I was/am excited for this weekend but not with the same energy level. Maybe it was the eye surgery. It took a lot out of me a couple of days ago. Maybe it's this whole lay-off thing.
What I need to do is have that system in place so that when boredom does attempt to strike, I have something in place to counter-act it. It might mean having a book nearby, fiction or non, or it might mean, going for a twenty minute walk, but whatever it is, I have to have something to turn to so that I am not bored.
Today, I spent time reading about my former competitors. Pretty much all of us, even the big guys, have crashed and burned. I don't think it is because any of us were particularly bad people (maybe a few, but not all) but probably because none of us had run businesses before and when we ran into a wall we had no one to turn to for advice on what to do next. We got big, much bigger than our britches, and when the seams split for various reasons, we did not know which way to turn, or what we needed to do in order to stop the split from lengthening and how what we needed to do to mend the situation.
I also chose to use some of that time to look up folks I respected. When I found them on the Internet, I read some of their posts, looked at some of their products, checked their calendars for appearances.
Those are the sorts of things you have to have in your back pocket. The Plan B, C and D.
Tomorrow, the plans are simple. Work out. Clean out. Make wholesome food, maybe even try a new recipe.
On the weekend, there is a little more time to play around with new recipes. Time to get the ingredients together, go to the store if I have to. Time to chop, peel, slice, dice, saute, cream, bake, fry, roast.
Probably a palate adjustment is needed. I know that I can't do as much salt as I used to. Once it is out of your system, you can really taste salt in other foods. It's the same with sugar. When your taste buds are free of that taste, it is so easy to pick it up in other foods.
Corn is a real culprit in a lot of what we eat. Corn on the cob tastes great, especially lathered with butter. Yum. But we know, it is really a lot of misplaced calories with limited nutritional value. Then again, corn shows up as an unwelcome guest in a lot of our pre-prepared foods.
That's why when nutritionists work with their clients they want them to shop the edges of the store. In our local grocery store, the right wall is where all the fruits and veggies are. There is also a portion of that row that is open refrigeration that holds the specialty energy drinks and the kombuchas. The back wall is all meat. Fish, pork, turkey, chicken, beef. Then we have the pharmacy, and the milk section. The left wall of the store which I usually ignore is the deli and the bread section. In the middle of the store is all the ready-to-eat, instant cooking type boxes and cans. Take a look at the ingredients on those products. They are usually filled with words you can't pronounce and/or some form of corn syrup, or other sugar (if it ends in 'ose' it is probably some sort of sugar).
The layout may be different in your grocery store, but the product placement is probably similar with the aforementioned items on the edges of the store.
I think though, the groceries are wising up to that layout. They are sneaking some convenience foods that look healthy into the predominately "pure" food that edge the store. I've seen Velveeta close to the fish, chicharrones on little stands at the ends of the open freezers. Also in easy sight are the tortillas. The soft white ones are a lot harder on our bodies that the corn flour tortillas. Chocolate covered nuts are with the fruits and vegetables; caramel for dipping apples is there too.
If we cleanse these from our palates we will get an appreciation for the way a fruit or vegetable naturally tastes. Can you imagine how many calories we'd cut out of our diets easily if we stopped drinking soda or fancy flavored coffees? I wonder how many pounds a city could lose if we just stopped drinking pop.
I know giving up pop has been one of the harder things I've had to work on. There is something about that really, really cold fizzy drink that slakes my thirst. Now that I don't do much salt, I find I can't do diet sodas at all. While the companies have been very good at reducing sodium in their drinks, now that my palate has been cleansed from excessive salt, I can taste the smallest amount. As I've aged, the carbonation has agitated my stomach. I fare much better staying away from any cola type drink.
So, maybe this weekend, with nothing of MAJOR responsibility happening I can look for a new recipe that is healthy and tasty. The paleo folks have put together some pretty tasty options. I'll head over there in a bit and see if I can't find something that sounds interesting - maybe even with a new ingredient, or a new use of an old one.
The search will be fun. I won't be bored. Gee what do you know...a cure.
See, there I go again, living on the wild side, you know, dangerous living.