Just have a minute...

I'm on a lunch break, but I wanted to check on my blog. I didn't follow through so well with the challenge, but I'm still wanting to do this. And, actually, I have been doing much better, and have been experimenting with various things and making more on my own than I used to do.

I cooked vegetables while home for Thanksgiving, and all were delicious. Turnips cooked with a bit of salt, sugar, and seasoned with a bit of butter and crumbled bacon and fresh chives. Turnip greens (or were they mustard greens?) sauteed in bacon fat, with a little lemon juice. Fresh carrots with butter and fresh parsley. Asparagus barely cooked and seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, and fresh parsley, thyme and chives. And I changed the Spanish rice recipe to use the fresh herbs and a can of plain tomatoes - delicious, as I said. I guess I could call that Riz Provencal, since it was with thyme.

Well, this is not the ideal place to write. I'm glad I checked in, though. I have been keeping a food journal (the old-fashioned way), and I also intend to start yet another blog. More about that later.

A bientot.

"If I don't make it, I don't eat it"

This is the challenge I'm setting for myself for the next twelve months. Anyone want to bet on how long this will last? Only kidding. I know no one is reading anyway. It doesn't matter. This is for me. So on with the challenge. I have every bit as much chance at succeeding at this as at anything else I've ever tried. Why not? I've got to start believing there can still be a life worth living out there somewhere.

I'll make up the ground rules later. Obviously, I'll have to have some exceptions built in for eating with other people, eating out occasionally, and for those times when I'm really, really hungry, blood sugar dropping, and need to get some food in me. Staples will be okay - like the cottage cheese I'm going to eat for lunch. But no frozen dinners, and not even canned soup. No bought granola bars. No deli chicken or salmon. No ice cream unless it's plain ice cream used in a dessert I make.

Oh and that reminds me. The reason for this challenge is to see if I lose weight by eliminating fast food (which I don't really eat that much or that often, to tell the truth) and convenience food (which I do eat, most of the time and in greater quantities than I should).

I'm glad I'll be off for three days. I can ruminate on what to fix for supper, even go to the store tonight. But if I want to eat, I have to make something myself.

Sounds fun, doesn't it?

Later.

About to get out of Dodge

So of course I'm running around thinking I have to do everything before I leave, like check to make sure this blog is still here. I am going to have to regroup, to say the least. More later. Yes, I promise! More later. There is something different about my brain, when will I ever learn? When will I ever learn! At least this is another Day 5.

Bye.

Mesmerizing Moon

It was so full and bright and beautiful tonight as I was driving home. One of those nights I have to make myself pay attention to the road, because my eyes just want to stare at the moon. I missed the eclipse last night, but I don't really think it would have been visible anyway, even if I had gotten up and gone out on the balcony.

Sat in my car and went through my sack of mail on my lunch hour. How pathetic is that. Got some things done at work. Not much to say, really. Just have tomorrow, then off for Christmas, then back for four days, then New Year's. Then a brand new year, with so many possibilities. I want to be in a very different place (in my head at least) by this time next year.

I had two pieces of rosemary toast with olive oil and V-8 juice with salsa and a grapefruit for breakfast. I had a granola bar for a snack. I had a cherry yogurt and ten whole wheat crackers and some walnuts and a small piece of dark chocolate for lunch. I'm drinking a Chardonnay and will soon have an Amy's dinner and an arugula and tomato salad and three small ice creams (vanilla, chocolate and dulce de leche).

Maybe there's some point to this. I hope so. At least I'm writing (sort of).

Bye.

Winter Solstice, Full Moon, and Lunar Eclipse

We're having a rare eclipse on the same day as the solstice. It starts around 12:30, but we're supposed to have cloud cover and anyway I think the moon is still going to be in the other part of the sky (not visible from my balcony). But still...it's pretty cool. Last one was in the seventeenth century and the next one is I think 2094.

Today was your typical Monday. But I did get my car's oil changed on my lunch hour. I had oatmeal, a grapefruit, and V-8 juice with salsa for breakfast, and granola, yogurt, and brown rice with herbs for lunch, and ginger green tea with honey when I got home, then a Kashi pasta dinner and salad for supper. That's the last TV dinner. From now on I will make my own food.

Don't really feel like talking. Work just takes the breath out of me. But I'm glad I checked in at least. See you tomorrow.