Odd Still Life My Odd Still Life (In A Few Well And/Or Badly Chosen Words)

2.) Started a diet last week. I've lost ten pounds without feeling horribly ill like I  usually do while I'm on a diet. I'm taking these generic green tea diet vitamin things, too.  (Multivitamins with green tea -- not weird diet pills.) I also do about forty sit ups, push ups and leg exercises a day. (I'm trying to take it slow. My muscles punish me terribly. One day about two weeks ago I did 85 push ups in one day. I couldn't lift my arms for two days.)

The diet is basically, this: Get up. Do stretching exercises and 10 of the rest of the exercises. Drink juice or eat a Breyer's All Natural Pure Fruit, Fruit Swirl Bar with one 20 oz. tumbler of water. Blueberry-Strawberry are my favorite. (I usually take my vitamin at that point.) The rest of the day, until 3:00 p.m., eating nothing but raw, fresh fruit or vegetables -- usually carrots (I have terrific night vision) -- I also like bell peppers -- the red and yellow versions. Yum! At 3:00 I eat a large meal with almost equal amounts of protein and complex carbohydrates with a tall glass of low fat or fat free milk as a chaser. (I love Whole Multigrain breads  of any brand to make sandwiches with. The 8 or 9 grain kinds are the best. My daughter even loves them and she's only two. Brown rice is also a good carb for the meal.) I usually eat tuna, regular fat extra sharp cheddar cheese (in a sandwich), red beans or chicken -- turkey if I have it --- or the old standby a big ol' peanut butter and dark chocolate sandwich. (Recipe is simple: whole grain bread, twice as much good peanut butter -- I like Skippy --- as semi-sweet chocolate chips -- usually two tablespoons of peanut butter to one tablespoon of chips. Peanut butter on both pieces of bread, chips in the middle. Chow down!)

After the meal, at about 4:00, I do the rest of the exercises (maybe a few extra if I feel like it) and that is basically it. You can have a couple of small snacks after 3:00 (or one light meal). I usually have another fruit swirl bar and a salad-type thing with tomato and peppers topped with unsalted (salt is a diet killer) roasted sunflower seeds or any unsalted nut. Sometimes I throw in a handful of Whole Grain Wheaties -- for a better crunch -- and a shot of hot sauce for flavor. Two more big glasses of water between 3:00 and about two hours before bedtime and I'm not hungry again until late the next morning. (Need to have something to do with your hands or you'll go bonkers. I've taken up knitting -- and blogging.)

My suggestion is that you see your doctor before starting any kind of diet, especially a low fat, low cal. one like mine. I also believe dieting is a very individual thing. What works for me might not work for you. We all have different metabolic clocks. Someone else might need to eat earlier or later than me to get their clock wound up. Basically: Don't follow my diet plan. Make a healthy one of your own. You're the only one who really knows what you need to feel and be healthy.

Whatever you do, have fun and be careful -- in a carefree way.