Katrina Update

Ok- My family and I are displaced because of Katrina. Saturday night/Sunday morning I made the decision to evacuate. At 12:30AM I threw on about three t-shirts and six pairs of panties in a bag, loaded my grandmother into the passenger side of the Mazda and drove out. We ended up in a Motel 6 in Port Allen, LA where we've been ever since. After a lot of cussing and fussing, my parents caught up to us the following afternoon. So we've been holed up together through the storm.
From what I can gather on the news and radio, it's pretty good odds my grandmother has lost everything. Her house is about three blocks from Tennessee Street--though I don't know where the levee breach was. I see all these houses in the Lower Ninth Ward...well, I see their rooftops. Eventually, I let her see the news reports. She hasn't asked any details or commented, so we haven't pressed it. I didn't want her to be shocked though, so we stopped trying to shield her from the coverage.
As for our house...who knows? We live in New Orleans East and took a very hard hit. I have no idea what the scene is. If you hear anything about my neighborhood, please post a comment. We live in zip code 70127 and right off Morrison Avenue between Crowder and Read.
My cell phone is unreliable at best, so I haven't been able to call people. But thanks for your messages. Every once in while I can retrieve my voice mail.
I forwarded all my email to my yahoo account, so I should get those eventually.
It may take awhile for me to post again because I don't have a reliable Internet connection/access. But I wanted to let everyone know that we have our lives and our health and each other.

rth

Haven

Haven
I know I said the hardest thing about following the diet was going to be eating separate meals. I was so wrong. The hardest thing has been eating six frigging meals a day. I am stuffed with leaves at this point.
It is the end of day two. I did not eat dinner and my late night snack. Instead of dinner I had a fiber bar. I simply cannot eat another bite. This is my second day of drinking a gallon of water. That is going much better since I started adding lemon juice to it. I'm thinking of just switching to the lemonade cleanse sans maple syrup. I didn't gain any weight, I am after just stuffed with leaves and brown rice. But it's just sitting there, so I look fatter than when I started.
I won't be gross. But something is wrong with me for sure. There is no good reason why I should be able to hold this much food. After I decided to skip the last two meals, which the diet book absolutely says not to do I just observed how I felt. I literally feel full. I don't want to throw up, but I feel that full like if I had another meal it would just get stuck in my stomach or esophagus. After drinking two gallons of water, a whole bag of salad greens, a third of a pound of pea pods, and a whole cup of brown rice I should not be full of anything. And even though it was eight ozs total-- less than I could chow back at a fine steakhouse-- after four, two oz servings I literally felt stuffed with fish. So I was not looking forward to an additional four ounces of chicken. Perhaps this diet makes metabolic sense, but I cannot eat this much food.I am going to pop!
It was wrong, I know. But I took two little pink pills. If that doesn't help I don't think this diet is going to get past day three...

Pain is back...

The pain is back. This time in my hips and across my lower back. I can't be scientific about it, but I think it may be due to all the sugar and processed food I've eaten the past five days. I've had many pieces of chocolate brithday cake, sausages, and the kicker, lots of spaghetti and macaroni. Eliminating sugar, processed meat and refined flour seems drastic, but I must at least reduce my intake of it. The excuse for all this poor eating has been special events. Had to eat Mom's birthday cake, had to eat at my cousin's baby shower. But as soon as I did I felt like trash.
A deal's a deal, so I got up bright and early for my long-abandoned walk. I went about four miles. When I got back I was a soggy, sweaty mess. I started out at 7AM. The sun didn't start beating down on my until I turned around. If I leave at 6:30, I think I'll be fine. I'm trying to psyche myself up for this 6-Day diet. It cautions you can't follow it for more than ten. The food isn't the problem, the biggest issue will be eating separately from everyone else in the house. It's true about food and meals being social. Maybe I should spend the six days naked, that would remind me not to cheat.