Food and so on

I.must.talk.about.food.

Even though I haven't lost my resolve.

Besides deployment, it is all I can think about. Truth be told, I guess being on a strict diet is good for staving off anxiety eating.

[Sip tea.]

I had the best salad yesterday. I was out shopping (okay, out at Wal-Mart) and was needing to wait someplace for an hour for prescriptions. Compared to the nearby pickings, I figured Chipotle would be better than Taco Bell, KFC, Panara, McD's, or Burger King. Except for the sheer volume of the salad and, come to think of it, all their food, Chipotle was a great choice. I had black beans with extra salsa, corn salsa, and grilled chicken on romaine. Did I mention how good it was? And I behaved, leaving some uneaten and not even using their dressing. I have a new place to go feel decadent. Next time, I'll get it to go regardless and I'll leave a lot more in order to make it two meals.

As I walked through Wal-Mart, I was struck by being so glad I had the self control not to walk down the food aisles. No cookies!

[Sip tea.]

I have found the best hot breakfast cereal at the local grocery store: Simple Harvest. It's by Quaker Oats and has a variety of grains, plus pecans and molasses, which are listed last. I haven't compared it, but it seems less bad than regular instant oatmeal, of course, because I buy the sweet maple brown sugar variety. I know there are some good hot or cold combo cereals at places like Whole Foods. Need to check them out. Any suggestions?

A treat for us is boiled eggs. When I was a kid, I wouldn't touch them. J scarfs them down. I need to go to Whole Foods and get some of the high zinc kind again. In lieu of black pepper on them, I use ground coriander, which is lovely. Like cayenne, it is a spice that raises metabolism.

[Sip tea.]

On New Year's Day I weighed myself. My usual habit is to weigh once a month the week after my period. I know I will be weighing myself more often now, but I know I need to not get discouraged about fluctuations.

I decided that weighing myself Mondays and Thursdays or Fridays would be the level of feedback I need. When I weighed myself a few days after the initial time following some good, solid dieting, I was up two pounds (!!) and urged myself not to get discouraged. Monday, at the one week mark, I weighed again and had lost one overall, or essentially lost three. Not sure how to consider it.

[Sip tea.]

I saw my therapist yesterday for the first time in three weeks and I told her I'd started dieting; she said she could tell it in my face. I was especially glad she said that, as I'd noticed that I was looking puffy in pictures. I know this was probably because of my thyroid, but having a reason doesn't make it feel any better.

I also bought Yogi Detox tea per bipolarlawyercook's recommendation. Thanks! I like it. The store was out of dandelion and this has dandelion in it, plus a whole bunch more. I think I'll do one bag daily for a month, per their recommendation. When I begin to run out of some of this bounty of green tea I have on hand, I plan to buy some white tea, too.

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In unrelated news, J's passport took less than two weeks to come back. They said it would be 4-6 weeks. My renewal last month took less than 10 days, but I didn't expect such quickness for a new passport. I guess we're set for our cruise.

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Ex broke down and ordered uniforms yesterday. He's resigned to going. His report date is January 20. He'll find out after that where he'll be assigned. Last night at scouts (what a frustrating deal - they're still discussing what night we're going to meet), the den leader said he has a coworker who is almost 60 and out 12 years, yet he was called up, too. He must have had a good address. It is scary they are dredging the bottom of the barrel like this.

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J will have his first strings recital February 20. His dad was very disappointed to be missing it, so I am making J practice his violin extra so he can give his recital to his dad. I think there are six or seven songs the kids should be practicing and each one will play only about half the songs in groups with other kids during the recital.

Have I mentioned the violin J uses? It is a very old Sears model that ex's grandmother used to play in weddings and at parties. I would estimate that it's from around 1920. J is very careful and feels honored to use it. I had it restrung a few years ago and it kept its tune over time.

It is so cool seeing J's fingers move up and down over the strings. The little songs are recognizable as music, not just squawks. He seems genuinely excited by this now.

I want to make a video of J playing in the concert that ex could possibly watch from afar. When I recently tried to upload a video from my Canon camera on to YouTube, it was rejected, saying it was an incorrect format. Does anyone have any ideas about this? Are there other video hosting places that accept more formats? Is there a way to translate formats?

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Wow. For mostly thinking about food, I had a lot to say.