It's Day 6, and going strong.

Well, though I am a bit tired right now (4:30 PM) as I write this, I can definitely say that I have been a lot more productive and active over the last couple of days.  As stated in yesterday's update, it is too early to see any real results.  Symptoms would normally have knocked me out for the better part of the day had I been as active as I have over the last week.  Yesterday, I actually had a minor breakthrough...

Normally, on Wednesdays the girls go to the library.  Depending on how I feel, I will either stay home alone or accompany them.  As I wanted to check out a store downtown - It's Only Natural - I decided that I would try to go with them and we could stop at the store on the way.  Well, the plan was to make it to the library around 3.  I wanted to get in an exercise session and shower before we went.  Normally, just the process of taking a shower really saps my energy.  I think it has to do with the humidity, but I am not really sure.  At any rate, after I did about 30 minutes with the Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board, I immediately went upstairs to shower.  After showering - regardless of any previous activity - I would usually have to sit down and put my feet up to recover from the physical exertion.  I didn't have time to sit down, though, as we were headed out the door.  Granted, I was able to sit in the car, but this is not optimal for me.  We stopped at It's Only Natural to mostly do some looking.  I was happy that they had some things that I could use, but not too much that worked for Phase 1.  Similar to other stores, the beef and poultry they sell is vegetarian-fed, but not specifically grass-fed.  Their olive oil was on sale, though, so we bought a bottle of that along with a bag of frozen organic cherries.  I definitely plan to make more frequent trips there in the future as they do offer a good selection of sprouted grain breads.  After our short trip to the store it was on to the library.  As you would expect, this is not the most physically demanding part of my day.  However, I don't do too well standing on my feet or even sitting in a chair that doesn't allow me to put my feet up.  Given that I had already extended myself beyond my normal capacity for activity and still feeling somewhat capable of more activity tells me that something has improved.

On to today...

This morning was a little more difficult to wake up to.  Though I slept well last night, the last thing I wanted to do was wake up and start my day.  As much as I wanted to continue sleeping, however, I got myself up - more correctly, Ginger made sure I got up to take her out - and started my day.  I won't bore you with the routine details, but I want to mention some good ones.

The cherries I bought yesterday ended up in my yogurt.  I had purchased a container of plain, whole milk yogurt (which was a lot harder to find than I had expected).  Yogurt, though it is supposed to be goat's milk yogurt during phase 1, is allowed.  It cannot be low-fat or with added sugars.  I had figured that this would be one of the easiest things to find as our regular grocery store has what I thought was a wide variety of yogurt.  It turns out to be not such a wide variety after all.  While they have a fair number of brands, 90% of the selections are either low-fat or fat free.  From a fairly large, refrigerated display case filled with yogurt, I was only able to find two selections that fit my needs.  Oddly, the one that I was expecting to be the best choice turned out not to be.  I ended up buying Dannon All Natural Plain yogurt.  Normally, I like yogurt.  It turns out, though, that the yogurt I like is the stuff that has all the not-so-good for you things added to it!  This stuff is just vile!
As I already bought it, I am determined to eat it anyway.  So, into the container go the newly acquired cherries.  I used about half the bag, cut them into smaller pieces, and mixed them right in.  I put it back in the refrigerator to let it sit.  Come lunchtime, I served up some of my newly improved yogurt.  What an amazing difference!  While it isn't quite the same as the pre-mixed stuff, it is now actually palatable.  I am now looking forward to another serving of it rather than dreading it.

Highlight number two...

I made a lentil 'dip.'  Lentils are the only allowed legume during phase 1 of The Maker's Diet.  I really like humus, but garbanzo beans are not allowed until either Phase 2 or 3, so I can't eat humus right now.  I wondered how different it would be if I were to make 'humus' out of lentils instead of garbanzo beans.   So off I went and gave it a shot.

1 cup of dried lentils
onion
garlic
cilantro
sea salt
cider vinegar

Well, I simmered the lentils in water for about an hour (in the meantime, I got in my exercise for the day).  Wilt the onions and garlic in some butter.  Add the cilantro and sea salt.  Mix the cooked lentils with the onion mixture and vinegar.  For the final processing, I used an electric hand-mixer (you know, with the two beaters that spin together).  Preferably, a food processor would do the job, but I don't have one... 
The result was actually quite good, though I needed a little more seasoning.  Garlic always works for me, so I added some garlic powder and blended some more along with a little more sea salt.  The only complaint I have is that it made a considerably larger batch than expected.  Next time I will be reducing everything by about half.