Oops.

Well, I did a bad thing. We went out this evening for a friend's birthday to a place I've been wanting to try. So I tried. I had the spinach artichoke dip with chips, a taste of the nachos (with like a teaspoon of ground beef), and a boneless wing. So tasty... but now my stomach hurts. The dip alone would have been fine on a F&V day as it was just spinach, artichoke, garlic, salt and herbs. But the chips... perhaps a tea fasting day tomorrow. Andre keeps telling me I could tea fast on a transition day, and I never do. So I think I will tomorrow. Been a bad week so far for me as far as sticking to this goes. Must get back on track!

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Day 23-24

Milk days.  I meant to post last night, really, but around 7pm I went to bed to just close my eyes for a bit, and the next thing I knew, it was 9am.  Yes, in the morning.  Oops.  I guess I needed sleep!  I think last weekend's travels and stuff just finally caught up to me, now that it's the end of the work week, and I just collapsed.  Sleep is good for you though, and I feel far more alert today than I have all week.  So yesterday, once again we went out for lunch (I know, we go a lot) as it was the boss' last day before his week-long vacation, and he felt like going out for lunch and then going home.  I had a glass of milk and a plateful of grilled onions.  The onions tasted like french fries.  They were awesome.  Clearly there was oil involved.  Tea lattes for the rest of the day, as well as a vow to not do anymore cheating, no matter how small, for the weekend. 

Today I attempted to recreate the french-fry-onions as best I could without using oil.  I thought, "it's fat, right.  Let's try soaking the onions in milk before grilling them!"  Alas, they burned to a tasteless crisp before reaching that nice caramelized state that is the awesomeness of grilled onions.  So then I thought maybe I'd cut them too thinly, so I tried a second onion, sliced much more thickly.  Turned the heat down in the grill, too, thinking it was possibly too high.  Still didn't turn out right and was more burned than anything.  Oil is apparently very important when it comes to properly grilling onions.  Next, determined, I tried just sauteing them, to see if I could get SOMETHING tasty out of it.  Burned the pan pretty well, but the onions came out ok.  Not the flavor I was hoping to get, and I oversalted them, unfortunately.  I was not about to cut up a fourth onion though, and I just quit.  Had a honey-vanilla steamer, followed later on by a large chai latte.  Clearly I was not meant to have onion today.

Back to veggies tomorrow.  I found pomegranate seeds!  And I picked up an artichoke, so that should be tasty!

Day 22

Fruit/Veggie day.  My team went out for lunch today as a farewell to my Indian co-worker who will be returning to India soon.  So it was another semi-cheat day.  I had a tossed salad without dressing and their steamed veggies.  So, couple extra "items" for the day, but not too far off.  I actually had created a veggie smoothie this morning.  It was going to be the psoriasis power smoothie - beets, carrots, and mangoes, all of the super items recommended for me.  I think I went overboard on the beets though.  I put in two beets, two carrots, and a mango.  And a cup of water.  It was exceedingly purple - probably should try with just one beet, four carrots, and the mango, and see how that turns out.

Hunger seems back under control again - had a little trouble yesterday evening.  Milk day tomorrow.  I'm actually pretty relieved to finally get back to a milk day.  They're just so much easier.

Day 21

Fruit/Veggie day.  Today was the official start of the 3rd cycle.  It was also avocado experiment day.  Sadly, I was unable to render the fat out of the avocado in any way that wasn't absolutely gross, but I think I may have discovered my new favorite salad dressing.  A line of dressings even.  Start with a similar base, and then you can add seasoning packets to make it extra tasty.  So food today was a simple romaine salad with avocado dressing, and then later on I had some zucchini soup (toss some zucchini around in a fry pan then toss it into some veggie broth, heated up).

Avocado Dressing Base
1 avocado
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup water

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Add water as needed to reach desired consistency.  To change up flavors, try adding Italian or Ranch dressing seasoning packets.

Day 20

Fruit/Veggie day.  Last day of the 2nd cycle, so I went back in to see Andre, and got the spheres repositioned.  They will now target my spleen and gall bladder.  But, I am down another 7 pounds!  Whoo hoo!  17 pounds in 20 days.  Pretty impressive! 

I had an intense craving for meat this morning, but I think it's passed now.  I did cheat a little bit today, though, and I think maybe I deserve it just a little bit.  It's a transition day, after all.  We went out for lunch, and I got the mixed grilled vegetables.  Now, I didn't have "cheat" on mind when I ordered this.  I thought, most places when they say "mixed grilled vegetables", it's zucchini bell peppers and onions, and that's it.  And grilled vegetables - that's safe, right?  Well, when it came, it was clear that oil had been used, and it was a mix of 5 vegetables or so - zucchini, bell peppers, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, and snow peas.  It was really delicious, and totally worth it.  Then I had some cantaloupe later on. 

I'm back to 2-hour rotations, with mandatory times at 2 and 7, so that means there will be 3 hours of single-hour waits.  Hm.  Tomorrow begins the new 10-day cycle with a fresh start of fruit/veggie days, so the avocado experiments will take place tomorrow.

Day 19

Fruit/Veggie day.  Also a travel day.  Due to my washing the car yesterday, the weather decided it was not indeed spring yet and thus there must be snow.  So the car is gross again.  What should have been an 11 hour drive turned into a 14 hour ordeal, and I am fairly well exhausted.  Note to everyone: If you must travel during Sadkhin, MAKE SURE you travel on a milk day.  Fruit and veggie days are awful for travel.  Awful.  Also: Getting up at 5:30am and not being able to eat anything until noon is horrible.  Nevermind that I couldn't FIND anything until 1pm.  Stopped at a Sheetz to get gas and see what I could rustle up.  They do carry those smoothie things, but I didn't want to go on another all-fruit day thing.  So I found, in the To-Go section, a pack of chopped romaine lettuce (they sell salad kits - one pack of lettuce, and one pack of topping, and there's various salad type toppings to choose from.  Pretty neat.)  and a pack of carrots and celery, which comes with ranch dressing.  The lettuce was quite tasty all on its lonesome, and I ignored the celery.

Later on as 5:00 was approaching, I kept an eye out for something else to consume.  Let me tell you, service station areas are not all that helpful.  Around 5:30 I finally pulled into something with a Burger King (no way), Manchu Wok (has potential but requires research), Popeyes and Panera (both bombed out) as well as a Starbucks.  I thought if nothing else, Starbucks would be the backup as they usually have little fruit platters or those smoothies or something.  Manchu Wok has a vegetable stir fry in a garlic sauce that has potential, but I couldn't get a straight answer as to whether oil was involved in there.  So I had to pass, although I will be looking that up later, since it would make a nice meal.  Panera was disappointing - they have smoothies, but they use yogurt in them.  So that disqualifies them.  So I went to Starbucks.  Who promptly let me down.  No smoothies, no fruit platters.  Ugh.

There's a little travel mart inside the service stations, so I wandered in to see what I could find.  There were lovely looking bowls of cheese and crackers, and bowls of grapes, and bowls of red apple slices.  All of which fail.  So I checked the fridge.  I found a V8.  Now, Andre says we can do V8, unless you're me, in which case I'm not supposed to have tomatoes.  But it was 5:45.  And I was tired.  So I had the V8.  And everyone will just have to get over it.  It turned into an all-veggie day.  Oh well.

Tomorrow I go back in for a repositioning of the spheres.  I don't think there was a lot of physical progress during this cycle - maybe a couple of pounds of weight loss, but my measurements haven't changed.  Now, that could just be because it's the end of a very long day and I should measure myself in the morning (like all the other times) and see where things stand... So we'll see.  Fruit/veggie day for the next 3 days (new cycle, restart the food).

Oh, yes, I had a thought - can't use oil for cooking, but avocados are fatty.  22g of fat per fruit, actually.  And it's the really good for you fat.  So I wonder - can they be melted over heat?  To make a fatty something for cooking with?  Not tomorrow, but Wednesday when I am home, will be avocado experiment day.  We'll be attempting to melt some avocado for stir-fry, possibly even (gasp) pan frying, and an attempt at a salad dressing will be made.  I picked up a seasoning packet to put in and give it a try.  Stay tuned!

Day 18

Milk day.  Once again out and about all day.  We went to Red Lobster after church, where I had a lovely glass of milk whilst my parents had lovely salads and soups and cheddar bay biscuits.  Had it been a fruit/veggie day I could have gotten a dressing-less salad, or one or two of the veggie sides - they have asparagus and broccoli... Mmm!  Stopped back at home to put together a giant tea latte using some vanilla caramel tea.  I highly recommend doing this.  It is most tasty.  Dinner was from Dunkin' Donuts - decaf iced latte with whole milk and honey.  Yes, they'll do that for you, without even blinking. 

I got my car thoroughly washed today.  Naturally, it will be gross by the end of the day tomorrow, with traveling and all, but at least the inside is good and clean for the first time in forever.  Fruit and veggie travel day tomorrow - yipes.