2020-10-10 — Spaghetti & Meatballs

Well, folks… I have a confession. Please don’t think ill of me. I… just… couldn’t. I thought I could. I was planning on it. It seemed like nothing. I’d done it so many times before, but the last couple were… ugh. And this very last one. I just… can’t. So… that leaves me with a bit of a problem. I hate wasting. Not really something you can give away.

What do I do with this last can of spaghetti and meatballs? 🙃

After eating the good foods that I have for the last however long, I just… ugh. Can’t stomach the idea of popping the lid off of that thing and trying to force that stuff down into my mouth, down my throat, and into the abyss.

Ugh. Nope. Can’t do it. 🤢 So… what do I do with it? Give it back to Walmart and say, “Sorry, folks, just isn’t happening. I gave a good effort trying to finish the last of them, but… nope.”

Or maybe I just open up the can, dump it in the woods, and let the insects devour it. That’s probably what I’ll do.

On a different note, peanut butter and bean smoothies are fabulous. 🙂 I want another smoothie right now, but I just horked down a massive burrito al pastor from King Burrito, and though my taste buds are jonesing for some smoothie goodness, I’m not actually hungry.

I’m probably going to experiment with rice and bean smoothies in the coming days to make sure I get the complete protein. Rice, of course, doesn’t have much flavor, so I’m guessing it won’t be too hard to make super tasty smoothies with beans and rice in the ingredients.

Funny how much food has dominated my life lately. That’s me for you, though. Have a goal (eating through all the foods in our storage that have passed their best-opened-by date. And by the way, no, the spaghetti and meatballs wasn’t a food storage item: that was a cheap non-perishable food for while I was out working), and I just get going on trying to accomplish the goal. I want to just find a way to eat it all now, and then start on building up stuff we’re actually going to eat on a regular basis, so that it really does get used up. So… brain is like, “Eat more!!! You have a goal to accomplish.” But… the poor body is like… “no, too much food, sunshine.” I haven’t weighed myself for a while, but I’m probably around 175 or 180, which is probably pretty much exactly where I want to be for my frame. It used to be that my default was 165. I think I graduated high school at 165, came home from my mission at 165, well into my adult years I think I stayed 165. But I’m stronger than I was then–lots of manual labor has done that to me, yard work and cars, etc.

Anyway, health tangent. I was gonna share some things I’d learned about the effects of different foods on the brain, including memory, but it’s all pretty much the same stuff we all “know”: Eat fruits/vegetables/grains/nuts/legumes as the overwhelming majority of your diet. Cut out the processed, the sugar, the dairy, most meat, etc., and you have the best chances for optimal health, and not just heart health, but brain and memory health as well. I have a mountain of stuff I want to learn, hence the interest in brain and memory health. My memory has been declining for several years now, along with my ability to think clearly. It’s like I have a near permanent brain fog 😕. I’d so like to find away to get back to my old brain function. It’s been so many years.

Anyway, as far as the food info I could share, yeah, same old story, so probably not much need to share details, but it’s a good reminder to me and a good motivator and… what’s the word… vindicator? No… just a good support… No… I can’t think of the word. You probably know the word. Maybe a few more weeks with more good stuff in me, and I’ll remember the word! 😉

Let’s see… the day.

Guess what?!?! I got up again with my alarm (success!)

Discipline.

I will master this body of mine. I will.

I memorized the 3rd hymn (success!). I didn’t finish memorizing my 2nd Nephi scriptures, not even close, but I did add a handful back in. (success!)

Thanks, for the prayers and positive thoughts for David and me. We started the day today with only one car officially on David’s schedule, but he ended up with a full day, and I gave him nearly an extra two hours of pay because it’s been a rough last little while for him. Hopefully, that’ll help him a little bit. I also did four cars myself, so it ended up being a pretty solid day when it started out with almost nothing.

Blessings and thanks!

David did three diags and a fuel pump, and I did two diags and two batteries. Good, solid day for both of us.

After working, I came home (a little later than I would have liked), and then I went out with Thomas for birthday dinner (the King Burrito place). It was his birthday yesterday, but I wasn’t quite on top of things yesterday, so we did dinner tonight. We had a good conversation over our fabulous burritos, and that was that. Day be done. It’s currently 9:22. Backing off 15 minutes again tonight, I’ll be in bed by 10:00 and up at six, so that means I have 38 minutes to shower, floss/brush, review some memorizations, and crash.

Good day.

Thomas and I got talking about being single still, so a little part of me got a little… I’m not sure how to describe it off the top of my head, and I’m feeling fine now, so I don’t want to dig it up again to get a better sense of how to describe it.

Anyway…

#1. I’m grateful that today filled out, and David’s good for the day at least.

#2. I’m grateful that mom’s Durango is just going like a champ. I need to change the oil in it again, I think, but it’s going well, I think.

#3. I’m grateful that my body is really happy about the changes in food. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the urge for junk. Because I see the Sour Patch Kids bag in my car every day, I’m slightly tempted sometimes, but not really seriously. My body appreciates me getting rid of the junk, and I’m committed and happy about it. Not sad or feeling like I’m missing out at all.

#4. I’m grateful to have been free of the political/news/whatever drug. It’s an addicting drug that doesn’t really even have a high. It’s just… almost always negative. I stopped paying attention almost completely, and it feels soooooo nice. I’ve checked the headlines the last few days, and I can just feel how nice it is to have been away from all that. The goal is to stay informed sufficiently to be a responsible citizen, but I can’t do what I used to do–spending 30 minutes, an hour, maybe more on “news” and politics. No thanks.

#5. I’m grateful for cool nights and waking up to a house full of fresh country air in the morning instead of the stale house air. Love this little piece of heaven out here.

Well, folks, it’s 9:32. I’m super tired. Time to sing in the shower. 😁 At least until I get to the freezing part, and then I’ll probably just smile and laugh a little and just try to breathe. Although it might be fun to try to sing still while my body is in mild shock from the freezing goodness. 😁

Loves and hugs to all you lovelies out there.

Lift the World.

~ stephen