Wanna Lose Weight?

...at the pep rally where  juveniles had reportedly been fighting.  Two had started the argument and a third jumped in when one of the other two was knocked to the ground.  The original two were charged with affray and  were released to their parents.

An affray can occur only when two or more persons agree to fight in a public place.

Chuy was driving the van, I was reading this aloud from my phone to my teenagers, it'd been in a local news report, but what I happily took away from it was that No Bodies Were Involved, which is kinda my wish for the rest of my life.

No drama, no fighting, let's live normal please.

My sons told me who'd been involved, I knew three generations of one of the combatants, really nice folks who are likely quite dismayed at this turn of events.  I certainly feel their pain.  BTDT.

We only had one soccer game and when it was over at 7, I did a most unusual thing for anyone who knows me and my extreme and loud aversion to stores.

"Let's go shopping!" I gaily chirped to an absolutely shocked audience of teenagers.

It was Tuesday, for Pete's Sake, 25% off for senior citizens like me at Goodwill.  My kids look upon Goodwill as a very cool store.  My sons rarely have ever even been there, as averse to shopping as I am, but Chuy, Scotty and Martin scored big time last night, as did Sabrina and Lily.  For just $60 we purchased a shopping cart full.  I even bought a (black) long sleeve shirt for the winter, still had its original tags on it.

We never, and I mean NEVER go shopping. Especially not with a van load of kids.

But see?  Now we can.  Nowadays no one will rage in a store, or make irrational screaming demands and disallow any other child in my family to have what they want.  Until one has lived under such craziness, one can't comprehend the joy we now find in just living normally.

Another big plus nowadays is that no one steals.  That is MAJOR in a family like my family.

I still cringe in every public place where someone in my family has had a dysregulated temper event, my trauma-induced slamming heart reminds me of the abject fear I'd experienced so often.  The helplessness, the inability of being able to ever reason with one who'd lost all control.

Breathe, Cindy, just breathe.

We'd stuffed ourselves right after school with massive black bean and brown rice corn tortillas, each one individually fried up in my big black cast iron skillet, I dump guacamole on mine to make up for my vegan lifestyle that has eliminated cheese, the kids piled on pepper Jack cheese and sour cream, mixed with salsa.  I prefer chopped tomatoes and loads of Fire Hot Pepper Sauce.

Again, every night, nearly without fail, I eat an entire pan of popped on the stove in olive oil popcorn doused with sea salt and nutritiional yeast.   I reckon I've been consuming nutritional yeast for close to 40 years now.

I'm completely incapable of portion control, I believe I eat a ton of food, my own mother is often aghast at the piles on my plate, but when one has virtually eliminated all animal products, one can still maintain a very decent weight while still pigging out.

I weigh 129 and eat like a dock loader.  I can out eat construction workers because I eat right.

However, Nando read the ingredients on some very nice white chocolate, and there was a smidgen of milk in it - thus getting kicked off my diet.  Wah.

A vegan diet - zero animal products - no dairy, no honey, no eggs even as an ingredient in bread - didn't take as much getting used to as I'd initially feared.  I feel great, very energetic.  A vegan diet means no cholesterol.  Zero.  That's very important in a past middle age woman.

The science is clearly conclusive: the best diet for humans is the vegan diet. Vegan diet stops and reverses most diseases, rejuvenates, slims the body and stops the needless slaughter of animals and ravaging effects of animal farming.

The above quote is from The China Study, a book I think I borrowed years ago from my friend, Emily.

I'm reading this man's blog now, The Vegan Diet Guy, chockful of recipes.  Wanna lose weight? Check it out.  Not a diet, but a lifestyle, which is kind of the only way for a woman of a certain age to keep weight off, as we age, our metabolism slows.

We'd had a decent rainfall event, the temperatures thi morning are 59 degrees, sweat shirt weather for us hot-house flowers.  It puts a dang chill in my heart that beats so much better when sweaty.  I'm not invigorated at all by the dip in degrees, if anything I feel such a sense of dread, knowing I hardly have another month to six weeks before we could have a first frost.