I forget sometimes that I cannot have great weather every day of the year. Especially when it's springtime in the Midwest or at least approaching spring. It's days like today that will remind me I will be mowing the lawn between rains this spring, just like I have every spring living in this house for the past 21 years. That didn't bother Stella, it was time to go this morning and she let me know.
Those skies don't look that bad but the radar shows a huge thunderstorm at the Illinois-Indiana state line. The rains should arrive here on the hill around noon since it's a slow-moving storm. The gutters and downspouts are clean and anxiously wait for the rain water they will have to process. For me, it will most likely be a day to read and squeeze in a few games of Mahjong. It's a rough life but someone has to do it.
It was late last night when I sat down in my desk chair to turn off the computer when I picked up the book by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. sitting on my desk. Before I knew it I had read almost two chapters about what to eat and about his "6-week Plan". I remember doing that plan for the first time in 2003. I felt great after the six weeks were up.
So why didn't I continue that?
It was harder for me then than now, to make changes to my diet and eat like he suggested for his plan. Back then I was in a job that was time consuming, fast foods when I had time to eat and business travel where we ate out all the time. I had the worst diet you could have and weighed more than any time I have in my life. Of course being 16 year younger, I didn't feel the need to make diet changes although I knew I was leading to major problems if I stayed on that course.
It finally dawned on my after reading two chapters last night, that the print in the book was just small enough that it was hard for me to read. I had to hold the book away from me for the words to really focus in. I then wondered if I could find this book online for free. What a concept? FREE.
Why did I wait so long?
I found and downloaded a .pdf file of the book, all 299 pages and when I adjusted the size of the page on my 27" monitor ... my eyes thanked me ... I continued reading for another hour.
So I am going to follow his "6-week Plan". It is going to be challenging for sure. Yet, after the way I felt yesterday and last night after eating more wheat and grains than I have been used to these past few months, I knew I had to do something. I felt terrible most of Wednesday.
Until I picked up that book last night I was seriously thinking that the Paleo Diet or the Blood Type Diet was my only choices for food.
Now I didn't start on page one of the book. I looked in the Table of Contents and cherry picked the chapter called "The Dark Side Of Animal Protein", page 68. By the time I read the next 23 pages there was no way I was going back to animal protein and trying the Keto or Paleo diets again.
I moved to the chapters on his starting plan that would not only reduce my weight but more importantly help get my body back in tune with fresh fruits and veggies plus adapt to my increased consumption of beans. Remember when I was eating somewhere between the theories of Keto and Paleo, I had cut out bananas, apples and blueberries because they were high in carbs. I had cut out almost all fruit except kiwi.
I had also cut out all grains and felt better since I have some sort of problems digesting them. Notice I have not mentioned dairy products because in the first six weeks of this plan, dairy is not allowed. THAT will be tough for me to get through.
It's not that bad because after the six weeks are up, there is room to add certain foods back to my menu. IF I can stick to the plan until May 3rd I am guessing a lot of the food I liked before, I will not have an interest in based on personal experience from years ago.
By the time Stella approached the turn to the far right corner of the field, the scent of deer was tormenting her nose and her will to move in that direction. Just to the right of that corner is a worn path that moves down into the gully. In the past I named it "The Deer Highway" in my blog posts. There were no sounds of cows like there were last week ... no, she was only analyzing deer scent today, as she sniffed the air.
Again .... soooooooo tempting to head back in the opposite direction to that far right corner where the deer have been. Are my words of "come on" ringing in her ears and preventing her from taking off on me??
Instead of filling this post up with what I read last night, I'll just give you the title of the book so you can search on the internet and get a free electronic copy if you are interested. I'm not an affiliate for his book, website or blog. I am just passing along information for those interested.
Eat To Live by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
Just like the weather changing and letting me know you cannot take good weather for granted. I was reminded on Monday just how life can change in an instant. While outside with Stella and Heidi after lunch, I heard a siren off in the distance.
It is a normal occurrence on the highway with either police chasing down cars speeding, or the ambulance that makes more passes by my house than I think is normal. Only this time the ambulance slowed and made the very sharp turn into my neighbors driveway, going up a steep hill all the way to the front of the house.
My neighbor is married, and the same age as I am. He was born and raised here but that is about all I know about him. He had a stroke a couple of summers ago, and I was told he has medical issues ever since. Just like that he life has changed for him again.
It must have been a major issue because they turned south heading to the interstate. That would be the fastest way to a larger hospital 25 miles away. Their other option was turn the opposite direction toward the smaller hospital 12 miles away. That's not good news.
Things like that puts things in perspective pretty quickly. I forget about all the 'noise' on TV news or if my team won the game or not and it's hard to complain that it's going to rain just a little today. I have been always thankful for my good health, that my hounds are healthy and I live in a pretty neat place. I chose a "tiny house" option before it was a fad, 21 years ago, when I downsized.
Yet, a life changing experience like my neighbor has had, makes me think about things in life. It's hard not to. Even though I am pretty sure I have a good 20 some years left in me, I am still aware of what might go wrong and will only show up when least expected.
Of course when you see a bloodhound walking up behind you looking like this, everything leaves my thoughts. Stella reminds me to relax, stop analyzing everything, quit thinking about literally everything that goes on in the world or here at home and just enjoy the day. That's what she does ... enjoys each day.
She doesn't change her routines much and will be 10 years old this summer. She knows how to enjoy life ... and how to increase my pulse rate sometimes with her stubbornness. :)
I had my coffee black this morning for the first time in a few weeks. I know that two teaspoons of sugar in one cup of coffee isn't that much but I sure do feel different when I don't use it. I'm serious. I don't have a full case of bloat after drinking coffee with sugar in it but I can see it and feel the difference compared to when I don't add that addiction.
Coffee is not on the "6-week plan". I am not sure I want to go though the four to five days of headaches if I were to eliminate coffee just to follow that plan. I did cut my quantity this morning to just one cup instead of two. It wasn't strong enough and I feel I still need that 'boost' from the caffeine.
The hardest part of all the change in eating plans ... tv commercials.
They do exactly what they are designed to do with their hidden high tech engineering. I am constantly attacked with a 55" picture of that double cheeseburger, every time a game breaks for a tv commercial. One thing I have noticed though is when I fell for those food commercials .... the sandwiches are never as big at the store as they are on tv. I ask myself "where's the meat?" (
That question mark inside the quotation mark still looks weird and wrong to me. I don't like the look, although it's correct grammar.)Nor are the burritos at Taco Bell as big as their commercials. Subway ??? Highway robbery. I could pay for a 'double' portion of meat for my 12" sub and still not have as much meat, veggies or cheese on the sandwich they give me through their drive-thru as what I see on tv.
Every time I drive by McDonalds I remember the blog I read a few years ago where the reader claimed he lost weight by eating at McDonalds EVERY MEAL ... lunch and dinner !!!!!
Now to really change the subject .... Vintage Audio.
I follow a Vintage Audio Twitter account. Not only are these 40 year old stereos still in operation, owners have kept them looking brand new and the rooms they have set up for their music and components are fantastic. Take a look and search those two words if you have a Twitter account. They are also on Facebook.
Which reminds me, tonight one minute after midnight my Facebook account will be officially wiped from all existence ... except on the Facebook servers I'm guessing. All it means is 30 days ago I clicked that "delete my account" button and they gave me 30 days to change my mind and fall back under their control. Yes, I know Facebook owns Instagram.
Stella was pretty popular on Facebook over the years, along with Sadie and Heidi and Winston. I am not sure if she understands her popularity here on the blog or
my old blog on Blogger. Out of all the hounds I think Winston might have been the all-time favorite on the blog. You can read his page at the top of this blog
I know when she decides to go right of the bushes at the end of the walk, something is up. There is a small narrow path you can't see, that the deer have made as they either walk toward the highway or come from the other side of the highway into the field behind the house.
You can tell that something has Stella's interest and it isn't deer scat
What kind of scent could be that high on the pole that points out the property line. That depends on which survey you look at. I know that my survey is different from the owner of the field's survey and they were done by the same company !!!! WTF ???
A "Classic" Stella look ... LOL
She took her own sweet time but finally made it around the corner into the carport. It took so long I almost went back to the yard to see where she was or if she had decided to walk over to the neighbor's yard after being so close to her house.
I watched a little of the Cincinnati Reds spring training game last night. I am getting in the mood for Reds baseball. Things are looking up after 4 years of 'rebuilding' and losing more than 90 games per year. I think this team can win 90 games this year instead of losing that many. Isn't baseball a sure sign that Spring is almost here?
Right as I start to edit this post and then publish it ... it is so quiet in here I can hear my ears ringing. Both hounds are soundly sleeping, dreaming of lunch around noon. Stella does a lot more running in her sleep than she does in the field.
Will Heidi fit in a walk this afternoon if the rains really do show up? Forecasts are never 100% accurate, so she might have a chance.
It's a nice quiet morning here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.
