Over This Weekend

I saw a recipe for old fashioned jam on PBS a couple of days ago. So I decided to try it out. You put in your favorite berries with sugar, mash it together and put a plastic cover on top of the bowl and let it sit out on the counter overnight. The next day you should have jam.

I love homemade stuff like that. Considering that it has sugar I can eat it only sparingly but since sugar is a preservative, it should last a while. I'll eat it with the naan bread I bought. Should taste delicious!

My car blew a gasket this weekend on my way to my sister's house so I have to walk to work in the mornings now. Not looking forward to that. I'll look into the car pool situation this week.

Went to sis's house and had a blast. It seems that she, Kristin- her friend and me all have allergies to gluten, wheat and dairy and we are all losing weight because of this. Their weight loss is intentional but mine is a by product. It so funny how that happens. Even though not everything was something I should have eaten we all ate pretty healthy so I don't feel too bad for having key lime cheesecake and a small piece of grilled steak. My brother in law knows how to grill a steak! Yum!! Besides, the majority of the time i eat the way i should.

We watched Knowing - which creeped me out when I tried to watch this by myself but I finally saw the entire movie and it was strange, fascinating and interesting. Certain parts were silly but all in all it was a pretty good movie.

Yesterday before going to my sister's house I went to another herbarium to get my Burdock root for tea. Dragon Herbarium. I think that i prefer this place over The Herb Shoppe. The Herb Shoppe is nice but dragon is full of crystals, incense, jewelry, occult oils and has a woodsy, folksy, hippy feel that I really like. it's a place I'll bet a lot of wildcrafters and witches go to. The Herbe Shoppe has a more "antiseptic" look and feel. I loved the lady working there, Wendi. So I think that Dragon Herbarium will be my place to get my herbs and incense and oils.

it's raining right now and I've just come from the store. A light, warm rain. I really like that.

Changing Eating Habits

One of the scariest things I've been reading about the American food supply are the weird chemicals that are put into many of the processed foods we eat to make us. . . hungrier. Yes, they are tampering with poeple's bodies, as always. I don't like people messing around with my health!

Things like the ratio of sodium/fat/sugar content or MSG actually make people eat more then they normally would if these chemicals were not in their food. No wonder so many of us have a over powering desire for junk food. It's been made as addictive as crack cocain. Some foods have several different types or salt and sugar in them. All you have to do is read the packages of foods today. It's mind boggling how poisonous everything is today. The food industry doesn't really know what its doing and they don't care. So we have to care about our own bodies and health. Often this means a crisis situation has to happen before we wake up. That's what happened to me. i always enjoyed good food but I had added to many junk foods in my diet for the good stuff to have much effect.

But there is great hope in changing things. You can train yourself to want better foods and to eat better. One thing that I've noticed is that I actually enjoy drinking water now that I drink about 40 oz a day. I'm working up to hopefully 60 oz everyday by next week. Ice water, especially with a splash of lemon or lime is delicious!

I used to greatly prefer milk chocolate to the healthy dark chocolate but I decided to train myself to eat a bit of dark chocolate everyday. Since my elimination diet I rarely eat chocolate at all but I have noticed that I have a taste for dark chocolate over milk chocolate these days.

I have no burning desire for fast food hamburgers. I never really did but now that I don't eat them at all I don't want them. I prefer Indian, Thai and Vietnamese foods with lots of vegetables and curries. I love Italian foods still but I have come to realize that Italian foods encompass far more than just pasta.

I also love salad rolls over spring rolls these days. In fact, spring rolls bother my stomach a bit. Too oily. I don't eat them now because of my diet but I can and do eat salad rolls. They taste so much better to me and they are far, far healthier and tastier than oil soaked spring rolls!

Also, I have noticed that I can go far longer through the day without thinking that I have to be stuffing my face. If my stomach growls a little bit I don't automatically think I'm starving. I can withstand it until I get home and prepare something good to eat instead of running to a drive-through and this I think is the most important change in my attitude towards food - I have more will power and discipline. Will power isn't everything but it is key in learning how to avoid the junk food traps set up everywhere in this country. Stomach growling used to send me straight over to Jack-in-the Box or Burger King. Now? I just wait unitl I get home or carry some raw cashews with me and some juice or water.

These are some of the changes I've noticed in my food desires. Good changes.