TGIF

Time to get your Friday on, folks.  Whatever that means for you.  Do you relish your Fridays?  Are are they just another day in the week?  We have so many friends who are now 'retired' that Friday really loses its heft, except that we know that our working friends will now have a couple of 'free' nights to socialize and we'd better schedule them but quick.

We've got a very full social calendar for the next couple of weeks for some odd reason.  Friends are coming out of the woodwork with invites, which is a good thing, don't get me wrong.  It's just...different.  And now that I am over that miserable cold I caught while in Morocco, getting together with friends sounds like a very enjoyable activity.

I finally had to start taking steroids to knock that virus out of my chest, and the steroids did their work beautifully except that I felt as if I was going to bust out of my skin 24/7.  Crack on adrenaline on caffeine on etc. etc.  I did stop the drug a few days early because I just couldn't take it any more.  I remember taking it when I was younger (for similar reasons) and though it made me a tad hyper, it was nothing like this latest episode.  It was wild, man.  I felt duty bound to warn my husband that I was hell on wheels and he ought to steer well clear of me, and I apologized in advance for any angry outbursts that might occur.  You should have seen me at the grocery store, charging up and down the isles, overwhelmed by the bright lights and garish packaging, the piles of produce and the endless choices in the dairy case.  Like a bad dream, it was.

If you follow me on Facebook,  you know that I have embarked on plant based eating.  I have tried this before, but because of the learning curve and the difficulty of change, I gave up.  This time, we are 18 days in and doing well.  I did almost blow a gasket on day 7, overwhelmed by cleaning out the pantry and the frig and stocking up on all the foods we'd need.  But I took many deep breaths and got through it.  The movie (and the research) that inspired me is called Forks Over Knives and chronicles the research done on whole food, plant based diets, and follows the health outcomes of a few people who changed their diets.  If you follow me, you also know I've been a Type 1 diabetic for 25 years.  My disease has been poorly controlled despite my best efforts, and I've always believed that a low carb diet was the way to go for someone in my situation.  Amazingly, since I've been eating plants instead of meat and dairy, my blood glucose levels are significantly lower (except when I was on the steroids).  In a few weeks I'll get some lab work and see what my overall numbers look like, but I expect they will be very good based on what happens for others following the diet.  (Diet, as in the way of eating and not as in weight reduction protocol.)

One of the other common benefit people experience is weight loss if they are overweight.  No calorie counting, either.  How contrary to the way we have been taught.  My husband, a retired MD also viewed the movie with me and could find no flaws in the research and conclusions.  He is joining me on this diet in order to support my efforts.  He's not thrilled with the lack of meat, and may not want to continue to adhere completely.  And I'm not about to be his food police.  He can have his meat (if he cooks it) and add it to the meals I'm cooking.

I'm so thrilled with the diet and dumbstruck that I am craving veggies.  If you had told me this a month ago I would have said you are crazy.  But yes, the learning curve is steep, and it really is a transition.  I didn't go slowly, I dived right in of course, and made it a lot more gruelling initially.  But that's over with now.  Many people work on one meal at a time, like going WFPB (whole food plant based) just for breakfast for a week.  Then moving onto lunch, then dinner.  That's a more sensible way of doing than I did.

I'm discovering all kinds of delicious recipes, many different vegan web sites, support from others starting the diet through a FB page.  Yada yada yada.  I don't want to be viewed as one of those fanatical vegan people and I'm not out to recruit or educate anyone except myself.  But I did want to share, because it's been a very fun journey on the whole.  I did used to think Vegans were pretty elitist fanatics.  Maybe some are.  Yes, definitely some are.  But I hope not me.  Again, if you follow me, you know I just enjoy good food.  And surprise surprise I'm eating really good food.  Every day.  Every meal.

So there you have it.  I hope I haven't run you off with all this food chatter.

Yes, I'm still drinking a martini some evenings.  Always and forever.  Until they haul my dead ass away.  Healthy living demands it.

Have a great weekend, friends!