May 2013 Update on TBSS: The Blood Sugar Solution May Be My Final Solution

I think The Blood Sugar Solution is my final solution. I don't know if I started the program on March 5 or 10, but I'm through the initial round (two weeks of prep and six weeks of continuation). According to the book and the self-testing, I should need another six weeks to reset my body.

Still...I'm losing weight, albeit slower, even with a little cheating (I'm having two squares of 70% chocolate plus the allowed berries daily) and still no daily exercise (just weekly lawn work). Even with the stressors inherent in working freelance: lack of work followed by too much. Prefer the latter, please! Oh, yeah. And my car in the shop. Lord, make it a really cheap repair estimate.

And the biggest stressor of all: DIETING! But this doesn't feel like deprivation....

My flaky scalp has cleared up. Completely. Just halfway through the program, too. I'm not hungry all the time. The bad insatiable kind. In fact, I hardly eat two meals a day. Yet I feel actual hunger before I do eat.

Here are some other random thoughts:

• I'm still hung up on the guacamole with cumin recipe. When I'm working hard, I eat it as a meal in front of my computer. I add beans for more protein and LOVE adding pepitas on top for added crunch. Plus the green of the seeds looks pretty amid the black beans and the avocados. What can I say? I'm an artist. I appreciate these things.
• I'm recently enjoying deviled eggs. I was scrambling eggs for breakfast, along with my crisp sauteed onions and lightly sauteed mushrooms (which I prepared first), but then found I didn't want or need the eggs after my veggies. So, voilà. Deviled eggs. Ready to eat anytime. I took my fave recipe and tweaked it to fit within TBSS's parameters. I replaced the mayo with EVOO. I added more vinegar than usual to make up for the lack of moisture the mayo would give. And then just S&P and some paprika. Sometimes a dash of cayenne pepper when the mood strikes.
• I'm not eating breakfast within an hour of rising (gasp!). I'm eating it as a late brunch instead. So three or four hours later, if that soon. Works for me. Of course, coffee (decaf) fuels me until then.
• And I can see me eating like this forever. In fact, I have already moved into the lifetime event. I'm cheating occasionally but hopefully isolated within one day and not repeated for another week or so.
• I'm not worried about my cheats. I choose them carefully. Even with cheating, I'm eating probably 1% of the sugar (counting bread, rice, pasta too) than I used to eat daily. And I'm okay with that.
• My body is an MSG locator. And may be more sensitive to MSG now than it was before, and it was an automatic response before (well within one hour). I find that my itchy eyes is totally due to MSG. And the upset stomach.
• So while bread may not do my body good, I think my system tolerates Jasmine rice better. Just a hunch. Will test it more after this second six-week period.

Anyway, I'm loving the food plan. Never thought black coffee would taste so wonderful. Or that I could walk past artisan bread in the store or not have pasta every day or so. Well, I did. I have.

And I had none of the withdrawal symptoms I expected and had worked through on earlier plans before this one. No headaches. No tiredness. No fogginess. No irritability. No ravenous hunger.

Amazing. Just amazing.

Okay, back to work. Gotta pay for my car repairs—eek!

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

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Time = Stress

We live in a dimension with time. God doesn't. Once we get to heaven, there is eternity instead.

But while we are in these bodies, earthbound, time kinda rules us. I found this great quote today:

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. Steven Wright

And I had to laugh. If we take "time" out of our equations, doesn't it take away the stress? I know it does for me.

Time equals stress.

If it is 1:20 p.m. and you were supposed to be at work by 1:00 p.m., you may feel stressed.

If it is April 15 nearing midnight, you might be feeling stressed.

If it is your fiftieth birthday coming up on Sunday, you could be feeling stressed.

But if you work for yourself, and can claim any hours of the day (or night) to dive in, then you probably don't mind the delay one bit.

And if you filed your income taxes early, then 04.15 has no effect upon you.

Plus, once you are eternal, you won't be celebrating birthdays that end in zeros.

So take time out of the equation (as in, work for yourself and throw that alarm clock in the trash).

Or let time work for you instead of against you (like saving money monthly starting when you are young instead of waiting until you are sixty).

For me, that means no more trying to be a marketing guru or even just understanding today's particular trends, which change anyway.

No more.

I love my blogging. I love Pinterest. I have done both for a while now. I will continue with it.

And my intended readership will find my books via the passage of enough time. To me, marketing is trying to get there faster. Kudos to you who know how to work that system.

Why am I trying to hurry the process? 

Yes, I will dance in my kitchen when I become a self-sustaining author. But I have (and love) my freelancing projects, which pay my bills. 

So why would I choose to add stress to my day by trying to learn something that is forever changing and for which I am not adapted or have no natural inclination?

I'm surprised I'm just now realizing this. Ha!

So, I'm not gonna try anymore.
 
Marketing is a weak area of mine. I'm letting it go. I'm saving my attentions for those things I love doing and over which I have control: my writing process.

And letting time take over.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

I Am So Blessed

I got up today without an alarm, as is my usual practice. Dressed, cooked breakfast and brewed coffee. Ate while I caught up on my emails. Then made a grocery run. I like to go weekday mornings to avoid busy times. I remember, in yesteryears, driving home from downtown Dallas, reaching my neighborhood about 7:00 p.m., yet I was with a mob of other people at the market, just wanting to be home already. So I like to avoid those after-work hours to give the nine-to-fivers one less person in their way.

Now I'm home, groceries in their proper places, my hot Café Bustelo espresso at hand, my cats within petting distance and my windows open to enjoy the breeze and sounds of nature. Even though it may reach a tad over ninety degrees today, that is way better than the one-hundred-plus heat of not too many days ago. I'm seated at my computer and can see outside, which may or may not be a good thing. I happen to think it is okay, as long as I pay more attention to my screen than the goings-on in my yard.

I'm in black flip-flops, a taupe prairie skirt topped by a man's white cotton undershirt (love those!). I think I need red nails to match my outfit. So later I'll give myself a mani-pedi. Meanwhile, frozen chicken breasts are thawing, to be breaded and baked for dinner.

And I'm at work.

Yes, too glorious to be true, but it is nonetheless. I am my best boss ever--ha!

I'm an author. And when not creating, I'm a freelance copy editor for two large publishers. Either way, my computer and I are inseparable. I love my profession so much that I work holidays, weekends, my birthday, Christmas, New Year's.

I work probably eleven hours a day. Most days. Now I don't get paid for all that, as I love to research, to read, to learn more about my craft and then to blog about what I've found. I enjoy every bit of it. With no commute, I saved myself fifteen hours a week. And have put them to better use than by incurring a three-thousand-mile oil change every season.

Now there was one day I did copy edit for eleven hours. That was a brutal day. My mind is not set up for that. But I can weather six to eight hours, seven days a week. I happen to think I'm very productive in that mode.

I wish everyone had the freedom I do. To work those sleepless nights from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. and then sleep to noon to be revived to resume work from noon to six that evening. To work around errands. To work outside once the weather gets comfortably into the seventies and hopefully the mosquitoes are gone.

For that matter, if money were no object, I could work at the beach, in a woodsy cabin or on a boat I suppose. As long as I have battery power and an occasional internet connection, I'm golden.

It took me several years to reach this glorious pinnacle, but it was worth every bump. In this my new career, worry is such a waste of energy. It stifles the creativity. And things usually work out. Granted I had to get a McJob in two really lean times, but I'm fully at home now. With steady work and expected earnings that exceed my monthly bills. That, along with my health, is my definition of wealth.

I've never been more broke nor as happy--except at the birth of my son. That remains the ultimate high. But these days, they are right on up there. And now that I've done without for a period, I'm ever-so-grateful for the plenty on its way. And will be a better steward of it because of my new heightened insight.

So, Happy Friday, all! I wish you manifold blessings.

Denise Barker, author, blogger, copy editor