Musings on topics of small or large importance. Especially partial to subjects that include baby boomers, public figures, friends, Corporate America, the Denver Broncos, NASCAR, my previous home towns of New York City and Columbia (Maryland), stupidity (mine and others'), diets and health and who knows what else!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Strawberries Shouldn't Be This Tough!

To further demonstrate how totally undomestic I am, I am asking for help dealing with strawberries. Yes, strawberries. Fresh strawberries.

You'd think that wrangling fresh strawberries would be relatively easy. They're not complicated fruits. But they have me baffled.

So far in the week that I've been trying to have strawberries at the ready for my Beta HCG diet, I have ended up with strawberries that are so moldy I couldn't save many of them, frozen fresh strawberries that when they were defrosted were so mushy they were nearly liquid, and strawberries that I didn't wash until I got them out of the freezer but they then lost much of their red coating when I gently washed them with cold water and were much like lightly flavored ices when they started to defrost.

So what do I do? Buy fewer at a time so they don't go moldy? Or is there some secret to keeping them mold-free, mush-free and redskin jacketed? Help!

Beta HCG Diet -- Why I'm Doing This

Now that I've been on this diet -- or wellness plan, as I prefer to call it -- I can say emphatically that I am NOT having fun! Living on 500 calories a day is not easy, even if I'm not hungry as such. Thank you, Beta HCG, for that. But having to weigh and measure everything is a pain, though I am getting pretty good at eyeing things when I'm not near my letter scale. Finding things to eat is challenging, especially since I basically don't like either the food or the nakedness of it. The recipes I discovered last night on this site should help, but still...I like my food blended -- okay, covered up -- with other ingredients. I can eat food I am not wild about if it's "disguised" or folded in with other foods, and on this plan there's really none of that. Veggies with cheese and breadcrumbs are palatable. Naked veggies: not so much.

So why am I doing this? I don't want to live as I have for the past four years since I started dealing with first a bad hip and then a bad knee. I gained weight with each because it hurt to move from the bed to the bathroom, let alone walk around the block or get on an elliptical machine. My hip replacement two years ago was a godsend but not long after that my knee went crazy. For no apparent reason. No idea where that came from. So now that my knee is fixed, too, thanks to very successful arthroscopic surgery three weeks ago and wonderful physical therapists, I am ready to tackle the rest of my health. And that means not just losing the weight I have gained in four years -- probably about 25 pounds -- but also the several dozen pounds that I was already overweight. A daunting prospect.

It's not just about the weight. It's also the whole way I've been eating. As a bona fide addictive person, anything with sugar and carbs had me hooked. I knew it but was not able to do anything about it and was not ready to try. There's a tv commercial that shows two women on a split screen, one of whom continually chooses healthy foods and the other that chooses all of the bad foods. I was that latter one, absolutely. I didn't want to be that person anymore. I didn't want the health challenges. I didn't want the lifestyle of a FAT person. I didn't want to keep feeling sluggish and lethargic. I didn't want to keep having to wait for the handicapped stall in public bathrooms. I didn't want to keep struggling and moaning when I get in and out of my car. I didn't want to keep having to sit down after just a few minutes. I wanted to be free of all of that and to feel normal again.

So that's why I am cutting up celery, which I hate raw, and cooking it with extra lean ground beef, with chili con carne spices and forcing it down. I love those two things in spaghetti sauce (I know -- celery is not common in spaghetti sauce but I like it) but that's not on the plan for now. And that's why I am stopping at 3.5 oz. of protein twice a day. And that's why I'm drinking so much water that I'm up peeing 3-5 times a night. That's why I will keep on this plan for the next several weeks. Because I think it will pay off in long-term and short-term ways.

Then there's the vanity factor. And the shame factor. Two sides of the same coin. The prospect of running into people who knew me years ago, even a few years ago but especially many years ago, is downright frightening. A few years (and pounds) ago, I saw an old boyfriend at an airport where I had a brief layover. I spotted him from a distance and I had plenty of time if I'd wanted to go talk to hiim. But I was so ashamed of the weight I'd gained, especially since the last time he'd seen me I was at my very thinnest as an adult, that I turned around and walked the other way. A few pounds are one thing; over 100 make it a whole 'nuther thing. I want to be able to walk up to anyone from any time in my life and joyfully say hi. Ah, vanity.

My clothes already fit better. My cravings are going...going...not quite gone. The smell of freshly baked bread when they bring it to the table in Longhorn Steakhouse still gets to me, even though I don't have an irresistible desire to reach out, rip off a hunk and sink my teeth into it. I'll be thrilled when I can have cheese again, especially in and on things. And I have a new appreciation of sauces and I long for them, even tomato-based ones that I used to stick my nose up at in favor of the creamier ones. Okay, I'm not going to keep going down that road. Just suffice it to say that even after a week, I feel confident that I am no longer hooked on sugars and starches. That can only lead to good things.

So I'm in this for the (relatively) long run, though I'm dealing with it all one day at a time, one meal at a time and sometimes one minute at a time. They all add up.