Be Born Again, My Friend

Great line from the Steely Dan song "Sign In Stranger" that I'm listening to on my walkman. Of course it is the title of this entry because it makes me think of how very much I have changed since starting CR.

Let's list the changes in two columns: ones I expected, ones I didn't.

Expected changes:

-- Lost a lot of weight
-- Skin looks dramatically better
-- Enjoy my food more
-- Feel better about my body
-- Fight off illness much better


Unexpected changes:

-- Almost total eradication of anxiety that had plagued me my entire life
-- Bizarre reactions of others to both what I eat and how I look, from the extremely approving to the disapproving (people accusing me of being anorexic)
-- Complete change in the composition of my diet, not just the amount, and not in the direction I thought. Higher fat, much much higher protein, lower carb, minimal grains
-- Changes in world view based on expecting to be healthy longer
-- Improved ability to focus, concentrate, etc.
-- No longer taking things so personally. Too many examples to name
-- I think I am a nicer person now.

Things that CR hasn't done for me:

-- I am not taller. I could have sworn someone promised me that I'd be six feet tall by now.
At least 5'10."

It's been such an exciting journey so far, and I can't wait to see what lies ahead!

Yesterday I ate my eggwhites for breakfast but ate nothing else all day, saving myself for MR's CR Zoned pizza at dinner. Wow, it was so worth it. It was so yummy. My mom ate one, I actually ate two. That's a lot of calories for a tiny person, but I was really hungry and have been losing weight (this was brought to my attention by the fact that I weighed 108 when I gave that interview for the Bergen Record and I weigh 106 now.) There's nothing wrong with losing weight, but I have lost too fast in the past and I have to watch it. And if you're going to pig out, this pizza thing is so good. I also drank two glasses of wine, which since I ate two pizzas, I am hoping doesn't throw off the Zone ratios. I could DWIDP it, but why, when MR has already done the work for us? I fell asleep re-reading the nutrient info on the recipe, and when I woke up in the middle of the night, my cat was sleeping prettily on the print out. Not, I note, eating the print out. This is progress, for a cat who has taken a bite out of most of Michael Rae's work.

I wasn't able to find the brand of low-carb tortilla that he mentioned, but I did find another brand that was quite good. I actually ate the second pizza in burrito form, scooping the toppings and sauce into the tortilla and rolling it up. Since the food I really miss is a Taco Bell bean burrito, it had a good psychological effect to eat it that way.

I was thinking that one of my old favorite pizza recipes could be adapted using MR's tricks. I used to love to make a pizza where you'd bake the crust with sauce and cheese and then take it out of the oven and top it with tomatoes, garlic, onion, and arugula, marinated all day in balsamic vinegar at room temp. This is so good! I also like to make my own tomato sauce out of just fresh tomatoes, garlic, basil, and red wine. I could fix it so the cals and carbs didn't exceed that of the tomato paste, which I usually do not use but which is included in MR's recipe. Back when I was a lowfat vegan, I cooked with a lot of wine. I had hardly ever owned oil unti this year. So you've got to sautee, sizzle, in something. I always had a cooking white and a cooking red in the fridge.

I'm leaving tonight for Wilkes-Barre, and I won't be back till Tuesday. I doubt that I'll have time to breathe tomorrow, much less blog, but I'll check in on Tuesday. Then flying away to Charleston early Wednesday morning!!!