Winter Hangin' On and I'm LONGING for Spring!

Can't believe the last time I wrote something here was in January.  Funny how time gets away from me.  Well, not too funny at all, actually.  Somewhat pathetic, truth be told!!  ;-)   Spring is gurgling somewhere under the frozen lake down the road from me ... and any day now it may just decide to ACT like itself and SHOW UP above ground!  When some lovely, sunny, 50-degree days start showing up, I'll know Spring has smiled on me and delivered me from my now-least-favorite season:  winter.  NOW I see why winter is called OLD MAN.  Sheesh!

Two days from now -- April Fool's Day -- will become for me, this year, a "No-More-Fools" Day because I'm (re)launching my adventure into raw food living -- one I'd quite abandoned for all kinds of reasons.  The main reason is that it is a challenge and a half to interrupt years and years of eating habits that are not only personal, but also quite cultural.  In other words: lousy ways of eating are embedded into the very fabric of the American culture -- beginning way back in the 40s with junk like Coca-cola; the 50's gave us crap like Scooter Pies and Velveta "cheese"; the 60's slammed us with addictive drugs like McDonalds; the 70's creamed us with chemically-laden foods that made cooking supposedly "easier" and meals "tastier" -- but did more to alter our moods than some of the drugs flowing so freely back then; and then there were the "gourmet" years of the '80s and '90s when the love (addiction) and worship (idolatry) of food became raised to heretofore unprecedented levels!

So no wonder it's damn hard AT FIRST to begin to change the ways we relate to food!  Well, I'm about to be back in "boot camp," and I'll be talking about my experiences here -- hopefully daily.  Since I doubt anyone but me reads this blog, I'll feel very at ease.  Perhaps if in one year's time I manage to gain back the health I had in my mid-30's (which is my goal), this blog might then be useful to someone else.  Only time will tell.

Tonight I have my "glory" meal though ... where I can eat whatever the heck I want of the American Diet I'll soon be parting company with.  My goal is to go 75% raw (3/4 fruits and veggies, uncooked, as salads or snacks) and 25% cooked food (in the form of low-calorie frozen entrees, baked sweet potatoes, steamed veggies and fish) mainly for dinner, probably.  Throw in going back to the gym Saturday mornings, Tuesday and Thursday evenings after work, and I might just manage to lose some of this obnoxious chubb that is slowly killing me. 

Like I said, time will tell.  So this coming Friday, April 1st, will begin for me a "no more fools" period of my life.  I figured 9 months will be a good time frame within which to experiment with my new life style.  Hey, if a brand, spanking new human being can be formed in 9 months -- in the form of an awesome little baby with all new and wonderous working parts -- imagine what can happen to me in that same time -- PROVIDING I shift away from the SAD (Standard American Diet).  Just like 9 months pregnant is not always pleasant, neither will this time be for me.  But there were some really beautiful days during my pregnancy 33 years ago ... and so I count on some of those same kind of days during this next 9 months as well!  So come New Year's Eve -- December 31, 2011 -- a baby will be born.  Hopefully it'll be the new me.  Walking around in a body that is my friend, and no longer my enemy.  Who knows, someone might even call me a "Babe" that night!  ;-)

"One oar stroke isn't going to get you anywhere, but if you take a
 load of tiny actions and you string them all
together, you really can achieve almost anything."
Roz Savage, Ocean Rower