Okay, we'll start with today's menu. You can skip this part if you want; it's very short and very similar in most particulars to the other four days Breakfast was the usual generous handful of raw almonds and the other of the two bananas I bought yesterday. Halfway through the morning I also got to eat some strawberries prepared from fresh as part of a brief but sweet celebration of someone's birthday. The person in question mostly follows a vegan diet, thus the strawberries instead of cake, which also insured that I could join the festivities. Lunch was another handful of almonds. Supper was another can of string beans drained, rinsed, and sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with Kosher salt and ground black pepper. Instead of roasting almonds today, I simply dropped some into the sauce pan after it got good and hot and the oil had heated. I let them sit for about five minutes or so while I swallowed a couple of pain pills and a fistful of supplements, then I dumped in the string beans and the salt and pepper. I shook everything around in the sauce pan and let the string beans heat through, then I turned off the heat under them and left them in the pan while I cut up a mango. So my meals have been tasty, if scant and monotonous.
I'm trying very hard not to think of the food. However, supper was late, not because I was particularly busy with anything that couldn't be interrupted, but because I'm beginning to get bored enough with the food as to not be interested in eating it. That's not good, especially at only the fifth day. So This weekend, I need to see what I can do about this, because I don't want to sabotage myself and I refuse to give up.
Here's my plan of attack: (1) Since I typically visit a food pantry or two monthly because of not always having enough to buy groceries like I want to do, I'm going to do that again this month, even though I know that at least half of what I get will be stuff I can't use. The reason is that I know that I will probably get some fresh fruits and vegetables, and those, at least, will help me shake things up a little. (2) I'm also going to go to Whole Foods and shell out an insane amount of money on other nuts. I like cashews, walnuts, macadamias, sunflower nuts, and pecans in addition to almonds, and I expect to find at least the cashews in bulk and raw. To me, they taste like bread when they are roasted, so I will also be experimenting with roasting them. They will be a break with almonds so that I don't get burned out on a nut that has served me well for several months now. In fact, after a recent battery of blood work, the doctor told me that while my overall cholesterol was up—no surprise there; he's been at me about that for the last several years—he was very pleased to note that the good cholesterol was up, which is to be desired. I have no doubt it is due to all those almonds, roasted and raw, because almonds have that effect on cholesterol.
(3) While I am at Whole Foods, I will investigate some other yummies that I can eat for this fast and bring home some of them, if I can.
(4) At some point, I'm going to have to break down and make, or buy, some hummus. That's the only way I'm going to consume the boatload of baby carrots in my refrigerator. Buried under the hummus, the baby carrots are tolerable.
(5) Of course, I also need to keep some fresh fruit around so that I can keep my sweet tooth somewhat satisfied. It will also make a great accompaniment to the nut du jour at breakfast.
(6) And let us not forget the main purpose of all this: To draw closer to God, to get into His Word, to pray, and generally show Him some love, as this is an act of worship as much as anything else.
Wow! I have now written more in a week than in the two years preceding! Let's see what comes next, shall we :-)?
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