Grapes of Deliciousness

It's not a diet, as in something extreme that drops weight fast, then becomes intolerable and you gain all the weight back. It's a diet, as in the eating aspect of a lifestyle. Rome wasn't built in a day. I have plans to share a pastrami sandwich tomorrow, the once-a-week red meat, and their may be some home-made chili later in the week, but I can't really beat myself up about it. Though if it were up to the HVS, I'd beet myself up.

In the 30 minute program (which I've saved for review), Brown doesn't give a huge dissertation, and gives just a skeleton guideline -- rather than try to hold hands and answer every single dorky question, it's assumed that anyone who absorbs this information has a modicum of common sense (which makes the program all the more remarkable.) He limits red meat to once a week, and big-ups oily fish to a minimum of 3 times a week, but where does other meat and fish fall? Chicken and shrimp are neither every day or forbidden. I'm going to play the common-sense card and say 3 times a week, in 8-oz or less quantities per serving.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, smoothie bomb pop, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Checked the cheerios ingredients, indeed the first three ingredients are whole grains, falling well into the everyday category. Dairy isn't categorized, but in this case it's a vehicle for the whole grain product, as it is a vehicle for the consistency of the smoothie and the pop I made out of it.

AM SNACK: 10:30am, roasted almonds, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: noon, brown mushroom rice and spinach, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, 2 handfuls of red seedless grapes, banana
Setting up class, shuttling in between the supply closet and the kitchen. Started to get hungry, and a BIG ASS BOX of individually wrapped portions of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies caught my eye. I could eat the hell out of a few of those right now, but....it's both dessert (1 a week) and a processed junk food (forbidden) (Brown's Rules) and it's a non-homemade dessert corporate junk food (lame) and a dessert in general (3 a week) (Noah's Rules). We were making smoothies today, and I knew we had fresh grapes and bananas in stock.... so I grabbed a handful of grapes, washed them, closed my eyes and thought of the Queen, and threw them back. Just like my week of fruit tastings, I was surprised again just how pleasant and easy these things were to eat. What up with dat? Why do I have this loop in my head saying fruit is yukky, when I know rationally it's pretty rocking?

PM TASTINGS: 5-6pm, a few spoonfuls of various fruit smoothies, a few spoonfuls of salsa, a handful of chips, snips of 5 different cheeses, a few apple slices, a few bread slices, a juice drink, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, half a beer, 2 small slices of pizza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the restaurant sharing food with the staff. I was offered a Manhattan Special, which is both soda pop (B-verboten) and too late to have a megadose of caffeine (N-tortuous sleeplessness), so I went with about 4 oz of tap beer (B-once a week) but N-will assist in winding down.

EVENING WATERING: 8:30pm, a liter

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, coffee cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
This cake was given to us from a neighbor, for Purim. I just got hungry and itchy, and B left it out on the counter, all naked and exposed, it was just ASKING for it. OK, it broke all the rules, but I'm easing into this lifestyle thing, not all-or-nothing. And it wasn't very good.