Trying To Teach This Old Dog New Tricks

There's my yearly picture of the baby figs growing on my fig tree. So many. However, in the same vein as not counting your chickens before they are hatched, I don't count my figs until they are ripe. Between the birds and the squirrels, it's been years since I managed to pick enough to make even one jar of fig preserves. And yes, I know- we could put a net over the tree. 
Have you not realized yet how lazy we are?
Well, we aren't really lazy. We just don't seem to get it together to do things like net a fig tree. I am almost certain that if I asked Glen to do that for me, he would but he's already got way too much on his plate and you know darn well I'm not building a frame for the netting, etc. I just looked up "how to net a fig tree" and I have discovered that the easiest way to do it is to put an organza bag over each developing fig and tie a drawstring tightly around it. 
Are you fucking kidding me? 
First off, where am I going to get hundreds of organza drawstring bags and secondly, well, NO! And ladders would have to be involved. Tall ladders. I am also of the opinion that squirrels could figure out how to get those bags off the figs. Their hands are very clever. Not as clever as raccoons, and for all I know, they eat the figs too. And let's not even talk about crows. A little bit of organza isn't going to stop them if they want figs. 

Enough of that.

I got almost nothing done today that I had planned to do. I'd thought about picking beans and then making dilly beans and canning them. I did pick the beans (about another 850 gallons of them) but I didn't make any dilly beans. I had thought I might do some weeding in the garden but I did not do that either. I don't know what I did. A load of laundry? Well, yes. 

Instead of doing anything productive around here I went to Costco and Publix to pick up a few things we needed. This time I remembered to get tofu which I want to start incorporating into our meals more. Y'all- I am so at a loss as to what to buy at the grocery store and what to cook and what to eat. I have a refrigerator FULL of good choices like vegetables (many of which we are growing) and healthy sources of protein and a lot of fruit and of course all the condiments and leftovers but seeing as I don't eat as much as I was eating, we are not going through all that food very fast. Also, I need to realize that I don't have to restrict calories as much as I'm doing because eating so much less makes a huge difference in and of itself. And I am being a little too determined, I think, to eschew sugars and non-plant sources of carbs of all kinds, and I'm not eating much fat, either. This is all so easy on Zepbound for me. There's nothing wrong with not eating sweet things or fatty things or processed snacky things. In fact, it's all good! But I don't want to become obsessive about this. That's the thing about dieting- you HAVE to become obsessive about what and how much you eat to lose weight, otherwise, it's just not going to happen and all of a sudden, even though there is no need for it, I am finding myself treading a little too closely to that sort of obsessive behavior and that is wrong. The main difference now is that I don't mind not eating sugar or a lot of fat and I enjoy eating more vegetables and fruit and lower calorie sources of protein. It's easy! I don't feel deprived in the least and that is a powerful statement. 
But I do not want to have that diet consciousness of this food is bad and that food is good and this food is a bit iffy and so forth. When someone is dieting, they have a tendency to find the least calorie dense foods that they can eat enough of to feel full but that does not mean they feel satisfied. 
I am feeling satisfied. 
But I think I need to be very, very aware of getting too close to that thin line between healthy and obsessive. 

And in considering all of this, I find myself at a loss of what I should be cooking and eating. Also, I need and want to make Mr. Moon feel happy and satisfied with our meals as well. 

Tonight I have made one of his old favorites which is venison and white bean chili. It is good stuff and the beans give it plenty of fiber and the venison is a fine source of protein (as are the beans) without much fat. I am stressing out a little bit trying to figure out how to incorporate vegetables into this meal without necessarily making a salad. I don't want us to burn out on salads. I bought chopped cabbage and carrots to make coleslaw but that usually involves mayonnaise and mayonnaise is definitely one of those NO foods on diets but I do not need to think that way. 

Well, I'll figure it out. And I absolutely need to remember that losing weight slowly is much healthier than losing it fast. Healthier and far more sensible. I am not a sixteen-year old and I do not need to think like one. 
Now. Let's just try and tell that to the sixteen-year old Mary who lives inside the seventy-year old Mary. 

Sigh. 

Love...Ms. Moon