Charlotte’s Web – Chapter 1 – theencouragingword

Blog 1962 – 02.07.2021

Charlotte’s Web – Chapter 1

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15bMwzEwKmklR0XLKc2Yz-2bIjFtSw-Vm/view?usp=drivesdk

Charlotte’s Web – Chapter 1

Today begins the first of twenty-two days of Wilbur the famous pig. I loved this story the first time I read it and hope you will too. For health reasons my doctor recently recommended that I begin eating a low fat, low sugar, and low salt diet consisting of mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and only fish and chicken. I have been at it about two and a half months and have already dropped twenty-five pounds, but am even happier with how much better that I look and feel. I really do not miss the sweets or salt as much as I thought I would or even the red meat. The biggest surprise to me is that when my wife Linda fries bacon for herself and mom that I am not at all tempted. In the last year of Covid-19 comfort food eating I shutter to think of how many pounds of crispy delicious bacon that I consumed, at the very least twenty-five pounds I am sure. But all those Wilburs out there are now and forever safe from me.

I figured out yesterday that I am on track to complete 2,000 blogs by late this March when I will celebrate the sixth anniversary of beginning this daily blog. At this rate, 2,000 every six years, my age being seventy now, I will need to live to approximately ninety-five to reach my goal of completing 10,000 blogs. That is quite a body of work, but one that I hope I stick around to achieve. And since that schedule leaves little room for sick days, time off to battle cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, or any other debilitating diseases I must do all I can to retain a heathy mind and body. I have always tried to remain physically active but have pretty much eaten whatever I wished, resisting adamantly all the good advice that says, we are what we eat. I am determined that that other less wise and less diligent Dave will never again dictate my diet. Heathy eating Dave has that job from now on.

I have found in my search for healthier food options that I love eggplant. To me it tastes like an omelette, yum. The look and texture is not especially appealing but the taste is superb. The sweetest tasting thing that I have allowed myself these last two and one half months, besides my wife’s kisses, is a small piece of baked sweet potato (skin on) with my midday meal. It always reminds me of Louie Anderson’s Thanksgiving joke about his mom always pushing what she made too much of for Thanksgiving dinner. Her often repeated phrase being the punchline of the joke, “Would you like some sweet potatoes with that.”

I never cared that much for sweet potatoes, but now they are my new best friend and they are one of nature’s most amazing underground treasures, detoxing the body and even making the skin appearance better among their several selling points. There is a line in the book of Daniel where he and his band, The Jew Boys, refused the rich food from the kings table choosing instead to eat the veggies and the kosher foods that their religion taught them for several days as a contest to see who ended up looking the better for it. As a trained Mina Bird in the basement of a Sears Department store hung above the boys dressing room said to an eleven year old me when I was trying on my new Scout uniform those Jew Boys too heard the words, “Pretty Boy, Pretty Boy.” That, I think, is reason enough to say, “Yes, I’ll have some sweet potatoes with that.”