Tuesday is such a grind. Monday feels new and shiny to me, a refreshing return to routine, but Tuesday looms large, imposing. The only way to get through Tuesday is to get back to work. Once I’m back to work, and really working, Tuesday isn’t so bad. Sometimes it feels good to work hard.
This morning I wasn’t in the mood for a sit-down breakfast, which is highly unusual for me. Instead, I made a smoothie and wondered how long a liquid breakfast would tide me over before lunch. It was rich with coconut milk and whole milk yogurt, so I gambled that together, me and my smoothie might make it until lunch. Indeed, we did! Into a blender I dumped a few soaked dried apricots, a heaping quarter cup of thawed raspberries, the juice from two oranges, half a tablespoon of honey, a quarter cup of coconut milk, and half a cup of yogurt. I whirled it around, poured it into a glass, and proceeded with my wake-up routine of checking my e-mail and seeing who has posted something new on their blog. Unfortunately, without coffee or tea this morning, I wasn’t quite as perky as I like to be by the time I walk out the door. (The smoothie, by the way, had a nice flavor but it was a little gritty from all the raspberry seeds. Next up: a mango smoothie!)
I was amazed that I didn’t start to feel hungry until about 11:30 AM. Often the late morning is a very productive time of day for me, so I like to work until I get really hungry, at which point I break for lunch. Around 12:30 PM, I wandered over to the lunchroom in the library building and ate my bagged lunch: another serving of Tomato Vegetable Soup, two pieces of Organic Valley cheese, a few cucumber slices, and a couple bites of grain-free granola. I washed it all down with sips of water and went back to work feeling satisfied but not stuffed. Excellent.
Lunch, though, didn’t hold off my hunger as long as usual. I may have also been a little bit bored—it was not the most exciting day ever at work—so I brought out the afternoon goodies: a flourless peanut butter brownie and the rest of my little stash of grain-free granola. Today I decided that I like the grain-free granola best by itself—plain yogurt overwhelms the more delicate fruit and nut flavors.
My snack was tasty but I still felt nibbly, probably because I was bored. I also wished that I’d had some fruit, but alas—I’m all out of fresh fruit right now.
I arrived home just after 6 and had errands on my agenda for the evening. I didn’t want to rush through my grocery shopping, so I had another snack—this time a piece of Organic Valley cheese eaten with a few toasted walnuts. This combination is one of my absolute favorites, so good that I’ve already filed it away in this site’s archives. I also juiced another Texas orange so I’d have a little sweet something to drink with my cheese and nuts. I might need to buy another bag of oranges!
After a peaceful shopping trip during which I procured fresh and frozen mango, I cobbled dinner together out of leftovers and a fresh spinach salad. The leftovers were coconut-pumpkin soup and onion rings (freshly baked but made from last night’s onion ring preps). To eat with my soup and onion rings, I tossed a few handfuls of fresh baby spinach with extra-virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice. Easy peasy.
Now it is getting late and I’m feeling sad that I can’t have a piece of chocolate. It’s funny the things I crave most while I’m following the SCD plan: I’m unfazed by the grain-free diet, but I miss chocolate and fresh milk. Fortunately, I’ve got a mango smoothie to look forward to tomorrow, so that takes the sting out of my sadness. If Lydia were here, I think she’d tell me that mango beats chocolate any day. Or maybe she’d try to bargain so she can have both! That child is a crafty one—I hope she learns to always be proud of her intelligence.
It occurs to me that these daily posts have a certain meandering quality to them, which I can only attribute to the fact that it’s almost my bedtime. Sweet dreams, dear reader, and may your slumber be perfectly refreshing.
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