be great!

I’m still feeling pretty good.  I’m feeling a little out of it right now, but I think that’s because I’m still waking up from my nap.  And I need to drink more water.  This is probably TMI, but I’m feeling a little stopped up inside, if you know what I mean.

Justin and I are celebrating our Easter afternoon by sitting around and playing video games online with a friend of ours.  I’m pretty sure most of you are either hanging out with family or packing up boxes.  I hope you all have a great time and have a very happy Easter.

Love to you all!

Today just didn’t work well for a play-by-play because I was away from my computer so much.  I was out at the chiropractor and cleaning the house and making dinner and playing cards with our friend.

But here’s a run-down of how the day went.  I was really tired a lot of the day.  And it didn’t take much to wear me out.  I had to trek up and down the stairs about four times in a row, bringing up ironing and sewing things, and it was a lot more exhausting than it had any right to be.  I was a little loopy at the chiropractor appointment, but I hadn’t eaten much at all at that point and hadn’t had any water, so I downed almost 20 oz between the chiropractor’s and home (yea for remembering my water bottle in the car) and that helped.  So did the entire cantaloupe that I ate while doing the ironing.   For dinner, I made cauliflower soup, that I added too much water to, and it was really yummy, and a completely no-sugar, nothing but apples applesauce that was also really delicious.  This mixing fruits and veggies thing is awesome.  I’m going to miss that on days 5 and 6.

My energy level right now is low again, but it’s getting late in the evening, we just said adieu to our friend (who also wasn’t feeling well), and it’s just been that kind of day for almost everyone we’ve spoken to today.  Anyway, not that thrilling of a day overall.  And hopefully tomorrow will go better.

Cheers!

Today I eat nothing but fruits and vegetables.  Today I’m am a vegi-fruitarian.  Or a fruity vegetarian.  One or the other.   I can eat all the fruits and veggies I want as long as it isn’t bananas or starchy.  No potato for me tonight.

Here’s what the all the days on this diet look like, since I guess I forgot to go over that earlier.

Day 1: as many fruits as I can handle, but not bananas.

Day 2: as many veggies as I can handle, but nothing starchy, so no peas, corn, potatoes, etc.  But I do get a baked potato with butter for dinner.

Day 3: a combination of days 1 & 2, but no potato for dinner.

Day 4:  fruits and veggies, plus a couple bananas.

Day 5:  veggies again, but also fresh tomatoes (up to 6) and meat (10-20 oz)

Day 6:  veggies and meat again, but no tomatoes

Day 7:  back to day 3 again — fruits and veggies, but no bananas and nothing starchy.

The whole time, nothing to drink but water and unsweetened decaffeinated tea/coffee.  I can use a tiny little bit of artificial sweetener, but should avoid it if I can.  I can use a tiny little bit of oil, but should also avoid that if possible.  Nothing bread.  Nothing dairy (except the butter on day 2).  The point is to cleanse my system of as many things as possible, but my primary goal is to detox from sugar, white flour, and caffeine.  After I’m done, I’ll be avoiding those things as much as possible, which is going to stink, but not nearly as much as this week does. 

So!  There you go!

Last night I slept for a solid 12 hours and I feel SO good.  I’m kind of hungry right now, but I’ve only eaten a grapefruit so far this morning and I should go get something more than that.  I’m thinking fondly of the other half of the acorn squash I didn’t finish yesterday, so I might go chomp on that.  Today I have to get a lot of stuff accomplished before our friend arrives this evening.  We have  a chiropractor appointment in a couple minutes and then I have to do the ironing that’s draped all over the couch and clear up all my sewing stuff that’s on the dining room table, along with a couple other projects.  It’s going to storm this afternoon, by the looks of the sky, so staying inside and cleaning up some projects should be a perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Time for me to get ready for my appointment!

7:28am
I’ve never had broccoli for breakfast before.  It’s better than I expected!  Of course, it might just be that I’m happy not to be eating fruit right now.  Oh!  I forgot to mention in my other post that last night going to bed, I had a terrible stomach ache.  I thought I was going to be sick.  Eventually I asked Justin to get me some Tums and it helped.  I really think I had too much acid in my stomach.

8:11am
I picked up some MiO “Liquid Water Enhancer” when we were shopping Tuesday.  It’s flavoring for water.  I love that it says “A little MiO goes a long way.  Always dilute.”  There are 24 servings in a 1.62 oz container.  I betcha that’s strong stuff, straight from the bottle.  It’d be like eating Crystal Light like a pixie stick, except in liquid form!

9:57am
I’m really not as hungry today as I was yesterday.  I’m not sure if it’s because I’m much more busy at work today or if vegetables are just that much more filling than fruit or if I’m just being cautious about eating too much because of the stomach pain I ended up with yesterday.  But I ate a bowl of re-warmed steamed broccoli for breakfast and I’ve had a bag of cauliflower out on my desk for the last hour or so, but I’ve only eaten most of one floweret.  I’m still on my first bottle of water (it’s a 20 oz bottle, by the way) and I need to be drinking more than that.  But I have to close it when I have documents out on my desk and that’s what I’ve been doing most of the last hour.

10:35am
I’m kind of tired.  I wonder if I’m not eating enough today or if I’m just not getting enough sleep.

12:45pm
Going to the Lunch and Learn was a *great* idea.  Over in my regular area, they got free lunch from a barbeque place, with pulled pork and chicken and mac & cheese (I’m guessing, since that was the menu last time), and I avoided that temptation completely.  And I was able to avoid the subs, chips, and fruit over at the talk without problem because I showed up with my salad in hand.  And I wasn’t the only one who ate a salad, either, which also helped a lot.

Now, I didn’t end up eating much of my salad because there’s a lot of iceberg lettuce in there and that’s super-dry without dressing.  So I ate the cucumber and pepper slices and the julienned carrots and listened to the lecture.  And now I’m back at my desk eating acorn squash.  And I admit, I miss the butter.  But it’s still really yummy.  And some people asked “Did you forget about the free lunch?” and were really confused by my decision not to go, but GREATER GOOD, people.  It’s all about the greater good for my health today.

(second update starts here)

1:38pm
Tired again.  But it might be because I’m comparing two documents to find any changes.  It’s not exactly enthralling work.  I want chocolate. Not thinking about it.

1:54pm
The ergonomist was supposed to come evaluate my desk sometime between 1-2 o’clock today.  Where is she?

2:26pm
Gah.  So tired.  Stupid, stupid tired.  I want carbs.  I want sugar.  I want bread.  I want a thick slab of Nutella on bread from the Atlanta Bread Company.  I want pasta from the Cheesecake Factory, followed by their signature item.  I want a Snickers bar from the vending machine down near the bathroom.

Time to walk over to the *other* bathroom and get water from the bubbler over there and then come back to my desk via the outside door.

2:54pm
I really need to build a nap-time into my afternoon somehow….

4:06pm
Decaf, unsweetened chai tea just isn’t quite the same as those great chai lattes.

Apparently sleepiness is one of the symptoms of carbohydrate withdrawal, right up there with grumpiness and intestinal distress.  I’m going to get my “monthly gift” this weekend, too, so all those symptoms will just blend together and it’ll just feel like a really awful period.  One where I can’t soothe myself with chocolate or freshly baked bread.   Fun!

5:07pm
It’s a really good thing I don’t need to work the next couple of days.  My brain is just not functioning the way that it’s supposed to work.

I’m heading home here in a couple minutes and then I’m heading back out to band practice to get ready for Sunday morning’s services.  Do that for a couple hours and then come back home, where I might just collapse into bed for the night.  So don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me again tonight.

(third update starts here)

10:58pm
I know!  I should be sleeping! But practice was canceled and so I sat around poking at my computer, looking up ways to cook veggies, and then Justin started the baked potatoes and then I went down and cooked zucchini and DINNER WAS SO GOOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA.  And then I watched Tangled and it was adorable.

But let me go back to dinner!  Okay, so for dinner tonight I got to have a baked potato with butter and I already love baked potatoes, so TREAT!  And I usually cover them in things like cheese and sour cream and bacon, if I’m lucky, and who knows what else.  Stuff!  I had forgotten how good a baked potato can be just with butter!  Delicious!  And because I didn’t want to have just a baked potato for dinner, I sauteed up some zucchini squash.  I apparently cook with way too much oil because I sprayed the pan with Pam and it worked just great.  I chopped up some onion and sauteed that in the pan until it was translucent and then I crushed two cloves of garlic (with my Pampered Chef garlic press!) into that, and then I put in a thinly sliced zucchini and 1/2 cup of water, turned up the heat a notch, and put the lid on the pan to let it just simmer in that for a little bit.  Mmmmmmmm.  So good!  And so easy!  Justin does not like squash so I got the whole pan to myself!  On one plate:  baked potato with butter.  On another plate:  sauteed zucchini with onion and garlic.  Happy me!

Okay, and now I’m going to go curl up in bed and sleep for hours and hours.  Don’t expect me up early tomorrow.  I anticipate sleeping in until at least 10 o’clock, maybe later.  I’ve been very tired and I’m just going to rest.  We have a friend coming over for dinner tomorrow (won’t that be interesting when I can only eat fruits and veggies tomorrow?) and I want to be alert for our evening of playing cards.  But I will get on here eventually and post some more.

Love to you all!

Today I shall eat nothing but vegetables.  Today I am a vegetarian.  Today I walked into work with a bag filled with carrots, cauliflower, steamed broccoli, acorn squash, cucumbers, and a salad.  And a no-salt, no-sugar herb mix because sometimes I’d like a little bit of spice. 

Last night, I was in bed a little after 9:30 and probably asleep shortly after 10, which is a far cry better than the 11:00 or so the night before.  I’m hopeful that between getting more sleep and having less sugar in my system, I’ll be more alert than I was yesterday.

And now for a few random thoughts:

Sheets!  Our new sheets arrived in the mail yesterday!  They’re a beautiful pale green and fantastically comfortable.  We had to get new sheets because I have heels like a hobbit – calloused up to high heaven so badly that when they rub at sheets, I eventually wear a hole through.  I wore those sheets so threadbare that they tore through and then the tear spread so badly that by yesterday, there was at least a 2-foot long gape in two different directions.  From now on, I have to wear socks to bed.

Food allergies!  I have food allergies to tree nuts, fruits that have a pit in the middle, and (probably) soy.  I can have certain nuts in moderation (almonds, cashews, but not walnuts) and I can have the fruit if I cut away the part touching the pit or if it’s been processed (cooked, canned, etc.).  The last time I had soy milk, my throat swelled up and I broke out in hives and it was really frightening, so I’ve been avoiding that.  I’m starting to have concerns about apples, since my lips feel raw after eating one, but if I eat one cut and sprinkled with lemon juice, it’s not such a problem, so maybe it’s just how I’m eating them.  Anyway, I mention it so if you wonder why I’m not eating something (like nuts or nut butter or soy products), you’ll know why.

And now I’m going to go get some breakfast (broccoli, I think!) and get started on my day.  I’ll try to keep up another play-by-play and update it throughout the day.  It’s another day on the Cabbage Soup (minus the soup) Diet!