1.2 (2) The Harvest

I watched this episode at home with my husband after it screened on TV.

Best moments:

“My husband dancing and singing ‘Hey nah, hey nah, Buffy’s back!’

The Masters “You’ve got something in your eye” was the most real (and awesome) of the overly theatrical master scenes.

When Willow tells Cordelia to “Deliver” the programme (Del = Delete not Deliver).

Awesome Quotes:

“I need to sit down”

“You are sitting down”

“Oh, good for me”

“It may be that you can wrest some information from this dread machine. (pause) That was a bit British wasn’t it?”

“I don’t like Vampires. I’m going to take a stand and say they aren’t good.”

Quotes to use in daily life:

“I am so mentally challenged!”

“I exhibit no surprise.”

“Who gave you permission to exist?”

1.1 (1) Welcome to the Hellmouth

I was so excited that Channel Four (no longer C4) decided to screen Buffy from the very beginning. My first viewing had been from mid second season so this time I planned to revisit it in the correct order.
I watched at my sisters house in my pajamas, which included a "I <3 Buffy" (only fit for sleepwear).

I forgot that Buffy had brown hair for the pilot, which quickly becomes blonded. Allyson Hannigan looks very young.
Now Julie Benz has super powers again - as a speedy mother in No Ordinary Family.
Angel is now a FBI agent - how things change - and who knew that he could act as he is completely believable. I remember how my friends in high school used to sigh over him, I didn't ever understand it.

Additions

Having hit the three month period of my diet I have begun adding items back into my diet. However, I imagine I am not doing as would normally be reccommended. One day a week I have an item which is on the forbidden list. Unfortunately said item usually contains the three biggest no-nos ie. wheat, dairy and sugar.

I'm not certain there has been any change in my skin. I do notice food tastes very rich - a lot tastes floury and sugar burns. My bowels have noticed the difference which is unpleasant but not awful.

My skin has not been the best recently but I attribute that to running out of flaxseed oil rather than the change in diet. Being now in posession of flaxseed oil once again I hope to see an improvement.

What I am finding difficult is reining myself in now that I am permitted to eat outside of the diet. I did intend (and possibly still do) to eat this way for the long term but am finding myself leaning towards unhealthy foods. This indicates to me that I have some food issues which need to be sorted, if only I knew how.

Real Food

I am part of an email group called FlyLady and a month ago (June 6) I recieved a posting I would like to include here. I did contact them to ask permission but didn't hear back but will post it anyway.

'Dear Friends,

There is an interesting discussion going on in the food world among the "foodies" of the universe. Something I hinted about in an earlier Food for Thought talking about the issue of food; REAL food.

This discussion is about many different issues-- some of them are more controversial than others. The stuff that's important though, is the stuff I want to share with you and that is the identification of real food.

I know that sounds pretty ridiculous. Just writing it made me chuckle, "well of course Leanne, everyone knows what real food is," I said to myself. But do you really? Let's look at some stuff and list some of the ingredients in these food items:

What is in butter? Well, cream is in butter. That's it, end of ingredient list (unless of course you buy salted butter or butter with a coloring agent in it). But good butter is going to have ONE ingredient: cream. That's it.

What is in margarine? Well, lots of stuff. Hydrogenated oils in a lot of them, artificial coloring agents, artificial flavorings and enhancers, stabilizing agents, preservatives. Here is a list of ingredients on a well-known margarine that I found online: "water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, emulsifiers (soy lecithin, vegetable monoglycerides), xantham gum, preservatives (potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate), artificial flavor, vitamin a palmitate, colored with beta carotene (a source of vitamin A)."

Okay, raise your hand if you would willingly walk into a grocery store and ask where they kept the potassium sorbate? And do they have the vegetable monoglycerides in the produce department or where? Are these ingredients you want to eat all by themselves?

THAT is the question you need to ask yourself before you eat something—is there any one ingredient in that long list of ingredients on the back of the box, bag or package, that you would willingly to eat, all by itself?

If the answer is NO, then you are not eating REAL food. "Foods" like that are manufactured and processed and fabricated out of partially real food and a whole lot of chemical additives.

As much as possible, let's get back to REAL food! The kind with single ingredient lists even! When I'm speaking, I'll hold up an apple and ask my audience, "What's in this?" Everyone yells, "APPLE!" and laughs! When I hold up a package of apple flavored chips or fruit leathers or some such thing, I'll ask the same thing and everyone mumbles and looks at each other. You know why, too, don't you? Because we don't know. We can guess, but we really don't know unless we read the list. And even then, can you identify half that stuff?

This is the stuff we're giving our children for snacks. This is the stuff we're eating because it's only 100 calories (there is a proliferation of expensive 100 calorie snacks out there!). This is the stuff we're wasting our money on and then we complain because food costs so much at the grocery store, we've got visible body clutter issues that we're unhappy about and we're hungry all the time!

Real food is the answer to ALL of this. It's cheaper (oh yes it is!!), it takes up more room in your tummy, quells your appetite and feeds you both body AND soul. Real food helps you lose the body clutter—both the kind you can see and the kind you can't.

It's time to take a stand ladies (and gents). Real food has been around since your great grandmother. It doesn't have fancy names, huge expensive PR campaigns or any other gimmick going on. Real food is FUEL for living the kind of lives we want!

Will you join me in eating REAL food this week? Let's get REAL and stop the insanity of all this crazy mixed up fake food! It's literally weighing us down and wrecking our health!

Love,
Leanne Ely
www.savingdinner.com
Follow me, www.twitter.com/savingdinner'

Smells

My plain diet seems to have improved my sense of smell. I often know specifically what Gareth is eating by the smell and even knew he had jalapeno peppers in his bag (while it was closed). Perhaps I'm also smelling phantom scents as last week during lunch I accused my parents of having chocolate.

I went to the gym on Friday afternoon, the first time in a long while. My thighs look so much slimmer on the bike (which still hurts my butt). The workout wasn't as easy as I remembered, I will need to build back up.

Quintessence sent my pills to an address that doesn't exist but they still managed to find their way to me. The Bacto Cand GI tablets make my belly hurt but I won't use the other product which is meant to settle the pain because it is derived from shellfish - something I would have prefered to know before spending $52. I am optomistic that this round will fix me.

Dreams

I'm almost two months into this diet. Originally I would be two-thirds of the way through. Since it's been extended I am only one-third.

Quintessence are sending me more of the Bacto Canda GI tablets along with some others which give people a lot of relief. Unfortunately they aren't getting their stock in till this Friday so I am unlikely to get them till next week. The woman I spoke to said a lot of people with eczema have found it works, that it is spillage from the digestive tract which causes their skin problems.

At the moment I'm not sleeping very well. I had prominent bags under my eyes this weekend. I was excited on Monday because they weren't so bad.

I'm still itchy. My skin still sheds. Both are better than they have been. I bite my nails so I can't stratch much. I no longer weep or scab but I don't know if that is due to lack of sufficent stratching or something else.

My Miracle Solution makes me want to vomit so I don't really take it. It smells like chlorine but I bathe in it - not every day but I still find it inconvenient. I want a swimming cap so I can bathe without wetting my hair as then I have to try wash it from out of the bath and it never seems to get really clean.

Lately I've been seriously tempted to cheat on my diet. I've been dreaming about it. Several times. Reality and dreams blur. It would just make me really sick, I'm sure. When I go to Australia about this time next month I am going to buy a giant Toblerone.

Stress

I believe that stress has a great role to play in my skin problems. I have been having issues at work and my skin went bad again. I had been so excited that the goodness had lasted a whole week. I feel like I need a week away from everything perferably somewhere in the sun (as this helps too).

I saw Karen yesterday, we had big talks. I also tried one of her massage chairs, so very very lovely though my back feels a little bruised. Brenda came with me and also had a treatment. She bought a pendant which is meant to both heal and shield you, I'm wearing it right now, we plan to share it. Karen put me on a new miracle cure aptly called 'Miracle Mineral Solution' I'm supposed to take it as well as bathe in it. I also quite literally froze negativity by writing the persons name and a short message and putting it in the freezer.

Karen told me I'm going to start sorting out my life and moving forward, this should be interesting. I hope life starts to be easier.