Hey y'all...aside from forgetting to eat yesterday, I did very well with the junk food! Tee hee, the truth is, I started the day with lemon water and had superfood with grape juice. So while I didn't actually eat food food until about 5:30pm, I did start the day with only bennies. The good news is that I've finally hit a wall with the whole junk food thing. I think it's because I had to bake all night Wednesday night (cheesecake, choc. cake, 2 types cookies, homemade p.b. cups, homemade caramel corn) for an event Thursday. I was up until 1 am finishing everything and was so fed up with sweets by that point that I just didn't want anything junkie.

That's a good start. (Coincidentally, I had such a bad headache by my 7pm class that I couldn’t focus for anything, lost a contact without knowing it [still haven’t found it…hopefully it’s lost outside of my body and not still in my eye somewhere], and felt nauseous. The point ONCE AGAIN is that life on the BTD is sort of like following Dorothy on the yellow brick road. Stay on the right path and your body will sing for joy, help you do wonderful things and look great. Stray off the path and punishment ensues.)

As for today, I'll eat good food all day (already started with a powerhouse breakfast of egg over rice), swim, start weights (it's been over a year since I've done any weight training) and do yoga. If that doesn't jump start me back on track, I don't know what will!!

I hereby PROMISE to you out there in the great void of cyberspace, that I will write to you first thing on Saturday morning (Pacific time...so late morning for you East Coasters!) telling you that I did indeed do those things today and I'll answer all the mail that I've received over the past couple of weeks. It seems that many more AB's are becoming turned on to the BTD; I'm so glad that you're writing to me! I feel less lonely among the O, A and B bloggers!!

Take care of y'all, have a great day and be well... just follow the yellow brick road…

Remember the great Girl Scout Cookie debacle of 2004? How about the Twix feast of April? What we’re looking at here folks is the horrific stress-induced, fatigue enabling passive-aggressive mess known as Oreo bingeing. There is no excuse for my behaviors and I’m having a monster of a time doing anything about them at the moment (have had several Oreos within the past few sentences). If I’m on this free-ranging feast fest I should get to the Farmer’s Market for fruits and veggies…that way if I’m stuffed to the point of explosion…I’d be stuffed full of bennies. I doubt that Oreos even show up in the TYPEBase Program—they’re that bad.

Remember those teen beat TV shows when the main character got caught smoking and their parents made them smoke two packs of cigarettes right there at the kitchen table to teach them a lesson to never smoke again? Does that work with crap food too? If I make myself sick over this will I never touch the stuff again? There are a few choice types of alcohol that that have done this for me. Somehow I think it’s not the same with junk food, unfortunately.

Well dear readers, in case you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m in a very self-depreciating mood right now. I am so overwhelmed with the amount of work to get done in the month of May. None of it is overly cognitively demanding; there is just a huge volume of information to distill down into papers, presentations, reflections and other assorted assignments. I know, I know…cry me a river right? Any grad student has the same story this month, the thing is that I know how this grad student feels, and she’s stressed!!

Still, pigging out on cookies (that were sitting there in the cabinet…darn roomies!) is no excuse. But it’s done and I can’t take it back, so I’ll start anew (again) from here. My plan is to drink loads of extra water, green tea and Superfood. Bear with me on getting to you will responses to your communications. This has been a lengthy study break in itself, and I need more time to compose answers to your letters. I’ll get to it, just give me time.

Take care y’all and smile. Happy (compliant) eating…be well…

I am overwhelmed with the amount of AB mail I’ve been receiving. Thank you! We are so few out there…I love getting mail from you all! I’ll be taking time this weekend to answer the messages, so hang on a little bit longer.

And for all you AB’s in the same boat as myself (mourning the loss of coffee in our diet), go check out Dr. D’Adamo’s column above the blogger box on the web site. He mentions that of all the avoids…coffee is more okay than others. In fact, it’s the caffeine that’s bad and if we only have a cup or two balanced with stress management and bennie foods/drinks…we’re all good! YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now he’s really my hero!

More substantial blogs to come…going to battle the great California big-rig slow-down on the greater Los Angeles freeway system…bringing a cup of that sweet nectar known as café to sustain my will…to…continue…

Well, I’m sitting in the Las Vegas airport waiting to catch my connection into LA and thought that I’d take a chance to submit a blog in review of my recent trip. (Incidentally, I lost $3 in the slots here in the terminal and wisely decided to call it quits, as that was my lunch money!!) Thank you for the fun communications through the site…my soul belongs to the bayou, but my heart remains elsewhere…

Last night saw me still out and shakin’ my thang at 3 am to an amazing brass band. I was able to join a friend to have some good low country cooking. We went to visit the elderly parents of a mutual buddy and they treated us to homemade gumbo, potato salad, ribs, stuffed peppers and (of course!) fried chicken. I stuck to the gumbo because it was so good!!! I must create a BTD compliant gumbo…there’s four weeks until the end of the semester, but I’ll have that posted by, say, June. Keep checking in!

My compliance probably maxed out at about 40% this trip (5 days) and I’m okay with that, because, as you now know, the mental relief of being in the Big Easy far outweighs bennies, neutrals and avoids for me. However, having said that, I am ready to get back into my real world routine of good foods. I miss my breakfast staple of rice, beans and egg. I need veggies (and not the fried kind!!) and fruits and fresh foods! I MISS THE POOL!!!!! With just four weeks to funnel down the mountain of work that constitutes 16 graduate units, I need all the bennies I can get! The next several weeks of blog entries will find me in the pool, at yoga, trying for enough sleep and reaching for 90+% compliance on the BTD.

I’ll call it my BTD-stress-boot-camp-make-it-through-a-really-rough-next-several-weeks-without-getting-sick-or-(too) cranky plan. Come along for the ride…I’m sure it’ll be a hectic one! It’s gotta be good for some squirrelly entries…you do remember how random I get when I’m stressed…

Take care, be well and happy (compliant) eating…

Hey y’all…here I is in N’Awlins and it’s beaucoup fun dahlin’. Fest is wonderful, the weather is perfect (cloudy, sunny, windy, rainy…keeps everything cool). Believe it or not, I’m staying relatively compliant to the BTD…except for the oysters and crawfish (avoids, I think), I’ve had spinach, salad stuff, eggs, red snapper, zucchini…

I also had (an entire) bag of glazed pecans…so much sugar! I’ve also had quite a bit of café au lait…but it’s fest and the music and culture down here in the crescent city takes care of all avoids (tell that to my aching tummy trying to digest the sugary pecans!!). I have been really good about the water consumption and of course, we walk around and dance all day!

I don’t know when I’ll submit my next blog, but do know that I’ll continue to strive for compliance. I’m on a mission to enjoy jambalaya tomorrow for a very special darlin’ dear. Be great y’all, take care and happy eating.

Be well…