englandsword

Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote. I'm still sick so I came to visit my dad in Kansas -- he's a doctor and he's helping me figure out what's going on. I do have some good news - my dad gave me his old camera so we should start seeing some better-looking photographs on this blog!

I'm still sick. Yes. I have eaten pretty much nothing but crackers this entire week. Today I decided I was actually going crackers and I needed to eat something of substance even if it killed me. But I'm still way too nauseous and lazy to cook, so I went to Trader Joe's for their plethora of pre-made and frozen items. Usually that's what I don't like about TJ's, but it's perfect for my current circumstance. I bought a few things including some rice noodle soup bowls and I had the garlic flavor for dinner. They come with rice noodles, a seasoning packet, a dehydrated vegetable packet, and an oil packet and you can mix it all up, add water, microwave for three minutes, and voila. Perfect for sick days. I skipped the oil packet and if you do the soup is perfect McDougall material. I don't know why, but I derive a strange joy from going out in public looking horrible. Mismatched clothes, strange shoes, and birds-nest hair. It's like wearing a

Still not feeling so hot. I tried to eat some black bean soup this morning and it just about made me vom so I'm sticking to bananas and Manna bread. I have heard that Manna bread is cooked at such a low temperature that it is still raw on the inside. It does have a refreshingly short list of ingredients, usually just three or four. And I know for sure now that it is tasty. I got the cinnamon date flavor, of course!

I haven't been feeling good. Yesterday I ate pretzels, a veggie burger, and tried to eat a sweet potato but didn't get very far. Today so far I've had a veggie burger. I'm planning on having some miso soup later.

No breakfast Lunch: Miso soup Snack: Pretzels Dinner: 2 bananas I started writing a screenplay today. And no, I'm not going to tell you what it's about. It's a very personal story but I can really see it in my head as a fantastic movie. I've been thinking about it for years but I never had an ending for it, but I thought of one today so I finally started sketching it out. I've written lots of short screenplays and one feature length screenplay when I was 12 - but don't judge it based on how old I was - it was pretty good. It feels good to be creative!

No breakfast Lunch: Miso soup, banana Snack: Banana, a couple Wheat Thins Dinner: Miso soup, banana I love the song The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel. Watched the finale of Private Practice tonight. That show is so ridiculously dramatic but it totally gets me. Last year's finale actually haunted me for months so at least this one was more optimistic. At least the couples who are meant to be together got together, at least for now. I can't stand it when people love each other and don't go for it. Whatever your reasons are, they're stupid.

Breakfast: Granny Smith apple Lunch: Sweet potato, vegetable soup Snack: Banana Dinner: 1.5 sweet potatoes with oats, kombucha Dad warned me on the phone that I might turn yellow from eating too many sweet potatoes. I must admit, I am intrigued and I will keep on top of the situation.

Breakfast: Sweet potato Lunch: Sweet potato Dinner: Broccoli and mushrooms with garlic and Braggs, sweet potato with oats I've been watching a lot of the show Roswell, a show about aliens in high school that aired for 3 seasons about 10 years ago. It's pretty awesomely addictive.

I feel really guilty whenever I go a day without eating greens. But I just haven't been in a huge greens mood lately, not sure why. Breakfast: Sweet potato Lunch: Sweet potato with oats Dinner: 2 bananas with oats, cinnamon, and currants

I didn't eat very much yesterday, just wasn't hungry. Breakfast: Sweet potato Lunch: Sweet potato Dinner: Salad with cultured veggies and mango salsa, banana I saw Iron Man 2 last night. It was good and full of explosions. I like exciting movies where I feel like I'm on a roller coaster ride. We went and saw it in the Imax theater so it just enhanced the awesome factor of the movie. And I really liked Mickey Rourke. Bad-ass beefy dudes with tattoos all over their body and an affection for parrots are just right up my alley. I saw the first Iron Man movie when I was in Shanghai -- it was the only movie I saw the entire time I was in China and when we were visiting Shanghai we had an American night and went to Hooters and then saw Iron Man. That will always be a fond memory. =)

Breakfast: 1.5 sweet potatoes Lunch: Kale salad and broccoli dijon soup at Sunpower Natural Cafe. Snack: Banana Dinner: 2 sweet potatoes with cinnamon, oats, and currants

I've always been interested -- in that strange, perverse way that only seems to affect women -- in what other people eat every day. So, I'm going to start posting my daily food diary. I'll try and take pictures, though I didn't today. Breakfast: 2 sweet potatoes Snack: Banana Lunch: Colcannon (potatoes and kale) Dinner: Salad with mango salsa, colcannon Dessert: Sweet potato Here's a good article from McDougall about weight loss. I think it includes some really good principles: http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/021100puweight.htm

I love my new bed. It's a Hillsdale day bed with a pop-up trundle, so it's a twin bed that can become a queen bed and can also serve as a couch. I was planning on using it as a twin most of the time because it takes up almost my whole room but it feels so luxurious to have a big bed that I think I'm going to keep it popped out. Here's a picture where you can see the two beds. I put a foam cushion covering the two beds so now I can't even feel the crack between the beds. I had a good phone interview today for an interesting job. Next up is an interview in person. So that's good! I stuck with the Mary's Mini and had colcannon for dinner. I made it out of about four potatoes and a bunch of kale, some nutritional yeast, a little rice milk, and Bragg's. I had a couple of bowls.

So I'm trying out Mary's Mini diet -- you pick a starch, like rice or potatoes, and base every meal around it. Add a couple of fruits per day and some veggies to each meal and that's your diet for a couple of weeks. I picked sweet potatoes because they are delicious and so far it's going pretty well. I'll probably eat some normal potatoes, too, because I figure they're not too different and I still have a few in the pantry I need to use up. I don't really have any pictures because you can probably imagine what sweet potatoes and salad look like. Here are links to the two articles about Mary's Mini: http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/june/marys.htm http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/july/marys2.htm So just for fun, I'll leave you with a picture of the gigantic blue church of Scientology in LA. I snapped a quick photo while I was driving by, so that's why the picture is crappy. Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Wow, I had a great week. Ali left tonight and it is really hard on me because we had a really great time. We did a lot of just relaxing and enjoying each others' company but we also got out and did a lot of fun things. Ali's vegan, too, and we had a lot of fun checking out some super vegan restaurants in L.A. Here's some pictures of our food exploits. Pretty yellow flowers we saw on a walk. Ali at Vinh Loi Tofu, an awesome vegan Vietnamese restaurant in Reseda with lots of homemade vegan meats. Ali got the "chicken" sub. I got soup. Ali's pesto sandwich from Mani's. The New Mayan Wrap with kale. Ali with Hugo's Tacos. Taco bowl full of rice, beans, and veggies that Ali and I shared. Hugo's Tacos is a pretty sweet taco stand with lots of vegan options including soy chorizo, FYH vegan cheese, Veganaise, rice pudding, and mooore. Ali at Seed in Venice tonight. He got a pesto sandwich and it was really awesome. I got the SaiSai Donburi Macro