Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Day 20 - Feeling like a kid again.

Today was an excellent day. Early morning I had a banana on the train to work; from mid-morning through noon I had a pear and my large green juice (kale, parsley, spinich, celery, cucumber and a smidgen of carrot). Around 2:00 p.m. I had a large salad.

One thing that's happening with this new way of eating is that I'm re-discovering what I think we all knew as kids: that fruit is the best food there possibly could be! (Think hot summer days and peach juice dripping down your chin ... slabs of watermelon at those big family picnics ... bowls of strawberries on the Fourth of July. I spent my summers in the country, and behind my aunt's house was a huge field of blueberry bushes. I have such fond memories of spending hours there -- playing hide and seek, tag, and every other game we could imagine. We'd save the picking for the end of the day and bring home loads of big, plump, purple-y blueberries to my Aunt Evy, who'd oblige us the next morning with her blueberry pancakes.

I have vivid memories of my best-friend's backyard (in my home town of Mount Vernon, New York, the city that abuts the Bronx, only two square miles in area but with 90,000 people in it!) -- a backyard that made you feel you were in the opening scene of The Sound of Music ... with its amazing variety of flowers and fruit trees. The "star" of the yard was the giant cherry tree. We'd lay in the grass after gorging on handfulls of the most outrageous tasting cherries -- shiny, deep burgandy little balls of pure heaven. And we never gained weight!

Yup, I'm amazed at how delicious I'm finding fruit to be. It's like my taste buds are being re-invigorated or something. Also noticing a natural thankfulness coming up in me each time I have a piece of fruit, more aware of the "luxury" of having such delicious food to eat each day. I thought this would be hard, but instead it's becoming an unexpected blessing. All this no-frills food is having a positive effect on my psyche. Seems I'm more peaceful ... and playful.

Just like I remember in that blueberry field over 40 years ago!