2011

My Journal (9)

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 06:56:07 +0100

My Journal (9) covers the period NOVEMBER 9, 2011 to DECEMBER 27, 2011.

Notes:
(1) If amount or type is unspecified, assume it's the same amount and type as last mentioned for that fruit.
(2) spinach = Swiss Chard.
(3) C = degrees Centigrade/Celsius
(4) F = degrees Fahrenheit
(5) % = humidity.
(6) * = each.
(7) g = grams.

Week 44: 9 – 15 Nov:

Wed 9: 2 apricots*50g, 1 peaches*150g, 2 nectarines*94g, 1 oranges*190g, 2 Pink Lady apples*145g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*173g, 4 pears*75g, 5 tomatoes*38g, 5 bananas*104g, 13 dates*3.9g, 1 carrots*94g, 2 avocados*230g, 12 Brazils*3.4g. (8.30 am: 18C/65F/73%: cloudy/sunny, dry.)

Thu 10: 1 apricots*50g, 2 peaches*150g, 5 Pink Lady apples*110g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*173g, 2 pears*75g, 8 tomatoes*60g, 4 bananas*100g, 25 dates*3.9g, 1 carrots*94g, 3 avocados*200g, 16 Brazils*3.4g. (11.45 am: 18C/64F/69% - a very cold day for this time of year. Some early and late showers, but dry in between.) Joined the gurusfeet forum today.

Fri 11: 2 apricots*50g, 4 nectarines*135g, 1 oranges*190g, 2 Pink Lady apples*110g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*173g, 4 pears*120g, 4 tomatoes*60g, 4 bananas*100g, 16 dates*3.9g, 1 carrots*94g, 1 avocados*240g, 15 Brazils*3.4g. (11.45 am: 18C/64F/69%. Dry and sunny today, with a cool south wind, I took no jersey for my walk to fruit sellers. Had a 3-hour visit from my old (6 year) friend Jennifer. We helped each other out of some nasty holes in the past. She does pelates, managed to give up smoking about a year ago. I give her astrological advice about her boyfriends. I joined an I Ching forum today.

Sat 12: 5 apricots*50g, 1 nectarines*135g, 7 Pink Lady apples*110g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*173g, 4 pears*120g, 8 tomatoes*60g, 4 bananas*100g, 11 dates*3.9g, 150g English spinach, 0 Brazils*3.4g, 0.5 coconut. (11.45 am: 18C/64F/69%. Dry, sunny, cold front. Joined another forum today, the last one doesn't work, it's one of those confounded vBulletin forums where you get logged out every time you try to do anything.

Sun 13: 8 apricots*26g, 8 Pink Lady apples*110g, 4 tomatoes*60g, 4 bananas*100g, 70g dates, 150g English spinach, 6 Brazils*3.4g, 0.5 coconut. (8.40 am: 16C/62F/77%. Heavy rains at 4.12 and 5.12 am. Still raining at 8.45 am. Got a new forum from proboard.com, not ready to start it yet. Lauren left home today for another indeterminate absence.

Mon 14: 750g strawberries, 8 apricots*27g, 9 nectarines*62g, 1 oranges*190g, 2 oranges*150g, 6 Pink Lady apples*103g, 2 bananas*100g, 90g dates, 150g English spinach, 6 Brazils*3.7g, 0.5 coconut*300g (meaning I ate 150g). (8.40 am: 16C/61F/79%. Dry, cold, cloudy. 2 pm: 20C/68F/72%, sunny. Had an hour-long talk about Allah with a fruitseller at Wynberg station. Many of these fruitsellers are Muslims, who seem to be much more aware of God than others are.)

Tue 15: 6 apricots*27g, 8 nectarines*62g, 1 oranges*150g, 7 Pink Lady apples*103g, 16 tomatoes*42g, 3 bananas*100g, 80g dates, 100g English spinach, 5 Brazils*3.7g, 0.5 coconut*300g. (1 pm: 21C/71F/68%. Clear, sunny, breezy. More normal weather – exit cold front. Warmer breeze. Very busy today with my new forum.

Week 45: 16 – 22 Nov:

Wed 16: 17 apricots*26g, 2 nectarines*62g, 1 oranges*150g, 4 Pink Lady apples*103g, 19 tomatoes*50g, 1 bananas*110g, 15 dates*4g, 50g English spinach, 2 avocados*140g, 5 Brazils*3.7g. (8.15 am: 20C/68F/75%.

Thu 17: 214 apricots*26g, 1 nectarines*62g, 6 Pink Lady apples*103g, 12 tomatoes*50g, 5 bananas*110g, 8 dates*4g, 200g cucumber, 1 avocados*120g, 4 Brazils*3.7g, 0.5 coconut*420g(=210g) + 60g coconut water. (12.45 pm: 23C/74F/72%. Sunny with pleasant breeze.)

Fri 18: 12 apricots*26g, 9 Pink Lady apples*108g, 8 tomatoes*50g, 3 bananas*110g, 9 dates*4g, 200g cucumber, 4 Brazils*3.7g, 0.5 coconut*420g. (9 am: 21C/70F/75%. Clear with breeze.

Sat 19: 4 apricots*70g, 22 nectarines*60g, 7 Pink Lady apples*108g, 16 tomatoes*40g, 2 bananas*110g, 4 dates*4g, 200g cucumber, 1 avocados*150g, 3 Brazils*3.7g. (9 am: 21C/70F/75% → 2 pm: 29C/84F/66%: warmest so far this spring. Enjoyed it.

Sun 20: 3 apricots*70g, 8 nectarines*60g, 4 Pink Lady apples*108g, 9 tomatoes*40g, 2 bananas*110g, 6 dates*4g, 200g cucumber, 1 avocados*150g, 4 Brazils*3.7g. (11 am: 24C/75F/77% drizzling. No beach or putt-putt today.

Mon 21: 2 apricots*70g, 5 peaches*100g, 4 Pink Lady apples*108g, 10 tomatoes*40g, 7 bananas*100g, 10 dates*4g, 6 Brazils*3.7g, 0.5 coconut*440g=220g. (10 am: 20C/68F/68%. Rain earlier, but now cleared. Though sunny, I needed one thick jersey for my walk, because of the cold breeze)

Tue 22: 1 apricots*38g, 2 nectarines*100g, 1 peaches*100g, 1 large cantaloupe, 2 Pink Lady apples*108g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*160g, 2 Packham pears*170g, 5 tomatoes*40g, 2 bananas*100g, 7 dates*4g, 3 Brazils*3.7g, 0.3 coconut*440g. (12 pm: 22C/72F/67%: perfect day with cool breeze.) First cantaloupe since the early season ones of 18 October and before. ( the middle season ones started off too expensive ).

Note practically no greens this week.

Week 46: 23 – 29 Nov:

Wed 23: 1 apricots*38g, 2 white peaches*180g, 1 cantaloupes*1040g, 1 Pink Lady apples*150g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*160g, 4 Packham pears*170g, 3 tomatoes*63g, 1 bananas*103g, 7 dates*4g, 1 avocado*220g, 3 Brazils*3.7g, 0.2 coconut*440g. (early rain.) Looked like it had cleared up, so I set out without umbrella. Met a guy in the street who hailed me by name. I couldn't place him at all. Turned out he was Terry, a guy who stayed with Monique and me in our flat in Kenilworth for a few days in 1988 or 1999. We chatted on the pavement for about an hour during which there was a heavy shower. We took shelter under a fruit-seller's awning. It was cold the whole day, about 17C.

Thu 24: 8 apricots*40g, 2 nectarines*100g, 1 white peaches*180g, 1 cantaloupes*1040g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*160g, 2 Packham pears*173g, 2 tomatoes*63g, 2 bananas*113g, 7 dates*4g, 300g English spinach, 5 Brazils*3.7g. (10.30 am: 20C/67F/70%.) Clear skies today. Cool breeze, I enjoyed walking fast. A new branch of Pick&Pay has just opened nearby (20 minutes walk), so I won't need to walk to Gabriel Rd any more.

Fri 25: 7 apricots*40g, 1 cantaloupes*955g, 1 Pink Lady apples*150g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*160g, 4 Packham pears*173g, 2 tomatoes*63g, 4 bananas*105g, 10 dates*4g, 200g English spinach, 5 Brazils*3.7g. (10.30 am: 20C/68F/70%. Like yesterday.) - As the weather gets warmer, I find less need to eat overts.

(What Ehret says about fats ((pg 164, Mucusless Diet Healing System)) :-

“All fats are acid-forming, even those of vegetable origin, and are not used by the body. You will continue to like, crave and use them only as long as you can still see mucus in the “magic mirror.” ((tongue and nose, pg 166). What doctors call heat calories is caused by the fats in friction, obstruction in the circulation; they constipate the small blood vessels.” ) On pg 166: “If the tongue is clean from mucus, and the nose for the first time free from dirty filth, both then become in fact “magic mirrors”, “revelation organs,” we may call them, the bridge of the sixth sense, that is, to sense the truth.”

Sat 26: 7 apricots*40g, 1 cantaloupes*955g, 1 Pink Lady apples*150g, 3 Packham pears*150g, 2 tomatoes*63g, 6 bananas*105g, 10 dates*4g, 100g English spinach, 6 Brazils*3.8g, 0.5 coconut*440g=220g. (11.30 am: 22C/72F/70%, sunny, southeaster, a typical spring day.) - started reading Eisenstein today.

Sun 27: 8 apricots*40g, 1 cantaloupes*1300g, 1 Pink Lady apples*150g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*160g, 3 Packham pears*150g, 4 tomatoes*63g, 5 bananas*105g, 9 dates*4g, 4 Brazils*3.8g, 0.5 coconut*440g. (9.30 am: 20C/68F/73%, very windy at Muizenberg, too much sand blowing around to walk on the beach, but we enjoyed our game of putt-putt in the lee of an elevated walkway.)

Mon 28: 30g grapes(!!!)(long-sought), 5 apricots*24g, 5 nectarines*90g, 1 cantaloupes*1300g, 1 Pink Lady apples*150g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*160g, 2 Packham pears*150g, 1 tomatoes*63g, 400g Romanita tomatoes, 4 bananas*105g, 5 dates*4g, 2 avocados*75g(yes, tiny!), 4 Brazils*3.8g. (10.30 am: 22C/72F/70%. A very pleasant day, nice breeze.)

Tue 29: 320g grapes(!!!)(long-sought), 7 apricots*27g, 2 nectarines*90g, 1 cantaloupes*2100g, 100g Romanita tomatoes, 1 bananas*105g, 5 dates*4g, 3 avocados*75g(yes, tiny!), 4 Brazils*3.8g. (10.30 am: 23C/73F/76%. Nice weather continues.)

Week 47: 30 Nov – 6 Dec:

Wed 30: 200g grapes, 15 apricots*23g, 1 nectarines*90g, 1 cantaloupe*2100g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 17 tomatoes*40g, 2 bananas*110g, 5 dates*4.5g, 9 Brazils*3.8g. (10.45 am: 24C/75F/75%. For the first time this summer, I did not put on a jersey at nightfall.)

Thu 1: 150g grapes, 38 apricots*23g, 13 nectarines*100g, 1 Pink Lady apples*150g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 23 tomatoes*40g, 3 bananas*110g, 5 dates*4.5g, 4 Brazils*3.8g, 250g coconut. (10.30 am: 23C/73F/75%. No change in weather.)

Fri 2: 100g grapes, 1 cantaloupe*1640g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 1 Packham pears*200g, 19 tomatoes*40g, 1 bananas*103g, 13 dates*4.5g, 6 Brazils*3.8g, 200g coconut. (10.40 am: 23C/73F/75%. No change in weather.)

Sat 3: 450g grapes, 18 apricots*23g, 1 nectarines*90g, 1cantaloupe*1640g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 12 tomatoes*40g, 4 bananas*103g, 6 dates*4.5g, 10 Brazils*3.8g, 50g coconut. (10 am: 20C/69F/75%. A bit cooler today, the breeze stronger.) I say goodbye to coconuts, and to avocados I say, see you again in March. I say hello to grapes, and a belated hello to cantaloupes, apricots and nectarines.

Sun 4: 700g grapes, 12 apricots*23g, 1 cantaloupe 1220g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 2 Pink Lady apples*170g, 2 Packham pears*200g, 7 tomatoes*40g, 2 bananas*103g, 4 dates*4.5g. (1 pm: 25C/77F/65%. A really lovely day. Calm and comfortably warm. No overts at all today.

Mon 5: 500g grapes, 250g strawberries, 4 apricots*100g, 16 apricots*23g, 10 nectarines*95g, 1 cantaloupe 1100g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 1 Pink Lady apples*170g, 4 tomatoes*40g, 3 bananas*88g, 5 dates*4.5g. (1 pm: 24C/75F/65%)

Tue 6: 500g grapes, 250g strawberries, 4 apricots*100g, 9 apricots*23g, 5 nectarines*95g, 1 cantaloupe 1350g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 1 Pink Lady apples*170g, 20 tomatoes*40g, 2 bananas*88g, 250g English cucumber, 6 dates*4.5g. (10.30 am: 24C/75F/70%).- That's 3 days without overts so far. What can I say? I can't say I've missed them at all! But it's very early days yet.

Week 48: 7 – 13 Dec:

Wed 7: 600g grapes, 1 apricots*100g, 4 apricots*23g, 6 nectarines*91g, 1 cantaloupe 1100g, 11 tomatoes*35g, 3 bananas*88g, 250g English cucumber, 4 dates*4.5g. (11 am: 22C/72F/72%). Rain at 4.43 am. Seemed very cool today. Put on a second jersey later and back to winter blankets for night.

Thu 8: 850g grapes, 1 apricots*100g, 6 apricots*23g, 6 nectarines*91g, 1 Kg watermelon, 1 cantaloupe 1320g, 9 tomatoes*35g, 3 bananas*88g, 5 dates*4.5g. (10 am: 19C/66F/66%). Even colder today.

Fri 9: 650g grapes, 14 apricots*40g, 0 nectarines*91g, 1 Kg watermelon, 1 cantaloupe 1700g, 1 Pink Lady apples*170g, 0 Packham pears*200g, 10 tomatoes*35g, 1 bananas*100g, 5 dates*4.5g. (10 am: 20C/68F/65%, sunny and dry) - That was the second half of a 2.3 Kg chunk of watermelon, my first of the season. Practically half of that weight was rind which I threw away. (Once upon a time I would have juiced it.) It was quite pricey, and not all that wonderful. Too hard, barely red or sweet enough, and somehow a bit lifeless. I don't much care for these longish, narrowish watermelons with hardly any pips. The cantaloupes also seem to be going off already, not such a full flavour any more. The red grapes were OK though.

Sat 10: 880g grapes, 1 cantaloupe 1350g, 2 Packham pears*200g, 9 tomatoes*35g, 8 dates*4.5g. (9 am: 20C/69F/71%, sunny and dry)

Sun 11: 1100g grapes, 1 cantaloupe 1500g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 1 Packham pears*200g, 10 tomatoes*50g, 4 dates*4.5g. (9 am: 21C/70F/76%. It rained early on, but we drove to Muizenberg nevertheless. By the time we got there, it was dry and sunny. So we had a fine game of putt-putt and walk along the beach. Following the south wind home for eight miles, we felt we had brought the beach home with us.

Mon 12: 1150g grapes, 5 nectarines*100g, 1 cantaloupe 1420g, 1 Packham pears*200g, 7 tomatoes*50g, 4 dates*4.5g. (8.30 am: 21C/70F/76%: sun, some clouds, some breeze, everything perfect. I tried the cantaloupes from another seller today and found them back to a good standard! Fine flavour.

Tue 13: 1470g grapes, 1 cantaloupe 1700g, 19 tomatoes*41g, 7 dates*4.5g. (9 am: 22C/71F/72%. Cloudy with cold wind. Rain was predicted for the afternoon, and duly arrived on time at 4 pm, continuing most of the night and ....

Week 49: 14 – 20 Dec:

Wed 14: 1150g grapes, 2 Galia Melons total 2230g, 9 tomatoes*53g, 4 dates*4.0g. (9 am: 18C/64F/75%. ... rain continuing from last night. A wet morning. One of the 8 rainiest days of the year I think. Our Decembers are usually very dry – this is a winter rainfall zone. 11C is forecast for tonight. That's a midwinter temperature here. Shows what a nice place this is !

Thu 15: 1650g grapes, 1 nectarines*90g, 1 Galia Melons 1220g, 16 tomatoes*53g, 150g cucumber, 4 dates*4g. (9 am: 17C/63F/78%: might clear up today. And did. Slightly warmer today.

Fri 16: 1150g grapes, 0.25 watermelon 1050g (without peel), 1 cantaloupe 1450g, 20 tomatoes*50g, 150g cucumber, 4 dates*4g. (8.30 am: 18C/64F/75%: perfect day, sunny with cool breeze.)

Sat 17: 1770g grapes, 0.25 watermelon 630g, 1 cantaloupe 1480g, 17 tomatoes*49g, 1 bananas*116g, 2 dates*4g. (8.30 am: 20C/69F/76%: perfect day, sunny with cool breeze.) I went earlier for my walk, to avoid more heat. Got another nice watermelon quarter, 3 Kg grapes, and a bag of tomatoes.

Sun 18: 650g grapes, 0.25 watermelon 1150g, 2 Cataloupes 1350g and 1200g, 11 tomatoes*49g, 1 bananas*116g, 1 dates*4g. (10.30 am: 24C/75F/72%: perfect day.)

Mon 19: 1530g grapes, 1 Galia melon 1400g, 10 litchis*17g, 13 tomatoes*49g, 3 bananas*116g, 5 dates*4g, 3 Brazils*3.8g. (9.30 am: 22C/72F/67%: perfect day.) A desire/inclination/impulse for overts has returned, so finished the last three Brazils in the packet. Tomorrow I'll probably open my one remaining packet of 100g.

Tue 20: 700g grapes, 0.25 watermelon 1250g, 1 Cataloupes 1450g, 2 apricots*60g, 1 litchis*17g, 5 dates*4g, 2 avocados*210g, 7 Brazils*4g. (9.30 am: 22C/72F/72%: perfect day.) Was tempted to buy a nice-looking avocado in the new Pick&Pay supermarket in Wynberg: only double the winter price of R5. Then outside the shop, on the pavement, I got two 210g avos for R5 the pair. They looked a bit funny and old: the skins like black leather at the thick ends, only slightly soft, but they turned out not too bad. I might see if they've got any more tomorrow, at this give-away price.

Week 50: 21 – 27 Dec:

Wed 21: 760g grapes, 0.25 watermelon 1500g, 1 Cataloupes 1100g, 3 apricots*60g, 5 bananas*154g, 2 tomatoes*53g, 1 avocados*300g. (9.30 am: 22C/72F/72%: perfect day.)

Thu 22: 390g grapes, 0.25 watermelon 1700g, 1 Cataloupes 1200g, 2 apricots*60g, 4 bananas*154g, 3 tomatoes*53g, 2 dates*4g, 1 avocados*230g, 3 Brazils*4g. (9.30 am: 22C/72F/74%: a most peculiar Midsummer day. Started drizzling at about 10 am. I refused to admit it could be raining in Cape Town on Midsummer's Day so I ignored the drizzle and set out to the shops in my shirtsleeves only. Confidently expecting it to clear up soon. It didn't, so by the time I got home I was slightly wet, although I tried to protect myself from the drizzle blowing into my chest by wearing my backpack on front – which felt quite strange. When I got home I put on a thick jersey. At 2.30 pm, when we left to go visit Lauren in Valkenberg Hospital, where she has been for weeks, months now, I had on two thick jerseys – as much as I ever did in midwinter, with the temperature 9 degrees Celsius lower. With Lauren away, I think I am running out of Fire energy.

Here's a strange development: the last few days, I am starting to find bananas a most exciting item, exquisite in flavour.

As I've said before, eating coconuts causes an immediate elimination of sludge in my urine. And now I've suddenly started to think – this is NOT from the coconut at all! My body is simply full of unimaginable quantities of toxic matter. By making small changes in my diet (such as eating coconut) I am just changing the process of elimination. For instance, if I eat the fat coconut, then the body can use that fat to replace some old fat stocks (or cells) made from say cheese, which then get eliminated along with the toxins they contain. This new theory of mine explains many mysteries.

Fri 23: 740g grapes, 0.25 watermelon 1500g, 1 Cataloupes 1500g, 2 apricots*60g, 2 mangos*300g, 4 bananas*154g, 4 tomatoes*53g, 2 dates*4g, 3 Brazils*4g. (9 am: 21C/69F/71%: normal again, breezy day. Dry and sunny.)

Sat 24: 800g grapes, 0.25 watermelon 1300g, 1 apricots*60g, 2 mangos*300g, 1 Papino 550g, 3 litchis*17g, 3 bananas*154g, 8 tomatoes*53g, 2 dates*4g, 1 Brazils*4g. (8.30 am: 21C/70F/73%: breezy day. Dry and sunny. To Muizenberg : very windy there, but no jersey needed.) - Keeping in touch with the Brazils.

Sun 25: 1500g grapes, 0.25 watermelon 1300g, 1 mangos*300g, 2 litchis*17g, 4 bananas*154g, 1 tomatoes*53g, 2 dates*4g, 6 Brazils*4g. (8.45 am: 23C/73F/75%: sunny with clouds.)

Walked up in military base, with family of six children.

Mon 26: 1380g grapes, 1 Cataloupe 1150g, 1 mangos*480g, 8 litchis*17g, 2 bananas*154g, 6 tomatoes*75g, 5 dates*4g, 300g Swiss Chard, 5 Brazils*4g. (10.30 am: 26C/79F/72%: muggy.)

Tue 27: 960g grapes, 0.25 watermelon 1000g, 2 peaches*55g, 1 mangos*360g, 1 litchis*17g, 1 bananas*154g, 9 tomatoes*50g, 2 dates*4g, 150g Swiss Chard, 1 avocados*300g. (9.30 am: 25C/76F/77%, warm, cloudy. Cleared later.)

My Journal (8)

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 06:59:13 +0100

My Journal (8) covers the period SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 to NOVEMBER 8, 2011.

Notes:
(1) If amount or type is unspecified, assume it's the same amount and type as last mentioned for that fruit.
(2) spinach = Swiss Chard.
(3) C = degrees Centigrade/Celsius
(4) F = degrees Fahrenheit
(5) % = humidity.
(6) * = each.
(7) g = grams.

Week 37: 21 – 27 Sep:

Wed 21: 7 naartjies*62g, 3 minneolas*177g, 2 Pink Lady apples*140g, 1 pears*115g, 6 tomatoes*90g, 9 dates*4.4g, 200g spinach, 3 avocados*133g, 8 Brazils*3.3g, 45g pine nuts, 0.5 coconut. (9 am: 14C/58F/78%. Cloudy, but dry. Sunshine, too. On my walk, while crossing a long bridge, I met a guy, Peter. We stopped on the bridge for an hour-long chat. He was very religious, for about 3 months already, and I was surprised to see how much we could agree. I see I have more sympathy for Christianity than I supposed.)

Thu 22: 2 naartjies*60g, 3 minneolas*177g, 5 Pink Lady apples*110g, 2 pears*140g, 1 tomatoes*90g, 3 bananas*90g, 14 dates*4.4g, 500g spinach, 2 avocados*133g, 6 Brazils*3.1g, 0.5 coconut. (9 am: 14C/58F/78%.

Fri 23: 5 naartjies*60g, 1 minneolas*177g, 2 Pink Lady apples*110g, 1 pears*140g, 6 tomatoes*90g, 6 bananas*90g, 20 dates*4g, 220g spinach, 3 avocados*133g, 8 Brazils*3.1g, 50g desiccated coconut. (2 pm: 18C/65F/70%. Cold south wind. As I didn't need to buy food, I walked up the hill instead, past Wynberg Park, where I saw some clover pink flowers on the ground: a sign of spring.

Sat 24: 11 naartjies*62g, 2 minneolas*177g, 4 Pink Lady apples*195g, 1 pears*140g, 7 tomatoes*60g, 5 bananas*86g, 9 dates*4g, 200g spinach, 3 avocados*133g, 8 Brazils*3.1g, 130g desiccated coconut. (8.30 am: 15C/59F/78%. Another fine spring day.)

Sun 25: 9 naartjies*62g, 9 Pink Lady apples*195g, 10 tomatoes*60g, 5 bananas*86g, 11 dates*4g, 150g spinach, 3 avocados*133g, 8 Brazils*3.1g, 20g desiccated coconut. (11 am: 22C/72F/70%. Feels like summer for the first time !

A perfect day, David and I enjoyed our fortnightly excursion to Muizenberg, where I got my best putt-putt score ever, one under par for 18 holes! Watching long putts drop, 5 of them, sort of gives one the feeling that one is in the groove!

(usually I score about 5 to 8 shots over par)

Mon 26: 10 naartjies*62g, 2 minneolas*183g, 6 Pink Lady apples*110g, 7 tomatoes*60g, 3 bananas*86g, 16 dates*4g, 150g spinach, 2 avocados*250g, 8 Brazils*3.1g. (11 am: 20C/69F/71%. A perfect day.)

Tue 27: 4 naartjies*62g, 1 minneolas*183g, 2 Pink Lady apples*110g, 1 tomatoes*60g, 2 dates*4g. ( A perfect day. Last night nausea, this morning extreme nausea, showered at 10am then fell onto my bed exhausted. Tried to get up at noon but nearly passed out. Now, 40 minutes later, I'm typing away and feeling somewhat better. I think the cause of this sickness is overts: too much avocado, Brazils and especially coconut. Note how little I ate today. No walk.

Week 38: 28 Sep – 4 Oct:

Wed 28: 6 naartjies*62g, 2 minneolas*183g, 4 Pink Lady apples*110g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*170g, 1 Packham pears*250g, 4 tomatoes*60g, 4 bananas*100g, 5 dates*4g, 100g spinach, 30g coconut. (9 am: 17C/63F/76%. A really perfect day with a dream-like quality of stillness. A gentle, not-too-strenuous walk went down well. As can be seen, my appetite is returning.)

Thu 29: 250g strawberries, 6 naartjies*58g, 2 minneolas*166g, 1 Pink Lady apples*110g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 1 Packham pears*250g, 7 tomatoes*60g, 1 bananas*83g, 12 dates*4g, 1 avocados*280g, 30g coconut. ( 9 am: 19C/66F/70%. Calmish, no blue sky yet, not too dense cloud (bright in places), dry. I've just made a most exciting discovery : I can enter “space-code” in my autocorrect and can then use that code provided I put two spaces before it! That effectively doubles the number of abbreviations I can put into my autocorrect! So for instance I now have j=is and space-j=just. Which frees up jt for something else.

Fri 30: 500g strawberries, 7 naartjies*58g, 1 minneolas*166g, 3 Pink Lady apples*110g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 1 Packham pears*250g, 8 tomatoes*60g, 5 bananas*83g, 7 dates*4g, 50g spinach, 3 avocados*160g. ( 9 am: 18C/64F/68%. Some clouds, clearing up. Nice cool spring day.)

Sat 1: 500g strawberries, 2 naartjies*60g, 1 minneolas*166g, 1 Pink Lady apples*110g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 1 Packham pears*250g, 2 tomatoes*60g, 5 bananas*95g, 10 dates*4g, 50g spinach, 2 avocados*130g, 7 Brazils*3.6g. ( 9 am: 17C/62F/76%. Cloudy, windy and cold, but dry day.)

Sun 2: 250g strawberries, 11 naartjies*60g, 1 minneolas*166g, 2 Pink Lady apples*110g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 2 Red apples*162g, 1 Packham pears*250g, 5 tomatoes*60g, 2 bananas*95g, 12 dates*4g, 50g spinach, 150g English spinach, 2 avocados*104g, 7 Brazils*3.6g, 100g coconut, 10g lentil sprouts. ( 9 am: 17C/63F/72%. Cloudy, windy and cold, but dry day. More sun later.)

Mon 3: 6 naartjies*63g, 2 minneolas*173g, 1 Pink Lady apples*110g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 1 Red apples*162g, 1 Packham pears*250g, 8 tomatoes*60g, 3 bananas*95g, 7 dates*4.5g, 50g spinach, 150g English spinach, 2 avocados*104g, 6 Brazils*3.6g, 100g coconut, 50g lentil sprouts. ( 9 am: 16C/61F/72%. Looks perfect, no clouds, no wind. Nevertheless it started clouding over, stayed very cool. )

Tue 4: 750g strawberries, 5 naartjies*63g, 2 minneolas*173g, 1 Pink Lady apples*110g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*140g, 1 Red apples*162g, 9 tomatoes*60g, 6 bananas*110g, 11 dates*4.5g, 250g English spinach, 4 avos*150g, 7 Brazils*3.6g, 100g lentil sprouts. ( 10.20 am: 18C/65F/75%. Dry, cool, some sun.)

Week 39: 5 – 11 Oct:

Wed 5: 600g strawberries, 9 naartjies*63g, 2 Pink Lady apples*110g, 3 Golden Delicious apples*140g, 5 bananas*110g, 8 dates*4.5g, 300g English spinach, 2 avocados*200g, 8 Brazils*3.4g, 50g lentil sprouts. ( 10 am: 19C/66F/66%: a really perfect day ! Not a cloud in sight, nice cool breeze.

Thu 6: 200g strawberries, 9 naartjies*63g, 3 minneolas*180g, 4 Pink Lady apples*130g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*130g, 2 bananas*105g, 11 dates*4g, 250g English spinach, 2 avocados*210g, 8 Brazils*3.4g, 75g lentil sprouts. ( 9 am: 17C/63F/76%: Fine and calm. → 1 pm: 23C/74F/60%. Walked to Gabriel Rd, mainly for the English spinach, which now seems to be my main addiction. Took no jersey, but still felt too hot on getting home. The sunshine being rather powerful, and shade not everywhere.

Fri 7: 9 naartjies*63g, 2 minneolas*200g, 3 Pink Lady apples*130g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*130g, 6 tomatoes*110g, 2 bananas*110g, 11 dates*4g, 320g English spinach, 2 avocados*117g, 7 Brazils*3.4g, 55g lentil sprouts. ( 8 am: 20C/67F/76%: S-East wind, cloudy. Soon cleared up, but the day remained cool thanks to our “Cape Doctor”, the south-easter which normally blows ALL the time during summer. So I enjoyed my walk more. “In thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.” (Ps. 16)

Sat 8: 500g strawberries, 15 naartjies*60g, 3 minneolas*190g, 5 apples*165g, 2 tomatoes*110g, 3 bananas*110g, 10 dates*4g, 380g English spinach, 3 avocados*117g, 7 Brazils*3.4g, 20g lentil sprouts. ( 8.20 am: 18C/64F/76%. 31C threatened by the forecasters, so I left early (9 am) for my walk to Gabriel Rd to get another 600g of English spinach, and fruit on my way back, also past the library to change my book, Allan Massie's Caesar. A book to my taste – full of philosophy re politics, marriage etc. The temperature never went above 23C right here, but I was glad to be home by 10.25 am all the same, I was getting a bit too hot already. No breeze at all!

Sun 9: 17 naartjies*60g, 5 minneolas*190g, 5 apples*165g, 2 bananas*110g, 10 dates*4g, 300g English spinach, 3 avocados*117g, 10 Brazils*2.5g. ( 8.20 am: 18C/64F/76%. 31C threatened by the forecasters. 26C only reached. It was really perfect at Muizenberg today, walking on the beach and paddling a bit. On the way back we stopped at Gabriel Rd to pick up some English spinach but they were out of stock! I only had one 300g packet for the whole day. That was finished by 5 p.m. And I wanted more for my supper at 7 p.m. I just had to go without. This showed me that I am more addicted to this green than to anything else practically. - actually first thing in the morning my fruit is still much more important to me, I sure don't want to start the day with greens!

Mon 10: 6 naartjies*57g, 3 minneolas*200g, 2 apples*210g, 6 tomatoes*72g, 5 bananas*110g, 120g dates, 500g English spinach, 3 avocados*117g, 9 Brazils*2.8g. ( 9.20 am: 21C/70F/73%. And all I am thinking of is to get me to Gabriel Rd and buy 4 packets of English spinach! Well why not, I'm sure not going to fight it.

Tue 11: 12 naartjies*50g, 1 minneolas*200g, 2 apples*210g, 3 gd apples*65g, 9 Packham pears*77g, 9 tomatoes*44g, 2 bananas*110g, 120g dates, 400g English spinach, 3 avocados*160g, 3 Brazils*2.8g. ( 9.20 am: 21C/70F/73%. Okay, those figures are guessed, but the day was not noticeably different to the previous one.

The notable feature of the past week is that never in my life have I felt so much urge to eat raw spinach, or any other green ! This is radical, for me. Let's face the fact, I've been chasing fruitarianism for 40 years, and now this ! Seems Esmée might have a point ! I can't escape the idea (for the moment) that a desire for greens indicates some measure of inability to eat fruit. Yet that is not logical ! My desire for fruit is even greater than my desire for greens !

Week 40: 12 – 18 Oct:

Wed 12: 250g loquats, 1 cantaloupe*480g, 3 naartjies*50g, 1 minneolas*200g, 1 apples*210g, 2 goden delicious apples*65g, 2 Packham pears*77g, 19 tomatoes*39g, 6 bananas*86g, 80g dates, 300g English spinach, 1 avocados*183g. ( 9.20 am: 21C/70F/73%... still guessing! As weather continues the same.

All of a sudden on Tuesday there appeared small tomatoes with strong flavour. And just as suddenly it now seems to me that the most important thing in the world is flavour. It makes everything else seem motiveless, the movements of an automaton. So today I arose inspired by the idea of buying more of the same ! I am riding high on the new flavours of spring – strawberries, loquats ( from our garden tree), and today – the first cantaloupe! Every year, before the cataloupe season gets properly under way, these small precursors appear : surprisingly sweet and tasty.

Thu 13: 1 cantaloupe*480g, 200g loquats, 9 naartjies*50g, 1 minneolas*200g, 4 golden delicious apples*65g, 1 Packham pears*77g, 17 tomatoes*39g, 3 bananas*150g, 33g dates, 300g English spinach, 2 avocados*183g, 4 Brazils*2.8g. ( 11.30 am: 21C/70F/76% - no guess and makes my guesses look good. Walked to Gabriel Rd again, for English spinach. We see chameleons on the bougainvillea every day now, usually 3 or 4 every day. That improves our quality of life tremendously. Two years ago, three years ago, there were none.

Fri 14: 1 cantaloupes*480g, 300g loquats, 1 naartjies*50g, 1 minneolas*160g, 4 golden delicious apples*65g, 3 Packham pears*77g, 18 tomatoes*39g, 4 bananas*140g, 13 dates*4.5g, 300g English spinach, 2 avocados*183g, 6 Brazils*2.8g, 1 fermenting coconut (yum yum). ( 8.30 am: 20C/68F/78%: NW wind (winter rain) , intermittent cloud/sun → cloudy → heavy rain. Cleared up by noon, got a lift to Gabriel Rd where I bought English spinach and a coconut, choosing the one which looked most likely to be fermenting. It was! Drank the water – it was just like beer, I love bitter flavours.... and there was a lot of it.... then I cracked the coconut, the top half of the shell fell off, leaving the whole nut resting in the lower half of the shell... now I could scrape the soft, white, fermenting flesh off the outside of the nut till I got to the harder, less fermented flesh nearer the hollow centre. The softer and more fermented, the more flavour. Ate the whole coconut in one sitting. After effects ? Nil.

Sat 15: 2 cantaloupes*470g, 600g loquats, 4 naartjies*50g, 1 minneolas*160g, 1 Pink Lady apples*125g, 1 golden delicious apples*138g, 7 Packham pears*75g, 10 tomatoes*54g, 3 bananas*115g, 10 dates*4.5g, 200g English spinach, 2 avocados*160g, 2 Brazils*2.8g. ( 9 am: 19C/66F/78%: cloudy with intermittent sun. A lift to Gabriel Rd again, bought a lot of fruit on my way back. Ignored the coconuts (enough is enough!)

Sun 16: 2 cantaloupes*470g, 300g loquats, 4 naartjies*50g, 2 minneolas*160g, 5 Packham pears*75g, 6 tomatoes*54g, 1 bananas*115g, 8 dates*4.5g, 100g English spinach, 1 avocados*160g, 19 Brazils*3.5g. ( 8.30 am: 19C/66F/75%, windy (SE), sunny.)

Having no shopping to do, walked up the hill to Wynberg Park instead .

Mon 17: 3 cantaloupes*420g, 200g loquats, 4 naartjies*50g, 1 minneolas*160g, 2 Pink Lady apples*125g, 1 golden delicious apples*138g, 2 Packham pears*75g, 3 tomatoes*54g, 3 bananas*115g, 9 dates*4.6g, 100g Swiss Chard, 1 avocados*160g, 7 Brazils*3.6g. ( 8.30 am: 19C/67F/72%, calm, clear sky.

Tue 18: 2 cantaloupes*400g, 200g loquats, 6 peaches*113g, 1 naartjies*50g, 1 minneolas*153g, 2 Pink Lady apples*170g, 2 Packham pears*215g, 1 tomatoes*54g, 4 bananas*115g, 14 dates*4.7g, 50g English spinach, 100g Swiss Chard, 2 avocados*150g, 8 Brazils*3.6g. ( 8.30 am: 20C/69F/72%. Cool, cloudy weather – nice for walking, wore a jersey and kept it on.

Week 41: 19 – 25 Oct:

Wed 19: 200g loquats, 3 peaches*110g, 7 nectarines*80g, 2 naartjies*64g, 1 minneolas*153g, 3 Pink Lady apples*170g, 2 Packham pears*215g, 7 tomatoes*40g, 5 bananas*115g, 9 dates*4.7g, 250g English spinach, 1 avocados*125g, 14 Brazils*3.6g. ( 8.40 am: 19C/66F/78%. Light, steady rain since midnight. Cleared up at about 10 a.m.)

On my walk to the station surrounds, the richest concentration of informal fruit-sellers for many miles around, I failed to find any more cantaloupes but thought I'd get some sour figs I'd noticed yesterday. There weren't any, but I saw a lot of nectarines for the first time this season, so I got 8, also 3 more peaches (got my first peaches of the season yesterday) .

After getting stuck into a generous helping of these new spring fruits, I thought they are very acid, or felt so as much as citrus. I'd already finished the remaining 250g of my English spinach and felt I wanted more! (to dilute the acid feeling.) So I set out for my second walk of the day, at 2 pm, to Gabriel Rd to get spinach, and a coconut. Getting there, I found they had neither. So I bought the 125g avocado instead. Enjoyed the walk because of the nice cool SE wind.

I am feeling poverty-stricken today because I can't recite a single line of Sappho!

Maybe I'll do something about that.

Thu 20: 200g loquats, 2 peaches*110g, 1 nectarines*80g, 2 naartjies*64g, 1 minneolas*153g, 3 Pink Lady apples*170g, 1 golden delicious apples*138g, 9 tomatoes*40g, 1 bananas*100g, 10 dates*4.7g, 400g English spinach, 3 avocados*150g, 8 Brazils*3.6g. ( 8.30 am: 20C/69F/72%). Got spinach at Gabriel Rd, passed over their coconut for some avocados instead. Found no cantaloupes.

Fri 21: 300g loquats, 250g strawberries, 4 naartjies*64g, 1 minneolas*153g, 4 Pink Lady apples*171g, 9 tomatoes*55g, 2 bananas*100g, 100g dates, 200g English spinach, 5 Brazils*3.6g, 1 coconut (somewhat fermented). ( 8 am: 18C/65F/76%. Lauren arrived for the weekend, after an absence of 3.6 weeks)

Sat 22: 200g loquats, 250g strawberries, 2 nectarines*100g, 2 naartjies*64g, 1 minneolas*153g, 3 Pink Lady apples*171g, 5 tomatoes*55g, 2 bananas*100g, 90g dates, 200g English spinach, 4 avocados*115g, 12 Brazils*3.4g. ( 9.50 am: 18C/65F/74%.)

Sun 23: 200g loquats, 1 nectarines*100g, 1 naartjies*64g, 1 minneolas*153g, 4 Pink Lady apples*140g, 1 golden delicious apples*138g, 8 tomatoes*55g, 5 bananas*100g, 150g dates, 100g English spinach, 2 peppers*65g, 3 avocados*115g, 12 Brazils*3.4g.

Mon 24: 500g loquats, 350g strawberries, 2 nectarines*100g, 3 naartjies*41g, 1 Starking apples*180g, 4 tomatoes*55g, 4 bananas*90g, 53g dates, 100g English spinach, 2 peppers*65g, 2 avocados*160g, 5 Brazils*3.4g, 0.8 coconut (small, dry, with no fermentation. (7.30 am: 19C/66F/72%. Cloudy. Pleasant day.

Tue 25: 100g loquats, 450g strawberries, 3 naartjies*41g, 2 Pink Lady apples*140g 2 Starking apples*180g, 3 golden delicious apples*140g, 15 tomatoes*37g, 3 bananas*90g, 10 dates*4.5g, 300g English spinach, 2 avocados*220g, 6 Brazils*4g, 0.2 coconut. (11 am: 20C/68F/70%: cloudy /sunny.)

Week 42: 26 Oct – 1 Nov:

Wed 26: 100g loquats, 6 naartjies*41g, 2 minneolas*136g, 5 Pink Lady apples*148g 1 Starking apples*180g, 1 golden delicious apples*140g, 14 tomatoes*37g, 5 bananas*93g, 10 dates*4.5g, 200g English spinach, 3 avocados*187g, 13 Brazils*4g. (11.20 am: 20C/68F/68%: a shower earlier, now clear, sunny, dry, cool, windy.)

Thu 27: 100g loquats, 5 naartjies*41g, 2 minneolas*136g, 3 Pink Lady apples*150g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*130g, 26 tomatoes*37g, 6 bananas*92g, 10 dates*4.5g, 300g English spinach, 1 avocados*800g, 12 Brazils*3.8g, 100g walnuts. (8.10 am: 17C/63F/70%; a shower at 8.30; the sun came out and dried everything; a cold wind continued so I enjoyed the walk to Gabriel Rd where I bought an 800g avocado and 100g Walnuts (neither destined to survive the day, which also saw the disappearance of 46g Brazils: really hitting the overts!) - but I ate everything with perfect happiness, knowing it was perfect ! It is so easy to be perfectly happy, as easy as turning on a switch. (but maybe only possible if you have previously suffered).

Fri 28: 100g loquats, 2 minneolas*136g, 3 Pink Lady apples*148g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*130g, 9 tomatoes*37g, 400g Spanish cocktail tomatoes, 12 bananas*92g, 10 dates*4.5g, 12 Brazils*3.8g, 1 fermented coconut. (8.25 am: 16C/62F/79%; heavy rain at 4.36 a.m.; wet; later cleared and I walked to Access Park for the first time in months... takng no umbrella and one jersey only – which I had to take off on the way back. I bought a kilo of Spanish cocktail tomatoes and two very fermented coconuts there. The 12 bananas I ate today must be an all-time record for me.

Sat 29: 100g loquats, 3 minneolas*138g, 2 Pink Lady apples*146g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*130g, 4 pears*81g, 1 tomatoes*37g, 200g Spanish cocktail tomatoes, 2 bananas*99g, 10 dates*4.3g, 6 Brazils*3.6g, 1 fermented coconut. (Rain till 11.30 AM → 17C/63F/76%. Then I walked down to the fruit seller at the Piers Rd corner to buy bananas, apples and minneolas. Took my umbrella and flip-flops, in case of rain. As it turned out, there was no more rain today. I also picked up some pears at the Church street corner. My study of Sappho is coming on nicely – I can now recite 12 lines from memory. (undemanding).

Sun 30: 3 minneolas*138g, 4 Pink Lady apples*146g, 3 pears*81g, 1 tomatoes*37g, 400g Spanish cocktail tomatoes, 7 bananas*99g, 9 dates*4.3g, 2 avocados*235g, 3 Brazils*3.6g, 1 fermented coconut. (clear at 8.30 AM → then a sudden shower – then ... 17C/63F/76%... then a lift to Access Park, where I got 2 more coconuts and 3 avocados... then I chose to walk back home for the sake of walking.

Mon 31: 50g loquats, 800g strawberries, 3 minneolas*138g, 3 Pink Lady apples*146g, 1 pears*81g, 5 bananas*99g, 10 dates*4.3g, 1 avocados*235g, 16 Brazils*3.6g, 0.7 fermented coconut. (clear at 8.30 AM → then a sudden shower – then ... 17C/63F/76%... stayed very cold the whole day - Lauren took me for another 35 minute walk at 4.45 pm, down to Maynardville Park.

Tue 1: 40g loquats, 2 nectarines*133g, 2 minneolas*138g, 2 Pink Lady apples*146g, 2 Packham pears*200g, 17 tomatoes*60g, 4 bananas*99g, 7 dates*4.3g, 1 raw potato*100g, 3 avocados*140g, 8 Brazils*3.6g, 0.3 fermented coconut. (10 AM → 16C/61F/78% → shower, south wind, clearing, took a lift to Gabriel Rd, no English spinach in stock, walked back along Main Rd – found some nice nectarines. I am enjoying bananas more these days – maybe they are just better now, but that is doubtful. I quite enjoyed the raw potato today – first one in about 9 months.

Week 43: 2 – 8 Nov:

Wed 2: 20g loquats, 800g strawberries, 1 nectarines*133g, 3 minneolas*138g, 3 Pink Lady apples*146g, 1 Packham pears*200g, 2 tomatoes*65g, 500g Midi Roma tomatoes, 4 bananas*99g, 10 dates*4.3g, 300g English spinach, 12 Brazils*3.7g. (8 AM → 18C/65F/76%, feels much warmer, calm and sunny.) Found English spinach in stock again! As these are the only greens I want, and they are scarce here and now, that puts a question mark hanging over greens in my mind. Today's temperature peaked at 22C.

Thu 3: 4 nectarines*100g, 5 minneolas*138g, 5 Pink Lady apples*150g, 3 Packham pears*200g, 5 tomatoes*65g, 7 bananas*100g, 14 dates*4.3g, 300g English spinach, 12 Brazils*3.7g. (8 AM → 18C/65F/76%. After one early shower, it cleared up, a nice cool, sunny day.

Fri 4: 30g loquats, 2 minneolas*138g, 6 Pink Lady apples*150g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 1 Packham pears*200g, 8 tomatoes*70g, 2 bananas*100g, 13 dates*4.3g, 300g English spinach, 3 avocados*180g, 8 Brazils*3.7g, 120g lentil sprouts. (8.30 AM → 19C/66F/75%: this morning again, what seems to be a regular pattern these days: one or two early showers, then clearing up for the rest of the day. Ideal for the chameleons, they won't get thirsty! More typical for the Cape at this time of the year would be a drought of three weeks. We spotted five different chameleons today..

Sat 5: 5 nectarines*88g, 3 Pink Lady apples*145g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 22 tomatoes*35g, 1 bananas*100g, 10 dates*4.3g, 180g English spinach, 2 avocados*185g, 10 Brazils*3.4g, 20g lentil sprouts. (9.20 AM → 18C/64F/70%: drizzling. Cleared up as usual these days.

Sun 6: 7 nectarines*88g, 6 Pink Lady apples*145g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*175g, 7 tomatoes*35g, 1 English cucumber*500g, 1 bananas*100g, 10 dates*4.3g, 100g English spinach, 2 carrots*94g, 2 avocados*200g, 7 Brazils*3.4g. (8.40 AM → 18C/64F/75%: dry and sunny!

Mon 7: 2 nectarines*94g, 1 Pink Lady apples*145g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*173g, 7 tomatoes*38g, 4 bananas*104g, 13 dates*3.9g, 20g English spinach, 2 carrots*94g, 1 avocados*220g, 1 Brazils*3.4g. (3.30 PM → 26C/78F/56%: dry and sunny! From early on, this has been the hottest day of the spring so far. This has been the most hectic day for me. I joined a new forum, found one compatible soul on it, posted 17 posts on it, and hardly had any time to eat the whole day – only managed one avocado and one Brazil nut at the end. (apart from fruit of course.)

Tue 8: 6 nectarines*94g, 1 orange*190g, 3 Pink Lady apples*145g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*173g, 16 tomatoes*38g, 0.5 English cucumber 250g, 8 bananas*104g, 17 dates*3.9g, 2 carrots*94g, 3 avocados*220g, 12 Brazils*3.4g. (much cooler today. Almost raining, but still I set out with no jersey and no umbrella. The rain only set in at 4 pm and then it rained for many hours.

My Journal (7)

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 05:41:19 +0100

My Journal (7) covers the period JULY 20, 2011 to SEPTEMBER 20, 2011.

Notes:
(1) If amount or type is unspecified, assume it's the same amount and type as last mentioned for that fruit.
(2) spinach = Swiss Chard.
(3) C = degrees Centigrade/Celsius
(4) F = degrees Fahrenheit
(5) % = humidity.
(6) * = each.
(7) g = grams.

Week 27: 13 - 19 Jul:

Wed 13th: 15 naartjies*65g, 1 Crisp Pink apples*250g, 1 Packham pears*300g, 1 bananas*164g, 80g dates, 200g spinach, 450g avocados, 30g Brazils, 0.3 coconut. (9 am: 15C/59F/77%, no cloud)

Thu 14th: 7 naartjies*65g, 3 PinkLady apples*175g, 2 Packham pears*300g, 3 bananas*164g, 56g dates, 150g spinach, 600g avocados, 30g Brazils, 0.35 coconut. (9 am: 15C/59F/77%, no cloud)

Fri 15th: 7 naartjies*65g, 2 naartjies*160g, 1 PinkLady apples*175g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*150g, 1 Packham pears*300g, 1 P pears*260g, 7 tomatoes*56g, 1 bananas*164g, 56g dates, 200g spinach, 300g avocados, 25g Brazils.(12.20 pm: 18C/64F/69%, perfect day > 3 pm: 20C/67F/62%, quite dry)

Sat 16th: 4 naartjies*65g, 2 naartjies*160g, 1 PinkLady apples*175g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*150g, 2 P pears*260g, 4 tomatoes*56g, 2 bananas*164g, 40g dates, 150g spinach, 450g avocados, 9g Brazils.(12.30 pm: 19C/67F/75%, perfect day, walk to Access Park taking only one jersey, which I shed on the way there already, and walked on the shady side of the road)

Sun 17th: 7 naartjies*63g, 2 naartjies*160g, 1 PinkLady apples*175g, 6 PinkLady apples*87g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*150g, 1 Packham pears*300g, 3 brown pears*120g, 4 tomatoes*56g, 1 bananas*80g, 28g dates, 150g spinach, 280g avocados, 17g Brazils, 0.4 coconuts. (11.30 am: 17C/63F/62%, perfect day).David and I went to Muizenberg, where there was no wind, quite a lot ofpeople enjoying the fresh music of the sea, halfway between a murmur and a roar. Lots of stinking red bait washed up on the beach: lorry loads rather than bucket loads: large lumps the size of tennis balls and bigger.The last few mornings, in this glorious spell of summery weather, Hubby has been climbing up the tallest branch of the bougainvillea very early, to await sunrise there.

Mon 18th: 8 naartjies*65g, 6 PinkLady apples*87g, 1 Packham pears*300g, 3 brown pears*120g, 6 tomatoes*56g, 1 bananas*80g, 60g dates, 150g spinach, 380g avocados, 37g Brazils, 0.6 coconuts. (9.30 am: 15C/59F/80%, cloudy. Soon cleared up. I walked south 2 Km to P&P to buy lentil sprouts.)

Tue 19th: 7 naartjies*65g, 1 navels*380g, 2 PinkLady apples*175g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*150g, 2 pears*110g, 1 tomatoes*56g, 5 tomatoes*115g, 7 bananas*85g, 80g dates, 200g spinach, 550g avocados, 50g Brazils, 60g lentil sprouts.(1 pm: 17C/62F/77%. Sunny and calm.) Decided to buy navels i/of naartjies for a change, as they looked very ripe, large and cheap.

Sat in the sun reading about "The Strangest Man", Paul Dirac, regarded by some physicists as second only to Einstein in his time. We saw 4 different chameleons on the bougainvillea today, one a baby.

We've had a continuous dry spell now from 4th - 19th July, a glorious "summer in winter" that has been welcome after the colder and wetter than normal start to the winter.

I've really recovered from the cold I had, and reverted to the same pattern of detox as before it: the "abnormal" channels of elimination being clear mucus from the anus and peculiar snot from the nose, both at defined periods during the day only. This detox really causes me no problems, except for the fact that it does not allow me to assess details of diet for permanent value: I must still regard my diet as catering for the abnormal phase of detox primarily. In other words, when this detox fades out, I expect my inclinations to change automatically.

Week 28: 20 - 26 Jul:

Wed 20th: 4 naartjies*65g, 2 navels*380g, 1 Pink Lady apples*175g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*150g, 2 pears*110g, 3 tomatoes*56g, 1 tomatoes*115g, 1 bananas*85g, 56g dates, 150g spinach, 280g avocados, 25g Brazils, 0.7 coconut.

(11.55 am: 17C/62F/77%. Sunny and calm. Setting out for Access Park, I first shed both jerseys, and still looked for shade most of the way.)

Thu 21st: 1 naartjies*65g, 2 navels*380g, 1 Pink Lady apples*175g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*150g, 1 tomatoes*56g, 5 jam tomatoes*70g, 3 tomatoes*130g, 1 bananas*85g, 60g dates, 200g spinach, 420g avos, 25g Brazils, 0.3 coconut.

(9.30 am: 13C/56F/78%: half cloudy, cleared up soon to become pleasantly sunny and cool. I walked the most local and richly endowed with food sources area (Wynberg): first to the station (electric rail) for small, over-ripe avos (these develop more flavour), also an unexpected crop of red, ripe tomatoes, both sweet jam and high-flavoured ordinary... and 8 beautiful large Pink Lady apples ... back home, I sat in the sun with a large Navel to start with, and a book of lighter stuff for a change - but I now have a job on my hands, to type out stuff from Weiner's Transpersonal Astrology - a very important condensation of AAB's Esoteric Astrology. I'm going to enjoy starting that essay on my Open Office file loaded with abbreviation power...

I stopped eating at 6 pm, knowing that I felt so exhausted that I would hit the sack immediately after my soapie hour stopped at 7... and so it was. The night went okay, bacause I was tired.

Fri 22nd: 3 naartjies*67g, 1 minneolas*215g, 2 Pink Lady apples*180g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*150g, 1 brown pears*180g, 4 jam tomatoes*70g, 2 tomatoes*130g, 2 bananas*85g, 40g dates, 150g spinach, 240g avocados, 25g Brazils, 1 coconut, 90g pea sprouts.

(A cold, dry day with chilly south wind. Sunny further south from the mountain.) Walked to P&P Gabriel Rd just for sprouts, but found fresh Mazafati dates there again (after being absent for weeks). Also found nice small naartjies at Silvermine store. David Roe bumped into me in P&P, ended up taking me with him for a ride to Tokai and Plumstead. Was pleasantly surprised to hear some rather nice pop music in his car, much better than the crap Lauren plays all the time.

This evening, after the soapies, I felt very undecided, not like last night. Did I want to go to bed, or start another eating and reading session? I opted for the second - a disastrous choice, as it turned out. In bed I suffered a pain in my innards (Digestive Organs) as never before. I even thought I might die. Just a huge pain everywhere, as if I would burst. After an hour or two or three, it gradually disappeared. I survived, not much worse for wear, but a bit shaken to my roots.

Sat 23rd: 5 naartjies*67g, 2 minneolas*215g, 2 Pink Lady apples*180g, 1 jam tomatoes*78g, 4 tomatoes*130g, 100g Mazafati dates, 150g spinach, 2 avos*120g, 20g Brazils.

(11 am: 15C/60F/76%. Chilly south wind again, but managed to get some sun outside 2 - 3 pm. Well, by 3 pm I had done a good spot of eating, and felt like a rest - so I lay down for my "siesta". Now what followed was very interesting. I decided nothing, thought nothing, but simply did not get up again (luckily no soapies on Sat/Sun). I just lay there till dark, then undressed and got below all the bedclothes, and that was it - no supper! The inevitable penalty was that I slept very little, and time dragged unbelievably, hour by hour, right through the night. I enjoyed it, though, until my mind started to become too active by about 11 o'clock. I just had to tell myself that I wasn't enjoying all this inventive thinking, and had better stop it. Or rather just let it stop by itself.)

Sun 24th: 6 naartjies*67g, 3 minneolas*240g, 3 Pink Ladies 133g, 1 brown pears*180g, 3 jam tomatoes*74g, 3 tomatoes*130g, 50g Mazafati dates, 150g spinach, 250g avocados, 25g Brazils, 0.3 coconut.

(9.30 am: 15C/59F/78%. A gale out of the south! Bodes ill for the central coast - flood weather for them!

An exciting one-hour walk in the gale to Gabriel Road (Silvertree store) and all just to buy 15 small naartjies, unobtainable anywhere else in the vicinity right now.

The minneolas that I started buying on Friday at Wynberg Spar have been a revelation. They, and the naartjies, are my most exciting fruits at the moment.

Mon 25th: 8 naartjies*67g, 2 minneolas*240g, 2 Pink Ladies 133g, 1 tomatoes*56g, 5 jam tomatoes*74g, 3 tomatoes*130g, 100g Mazafati dates, 150g spinach, 620g avocados, 120g nuts (cashews and macadamian), 0.3 coconut.

(9 am: 14C/56F/70%, dry, cloudy, south wind... very cold in the wind, but the shining sun invited me out; not really having any shopping to do I still felt like a longer walk than usual. I decided on Access Park as I thought it quite probable I might find something interesting to buy there. In fact I bought cashew and macadamian nuts, spinach and two avocados. On the way I took some photos of buildings, my latest craze.)

Tue 26th: 6 naartjies*67g, 3 minneolas*250g, 1 navels*235g, 1 Pink Ladies 133g, 2 Pink Lady apples*100g, 2 jam tomatoes*74g, 1 bananas*145g, 3 bananas*107g, 100g Mazafati dates, 200g spinach, 1 avos*360g, 80g nuts, 0.3 coconut.

(9.40 am: 13C/55F/73%, that's about as low as it gets here, the sun is shining so I'll soon be drawn into a walk I think... 12.45pm: 16C/61F/65%. I had bought 15 bananas as I haven't been eating them for a few days and have a few new ideas about them.

My idea is that in transition diet, after eating a certain amount of fruit, we crave something else, in order to dilute the detox discomfort caused by fruit. This is I think the main reason why we crave overts, if we are used to them. But that something else could just as well be greens, and it might be a better idea to resort to them. Now I think bananas can also serve this purpose. When I reach the stage where I am still hungry but don't want more fruit, then I can resort to bananas. Just one or two of them will stop my desire to eat more. In other words, I am regarding bananas as a fruit having a very special quality, being so mild that it does not provoke a desire to change to something else.

Today I'll try to use bananas to replace some of the overts I'm eating, and see it if works.

Week 29: 27 Jul - 2 Aug:

Wed 27th: 5 naartjies*75g, 2 minneolas*250g, 2 navels*235g, 2 Pink Lady apples*180g, 1 Pink Lady apples*100g, 4 jam tomatoes*74g, 2 bananas*145g, 4 bananas*107g, 75g Mazafati dates, 200g spinach, 2 avos*130g, 50g Brazils, 0.1 coconut.

(9.50 am: 13C/55F/76% - by 3.45 pm it was 18C/64F/62%. There was only weak sunshine today, but it got a lot drier and a bit warmer outside.)

Thu 28th: 3 naartjies*75g, 3 minneolas*250g, 1 navels*235g, 1 Pink Lady apples*180g, 3 Pink Lady apples*100g, 2 tomatoes*56g, 2 bananas*145g, 75g Mazafati dates, 200g spinach, 540g avocados, 35g Brazils.

(9.50 am: 15C/59F/80% : At about 4 this morning, the drought of 24 days was broken. (most of our annual rainfall in Cape Town comes in June/July. Sunny periods of 4 or 5 days are usual in these months, but not 24 days!) A lot of rain fell. Now (10 am) it's not raining, but the streets are wet. At 11 am the rain set in again, David was going to Access Park so I took a lift there with him. Intending to walk back, mostly uphill, in the rain for exercise. So I did. It was exhilarating, and trudging rhythmically up the hill was not at all tiring).

Fri 29th: 2 naartjies*80g, 3 minneolas*250g, 1 navels*235g, 2 Pink Lady apples*180g, 1 Pink Lady apples*100g, 2 bananas*145g, 7 tomatoes*60g, 75g Mazafati dates, 150g spinach, 520g avocados, 28g Brazils.

(11 am: 13C/55F/80% , cloudy but dry. )

These days I am feeling more that it's a good idea not to eat after 5 or 6 pm, or even earlier, especially when I plan to go to bed at 7 pm. As I did last night. I had no pain, and lay down on my right side as usual, but after an hour or two I developed a pain in the right side of my head (neuralgia, connected with dental system). This got so bad as to force me to lie on my left side all the time. I slept through from 12 till 4, when I awoke the pain seemed almost gone so I tried to lie on my right side again. The pain came back, but not so strongly. I thought I would try just ignoring it and it would go away. This worked, interestingly enough, though it seldom does !

Sat 30th: 7 naartjies*80g, 1 navels*235g, 2 Pink Lady apples*150g, 2 Packham pears*260g, 1 bananas*145g, 3 bananas*100g, 5 tomatoes*60g, 25g Mazafati dates, 40g loose dates, 150g spinach, 500g avocados, 25g Brazils.

(9.30 am: 11C/53F/79%, perfect day. Yet, the temperature rose to only 15C at 1 pm.) I rested from 1.30 to 4, then watched a movie (Dead on Time) till 6, then supper 6 to 7, then straight to bed.

Sun 31st: 6 naartjies*80g, 1 minneolas*250g, 1 navels*235g, 1 Pink Lady apples*180g, 2 Pink Lady apples*150g, 3 bananas*100g, 7 tomatoes*60g, 48g dates, 100g spinach, 1 avos*250g, 7g Brazils.

(9.30 am: 11C/53F/79%, perfect day. But with an icy south wind.

I went for a walk along the sunny and more sheltered sidewalks, preferring the streets to the parks. At 3.30 pm I lay down for an hour, then decided to go to bed, as I wanted nothing more.)

Mon 1st: 5 naartjies*66g, 1 minneolas*217g, 4 Pink Lady apples*165g, 3 Packham pears*260g, 3 bananas*100g, 16 tomatoes*50g, 80g dates, 100g spinach, 400g avocados, 18g Brazils.

(8.50 am: 13C/55F/78%, perfect day. By 1 pm it was 17C/62F/74%. Cold enough today to make it enjoyable to get into the sun.)

Tue 2nd: 5 naartjies*66g, 3 minneolas*217g, 1 Pink Lady apples*165g, 1 Packham pears*260g, 2 bananas*100g, 8 tomatoes*50g, 68g dates, 200g spinach, 270g avos, 7g Brazils.

(9 am: 14C/57F/70%, cloudy, but 25C predicted)

- By 2 pm, after my walk to Access Park to buy spinach, dates, and avos, the temp had risen to 21C/70F/62% - notice the big drop in humidity. On my way home I was certainly hugging all the shade I could get, wearing no jerseys.

My latest hobby: (what I do purely for exercise, as opposed to watching soaps, which is a serious study of myself and not a hobby) pumping hundreds of abbreviations into my word processor autocorrect, while developing a system.

Eg a1ns= abbreviations (that's a one, not an el)

I seem to be as full of debris as ever, and detoxing as much. No problem.

Week 30: 3 - 9 Aug:

Wed 3rd: 4 naartjies*66g, 2 minneolas*217g, 5 Pink Lady apples*170g, 1 Packham pears*260g, 2 bananas*100g, 7 tomatoes*50g, 6 Medjools*18g, 80g dates, 300g spinach, 270g avos, 7 Brazils*3.5g.

(9.30 am: 16C/61F/69%.)

Jennifer visited, we walked with Lupita in the wind in the school grounds and saw 4 chameleons in the garden, including 2 babies.

Thu 4th: 8 naartjies*75g, 1 minneolas*217g, 4 Pink Lady apples*170g, 2 Packham pears*260g, 2 bananas*100g, 3 tomatoes*75g, 7 Medjools*18g, 300g spinach, 470g avos, 7 Brazils*3.5g.

(9 am: 15C/60F/77%. Windy, cloudy, dry.)

Nearly got blown away shopping. Just got home in time at 2 pm before the rain set in solid, so my umbrella didn't get wet. Reading a new novelist as a result of seeing Dead on Time: Colin Dexter.

Fri 5th: 8 naartjies*73g, 4 Pink Lady apples*175g, 1 Pink Lady apples*93g, 2 bananas*125g, 2 tomatoes*75g, 7 Medjools*18g, 300g spinach, 540g avos, 7 Brazils*3.5g.

(9.30 am: 13C/55F/76%. Showers... max temp today 58F. Rain over by midday, got a bit of sun in the cold wind.)

Sat 6: 5 naartjies*73g, 6 naartjies*125g, 3 Pink Lady apples*175g, 1 Pink Lady apples*93g, 3 bananas*125g, 3 tomatoes*75g, 7 Medjools*18g, 8g dates, 250g spinach, 2 avos*200g, 1 avos*110g, 13 Brazils*3.5g.

(12.30 pm: 14C/57F/70%, perfect day, south breeze, 2 hour walk to Mall and Access Park)

Sun 7: 15 naartjies*73g, 4 naartjies*125g, 1 Pink Lady apples*175g, 4 Pink Lady apples*93g, 1 bananas*125g, 1 tomatoes*75g, 40g dates, 250g spinach, 1 avos*200g, 70g sprouts.

(10 am: 11C/52F/76%, half cloudy.)

Putt-putt with David at Muizenberg. We are seeing baby chameleons every day.)

Mon 8: 3 naartjies*73g, 3 naartjies*125g, 3 Pink Lady apples*92g, 2 brown pears*220g, 2 bananas*125g, 1 tomatoes*75g, 92g dates, 150g spinach, 2 avos*170g, 7 Brazils*3.5g, 80g sprouts.

(9.30 am: 13C/55F/80%, 2 hours later had risen to 16C/61F, perfect day with south breeze.)

I had to fetch a new cell phone, new contract. Seems to have a good camera. A bit shocked to see my weight standing at 110 lb (50 Kg). But every pound I shed is more toxic flesh shed. As long as I survive!

Tue 9: 5 naartjies*73g, 8 naartjies*39g, 2 Pink Lady apples*175g, 1 PL*140g, 1 brown pears*220g, 4 bananas*125g, 4 tomatoes*150g, 1 tomatoes*75g, 80g dates, 100g spinach, 500g avocados, 7 Brazils*3.5g.

(9.30 am: 15C/59F/74%, clear sky but nippy wind.)

After a very thorough-going BM at about 4, I suddenly felt so much better, only then did I realise how bloated I've been feeling lately...

oooooooooooooooo

Week 31: 10 - 16 Aug:

Wed 10: 3 naartjies*80g, 2 naartjies*39g, 1 Pink Lady apples*140g, 1 PL*117g, 3 Pink Lady apples*92g, 2 brown pears*150g, 3 bananas*100g, 3 tomatoes*150g, 1 tomatoes*75g, 60g dates, 100g spinach, 2 avos*210g, 7 Brazils*3.5g. (9 am: 13C/55F/76%, perfect day.)

Thu 11: 7 naartjies*70g, 4 naartjies*39g, 3 Pink Lady apples*125g, 5 brown pears*150g, 2 bananas*100g, 3 tomatoes*90g, 48g dates, 100g spinach, 2 avos*250g, 4 Brazils*3.5g. (9 am: 14C/57F/77%, perfect day.)

Fri 12: 11 naartjies*70g, 3 naartjies*39g, 7 Pink Lady apples*125g, 4 tomatoes*90g, 80g dates, 150g spinach, 2 avos*250g, 9 Brazils*3.5g. (6 am: Rain set in and fell solidly for 4 hours, now 10 am and still raining: 14C/58F/82%. The rain stopped at about 11 and I set out for Access Park at about 1. Now the rain started again, heavy and windy, so I stopped at the Post Office and sheltered under their veranda for about 10 mins until it eased off, then continued. Soon the rain stopped, this time for good. The following pic was taken along the road to Access Park on a sunny day some months ago:

Sat 13: 9 naartjies*81g, 3 naartjies*39g, 3 Pink Lady apples*160g, 1 Packham pears*310g, 5 bananas*100g, 1 tomatoes*90g, 28g dates, 150g spinach, 1 avos*270g, 7 Brazils*3.5g. (9 am: 12C/54F/76%: sky half clear, but roads still half wet from showers. Later I walked down to the fruit seller to buy naartjies, pears and apples, and bought three fat avos at Spar, and got some sun on my way, but was still pretty cold, and got colder at home. So at about 3 I thought I'd go for another walk, but just as I got outside it started raining again, so I changed my mind and went back inside, and went early to bed.

Sun 14: 8 naartjies*81g, 1 naartjies*39g, 2 Pink Lady apples*160g, 1 Packham pears*310g, 3 tomatoes*90g, 60g dates, 200g spinach, 15g watercress, 1 avos*270g, 4 Brazils*3.5g, 50g sprouts. (10 am: 12C/54F/75%: sunny but with a nippy breeze) . Walked to Gabriel Rd P&P to buy sprouts and coconut. Picture taken in Gabriel Rd:

Mon 15: 4 naartjies*81g, 5 naartjies*39g, 5 Pink Lady apples*150g, 4 bananas*100g, 5 tomatoes*150g, 96g dates, 250g spinach, 15g watercress, 2 avos*270g, 7 Brazils*3.5g, 50g sprouts. (9 am: 11C/52F/75%: sunny. 2.30 pm: 16C/62F/65%)

Tue 16: 10 naartjies*75g, 4 Pink Lady apples*145, 1 Packham pears*320g, 3 tomatoes*150g, 60g dates, 100g spinach, 10g watercress, 1 avocado*330g, 4 Brazils*3.5g, 30g sprouts. (9.45 am: 13C/55F/74%: perfect day.)

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Week 32: 17 - 23 Aug:

Wed 17: 14 naartjies*60g, 1 minneolas*200g, 4 Pink Lady apples*145, 1 Packham pears*320g, 6 tomatoes*87g, 100g dates, 200g spinach, 10g watercress, 2 avos*220g, 5 Brazils*3.5g, 20g sprouts. (9.45 am: 13C/55F/74%: perfect day.

Thu 18: 14 naartjies*60g, 3 minneolas*180g, 2 Pink Lady apples*145, 1 Packham pears*320g, 1 bananas*100g, 4 tomatoes*87g, 80g dates, 200g spinach, 150g green outer lettuce leaves, 1 avos*220g, 7 Brazils*3.5g, 1 coconut. (9.45 am: 13C/55F/74%: perfect day. A year or two ago I often walked north through Claremont to the start of Newlands to buy rye bread, but this year I've had no reason to go that way. This morning I was missing that road, so I decided to walk to Claremont station, and from there to Wynberg station, then home.

From home I walked uphill, north, along Seymour, Cavan, Alexandra and Tennant, to the highest point of Tennant Rd, where I turned right, downhill along Herschel Rd to the Claremont Main Rd, then on to Claremont station. It was cold but sunny, and I sought out the sunny side of the roads. Just before getting to the station I took two photos:

At about 5 the rain set in. Then I polished off a whole coconut. First I made a small hole in the shell and sucked out the fermented, sharply tasty water, then I bashed it against a stone till half the shell fell off, leaving the fruit inside still round and intact, the outer surface fermented and slightly soft, the inner fruit still nice and white. A coconut is much nicer this way, tastier, easier to eat, with fewer negative results. I think I have just written myself into taking a walk to Gabriel Rd again to look for another !

Fri 19: 6 naartjies*60g, 1 minneolas*180g, 4 Pink Lady apples*145, 3 Packham pears*320g, 1 pineapple, 3 tomatoes*87g, 80g dates, 100g spinach, 100g green outer lettuce leaves, 3 avos*100g, 8 Brazils*3.3g. (9.20 am: 15C/58F/80%, raining. At 11 I got a lift to Access Park, showers, but as I came out of the shop the rain had stopped so I abandoned David's car and walked home, luckily there were only a few light showers along the way so I didn't get wet.

Sat 20: 7 naartjies*100g, 3 minneolas*180g, 1 Pink Lady apples*145g, 2 Packham pears*320g, 2 tomatoes*97g, 60g dates, 100g spinach, 1 avos*94g, 6 Brazils*3.3g, 0.5 coconut (not fermenting, alas!), 50g mixed sprouts. (9.20 am: 15C/58F/80%. A perfect day again, after the rain.

I walked to Gabriel Rd, (taking a longer route via the Main Rd to pick up fruit,) to get sprouts and, hopefully, another fermenting coconut. So along the unusual route, I was able to see some unusual views: the next 8 photos, in the order I took them as I progressed along the way:

Sun 21: 7 naartjies*100g, 2 Pink Lady apples*145, 1 Packham pears*320g, 4 tomatoes*87g, 3 bananas*110g, 100g dates, 200g spinach, 2 avos*94g, 8 Brazils*3.3g., 0.5 coconut, 50g sprouts. (10 am: 15C/58F/80%. It rained solidly the whole night, and now it looks like more rain soon. Rain continued on and off the whole day so I missed my walk today.)

Mon 22: 12 naartjies*85g, 1 minneolas*180g, 2 Pink Lady apples*145, 2 Packham pears*320g, 4 tomatoes*120g, 4 bananas*110g, 108g dates, 200g spinach, 220g avos, 7 Brazils*3.3g, 0.4 coconut, 50g sprouts. (10 am: 15C/58F/80%. Dry with but little sun now and again. Had 2 walks instead of one, to make up for yesterday. (not with this intention though, but because I felt like it). The second was to Gabriel Rd again, to get yet another coconut. They seem to be growing on me! (no noticeable bad effects from eating half a coconut a day).

Tue 23: 7 naartjies*85g, 1 minneolas*180g, 3 Pink Lady apples*145, 3 tomatoes*120g, 80g dates, 350g spinach, 2 avos*280g, 7 Brazils*3.3g, 0.5 coconut. (10 am: 15C/58F/81%, very cloudy and starting to rain.

It rained steadily for about 2 hours, then stopped. At 1 pm I set out for Access Park, and the rain immediately started again. I was wearing my beach thongs, so my socks and shoes could not get wet, and I had my umbrella, which I needed.

A nice walk, I got a kilo of spinach with very thick, crisp leaves: the kind I like. And dates. On the way home I did not need to open my umbrella ̶ the rain had stopped.

*********************************************************************************

Week 33: 24 - 30 Aug:

Wed 24: 2 naartjies*85g, 3 minneolas*210g, 4 Pink Lady apples*160g, 4 Packham pears*300g, 2 tomatoes*120g, 100g dates, 250g spinach, 1 avos*300g, 16 Brazils*3.3g, 1 coconut. (10 am: 15C/58F/81%.

Looked like it might rain, but I decided to walk to Gabriel Rd without my umbrella. Bought 3 coconuts! And 9 delicious, ripe Packham pears, 5 minneolas and 8 Pink Ladies on the Main Rd. Luckily there was no rain today, I even managed the get about half an hour of sitting in the sun.

Thu 25: 2 naartjies*122g, 1 minneolas*210g, 1 Pink Lady apples*160g, 3 Packham pears*300g, 3 tomatoes*140g, 80g dates, 200g spinach, 2 avos*150g, 8 Brazils*3.3g, 1 coconut. (9 am: 15C/59F/76%. Sunny through thin cloud.)

Fri 26: 3 naartjies*105g, 2 minneolas*200g, 4 Pink Lady apples*162g, 1 Packham pears*300g, 2 tomatoes*140g, 2 bananas*100g, 100g dates, 300g spinach, 3 avos*150g, 9 Brazils*3.3g, 1 coconut. (9.30 am: 15C/59F/81%, rain started at 3 am, now still very wet outside. I set out at 11 with umbrella and beach thongs (to keep my socks dry) for my walk, but it did'nt rain again. Bought a nice big load of fruit.

I am fascinated by controversial fruits – such as overts, bananas, tomatoes, dates etc – and also by what I do about them. I can't eat many bananas, and soon get tired of them, but after being without them for a few days I buy some again, knowing that I will enjoy their flavour again. They can't be a staple for me, as grapes and apples can.

I like to keep testing all controversial fruits at all stages of my adjustment.

Sat 27: 6 naartjies*105g, 2 minneolas*200g, 2 Pink Lady apples*162g, 1 Packham pears*300g, 250g Romanita tomatoes, 5 bananas*100g, 40g dates, 70g spinach, 3 avos*140g, 8 Brazils*3.3g.

(9.15 am: 17C/62F/66%: aha, that's more like spring! I must walk to Access Park just now to get spinach. I set out at 10.15 and got a nice surprise: Romanita tomatoes (small tomatoes, oblong, with a little point sticking out at the bottom, weighing 15g each), very nicely packaged, going for 1/3 price! Bought 3 Kilos! (6.6 lb). I was quite weighed down with tomatoes, spinach, dates and Brazils, but there was a nice cold wind to keep me cool, so I made a detour going home via Wynberg station, where I picked up another bag of 4 small avocados (125g each) to add to my stock: this has been an unusual, temporary source of small avocados, which suit me much better than large, but are much harder to find.

Sun 28: 8 naartjies*105g, 1 minneolas*200g, 5 Pink Lady apples*162g, 1 tomatoes*140g, 250g Romanita tomatoes, 100g dates, 330g spinach, 4 avos*140g, 13 Brazils*3.3g. (2 pm: 18C/64F/67%. Sunny but with cold southeaster.

Mon 29: 2 naartjies*105g, 14 naartjies*50g, 2 minneolas*200g, 2 Pink Lady apples*162g, 5 PL apples*118g, 750g Romanita tomatoes, 3 bananas*100g, 100g dates, 150g spinach, 3 avos*140g, 20 Brazils*3g. (9 am: 15C/59F/76%. Dry, half cloudy, back to northwest wind. (prevailing winter direction). The temperature did rise to 20C today. Couldn't find any more small avos today.

Tue 30: 18 naartjies*50g, 7 PL apples*118g, 2 tomatoes*140g, 750g Romanita tomatoes, 4 bananas*100g, 6 Medjool dates, 20g dates, 250g spinach, 8 avos*120g, 16 Brazils*3g. (8.45 am: 16C/61F/73%. Dry, half cloudy. NW gale. Walking not pleasant, because of rubbish blowing into my eyes. I first took a one-hour walk to the shops to buy dates and nuts (suddenly cheaper here than at Access Park), and then a lift with David to Access Park to get spinach.

Rain set in at 4 pm, as predicted. (my abbreviation system makes typing less boring. To get 'predicted' I typed '9dwd', and was quite thrilled when it worked, as my memory is hopeless, I did not remember abbreviating this and still it worked! All these long words already have abbreviations: 'All te lg words alr h a1ns' ).

Comments:
Last night my mouth felt gummed up with velcro again - yet a few hours later was back to normal. Strange how detox works. What caused this? Was it the coconuts I was eating for several days? It's only when one IMPROVES ones diet that one seems to suffer for PAST sins!

===========================================================================

Week 34: 31 Aug – 6 Sep:

Wed 31: 18 naartjies*50g, 6 Pink Lady apples*130g, 800g Romanita tomatoes, 1 bananas*100g, 6 Medjool dates, 80g dates, 350g spinach, 4 avos*120g, 20 Brazils*3g. (8.45 am: 16C/61F/73%.) Walked early to the station with Lauren, enjoying the sunshine.

Thu 1: 10 naartjies*50g, 2 mandarins*90g, 1 minneolas*90g, 5 Pink Lady apples*130g, 2 Packham pears*180g, 5 tomatoes*78g, 2 bananas*100g, 4 Medjool dates, 80g dates, 200g spinach, 1 avocado*150g, 8 Brazils*3g, 0.8 coconut, 20g lentil sprouts. (Note: I call them mandarins because they were called so on their rather nice package, otherwise I would just have called them naartjies).(8.45 am: 16C/61F/73%. I needed to do a lot of shopping today, for spinach, coconuts, sprouts, citrus fruit, pears and bananas. Luckily I did not need to go to Access Park as I found nice spinach at the Mall 20 minutes away. Then on to Gabriel Rd to get the coconut and sprouts, then home via the Main Rd to get the fruit. A NW gale was blowing. I just got home at 2 pm when the rain started. The storm continued unabated the rest of the day and right through the night. )

Fri 2: 6 mandarins*90g, 3 minneolas*90g, 3 Pink Lady apples*130g, 1 Packham pears*180g, 3 tomatoes*78g, 3 bananas*100g, 80g dates, 130g spinach, 1 avocado*250g, 1 Brazils*3g, 0.7 coconut, 40g lentil sprouts. (9.20 am: 15C/59F/74%, the storm is not yet over and the showers continue. By 2 pm it had dried out and the rain was over, the gales too. So my walk was delayed till then.

Sat 3: 15 naartjies*87g, 3 minneolas*160g, 5 Pink Lady apples*145g, 2 tomatoes*100g, 3 bananas*102g, 3 Medjool dates, 60g dates, 170g spinach, 1 avocado*220g, 10 Brazils*3g, 0.5 coconut, 40g lentil sprouts. (9 am: 15C/60F/70%. Dry and partly cloudy. My walk was fast because of a cold NW wind, down to the younger pavement fruit seller on the Main Rd, then along the railway line back to the station, where I found no avos, then straight up to the Main Rd corner where I got some avos. Then home via the top of Aliwal Rd.

Sun 4: 6 naartjies*87g, 2 minneolas*160g, 2 Pink Lady apples*145g, 2 Packham pears*180g, 2 tomatoes*100g, 2 bananas*102g, 60g dates, 170g spinach, 2 avocado*220g, 9 Brazils*2.8g, 0.8 fermenting coconut, 40g lentil sprouts, 50g Mung sprouts. (9.30 am: 15C/59F/81%. Dry and partly cloudy. Walked to Gabriel Rd to buy sprouts and 2 fermenting (rotting? I sought out the most rotten ones, as they are nicer) coconuts. Also bought 300 English spinach for the first time, it was very nice but hardly worth the fancy price – more than double the usual.

Mon 5: 6 naartjies*90g, 1 minneolas*160g, 3 Pink Lady apples*145g, 4 Packham pears*183g, 1 pineapple*450g, 4 tomatoes*100g, 2 bananas*100g, 40g dates, 400g spinach, 1 avocado*220g, 9 Brazils*2.8g, 0.6 coconut, 100g Mung sprouts. (11 am: 18C/65F/71%, perfect day.)

Tue 6: 11 naartjies*85g, 2 minneolas*160g, 1 Pink Lady apples*145g, 1 pineapple*450g, 4 tomatoes*100g, 2 bananas*102g, 10 dates*4.7g, 50g spinach, 100g English spinach, 350g avocados, 10 Brazils*2.8g, 0.6 coconut. (11 am: 18C/65F/71%, perfect day. Took a lift with David to Access Park, got 2 nice bunches of spinach there, left the spinach in his car and walked home via Wynberg station where I discovered a new outdoor seller, across the railway line, with the small avocados that I like. New to me anyway.

*********************************************************************************

Week 35: 7 – 13 Sep:

Wed 7: 5 naartjies*56g, 3 minneolas*160g, 2 Pink Lady apples*145g, 4 Packham pears*180g, 8 tomatoes*94g, 2 bananas*83g, 15 dates*4.7g, 150g spinach, 3 avocados*100g, 9 Brazils*2.8g, 20g lentil sprouts. (11 am: 18C/65F/71%, perfect day. Felt great, and for a longish walk, and chose to go Main Rd and Gabriel Rd so as to get some more sprouts. Last time I bought Mung sprouts and did not care for them much, not like the lentils I had enjoyed so much the time before, so this time I bought lentil sprouts again.

By 2.30 pm the temperature was 23C, the highest I've seen it so far this spring.

Thu 8: 9 naartjies*56g, 2 minneolas*200g, 1 Pink Lady apples*145g, 4 Packham pears*180g, 4 tomatoes*94g, 4 bananas*83g, 12 dates*4.4g, 150g spinach, 2 avocados*100g, 1 avocado*200g, 15 Brazils*2.8g, 75g lentil sprouts. (10 am: 16C/62F/80%, raining steadily this morning. With a gale blowing ! Later it seemed to have stopped so I scampered down to the fruit seller to find him there, surprisingly, with his van door open but not having dared to unpack his tables in the gale. So I was able to get some citrus and apples, my main staples, for today. I got halfway home before the rain started again, but my umbrella, skillfully deployed in the gale, kept me dry below the neck. I did not try to cover my head, I sacrificed that for the sake of my pants. Of course I had no socks to get wet, having opted for beach thongs.)

Fri 9: 4 minneolas*200g, 4 Pink Lady apples*145g, 1 Packham pears*180g, 3 tomatoes*94g, 4 bananas*87g, 15 dates*4.4g, 130g spinach, 3 avocados*106g, 9 Brazils*2.8g, 0.6 coconut. (10 am: 16C/62F/80%. Wet, but dried out by midday. Dry enough to wear my socks, but not dry enough to leave my umbrella at home. Walked to Gabriel Rd where I bought sprouts and coconuts, also was lucky enough to find some small avos there. Later in the day there were some more showers.

Sat 10: 14 naartjies*61g, 1 minneolas*200g, 1 Pink Lady apples*145g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*110g, 4 brown pears*90g, 5 tomatoes*72g, 6 bananas*87g, 5 dates*4.4g, 200g spinach, 3 avocados*100g, 8 Brazils*2.9g, 0.4 coconut, 25g lentil sprouts. (9.25 am: 16C/62F/74%. We've been having a few showers this morning so far, but looks as if they might stop. - they did, and though I took my umbrella with me on my walk, I soon felt foolish for doing so.

Sun 11: 2 naartjies*61g, 1 minneolas*200g, 2 Pink Lady apples*145g, 2 Golden Delicious apples*110g, 3 brown pears*90g, 7 tomatoes*72g, 6 bananas*87g, 10 dates*4.4g, 70g spinach, 3 avocados*100g, 8 Brazils*2.9g, 1 coconut (fermented throughout), 60g lentil sprouts. (9.25 am: 18C/67F/73%. At 11.30 David and I left for our fortnightly excursion to Muizenberg beach. It was wonderfully quiet there, a sea-sad mood with tide going out, the sea murmuring, and the sun muted. The putt-putt course was almost deserted, perhaps because of the rugby going on in New Zealand.

Mon 12: 10 naartjies*61g, 1 minneolas*200g, 3 Pink Lady apples*115g, 3 pears*75g, 13 tomatoes*65g, 6 bananas*87g, 7 dates*4.4g, 150g spinach and lettuce, 4 avocados*100g, 8 Brazils*2.9g, 1 coconut, 60g lentil sprouts. (11 am: 16C/61F/74%, dry.)

Tue 13: 12 naartjies*61g, 2 Pink Lady apples*115g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*110g, 5 pears*75g, 4 tomatoes*65g, 4 bananas*87g, 9 dates*4.4g, 200g spinach and lettuce, 2 avocados*100g, 10 Brazils*2.9g, 60g lentil sprouts. (9.45 am: 15C/60F/82%, raining. Rained practically the whole day, and I chose not to set foot out of the front gate at all. I didn't want the back of my right hand to get wet, as it bears a scab from an injury I sustained by walking into a sharp edge on Saturday. I must be san paku!

************************************************************************************

Week 36: 14 – 20 Sep:

Wed 14: 13 naartjies*50g, 5 Pink Lady apples*113g, 1 Golden Delicious apples*110g, 3 pears*105g, 7 tomatoes*65g, 1 bananas*87g, 19 dates*4.4g, 100g spinach, 1 avocados*300g, 6 Brazils*2.9g, 0.5 coconut, 35g mixed sprouts. (9.45 am: 15C/60F/82%. Dry, so I took my chance to get in a good walk, to Gabriel Rd by the shortest route, (which also visits the highest ground), where I got everything I wanted.

Thu 15: 10 naartjies*60g, 3 pears*145g, 4 tomatoes*65g, 3 bananas*87g, 7 dates*4.4g, 100g spinach, 1 avocados*300g, 7 Brazils*3.6g, 0.5 coconut, 55g mixed sprouts. (9.30 am: 16C/60F/82%. Raining. Threatens to be another day like Tuesday. ... But no, it cleared up nicely ! And we got a lot of sun, in which I sat later, trying out a new (for me) novelist, Allan Massie – wonder how much he will nourish my thirst for psychological knowledge.

Fri 16: 9 naartjies*60g, 1 minneolas*160g, 4 Pink Lady apples*140g, 2 pears*145g, 5 tomatoes*70g, 1 bananas*90g, 18 dates*4.4g, 250g spinach, 2 avocados*300g, 9 Brazils*3.6g, 0.5 coconut, 30g mixed sprouts. (A wonderful spring day. 4 pm: 20C/68F/72%. I've been looking for a good forum to share my astrological discoveries for a long time, and only now at last seem to have found a good one. If I continue to get encouragement from them, it's going to give me a lot of work. But I am very keen to tackle it.

Sat 17: 11 naartjies*57g, 1 minneolas*160g, 1 Pink Lady apples*140g, 6 brown pears*125g, 11 tomatoes*78g, 1 bananas*90g, 10 dates*4.4g, 200g spinach, 2 avocados*133g, 7 Brazils*3.6g, 0.5 coconut, 30g mixed sprouts. (9.30 am: 16C/60F/82%. Another fine spring day.

Sun 18: 2 naartjies*57g, 3 minneolas*160g, 2 Pink Lady apples*140g, 3 brown pears*125g, 5 tomatoes*78g, 4 bananas*90g, 13 dates*4.4g, 150g spinach, 1 avocados*133g, 10 Brazils*3.5g, 50g desiccated coconut. (9 am: 16C/61F/78%. Cloudy, a NW wind has sprung up which may well bring rain later today.

In fact the rain set in almost immediately and continued the whole day, which kept me indoors the whole day – no exercise. I manage to handle that quite well when it is raining. For one day, anyway. I'm finding Allan Massie OK, and I'm very busy now typing out one of my old articles on astrology for my new astrology fans at astro.com.

Mon 19: 9 naartjies*70g, 4 Pink Lady apples*140g, 3 pears*115g, 2 tomatoes*78g, 3 bananas*90g, 10 dates*4.4g, 150g spinach, 1 avocados*150g, 7 Brazils*3.3g, 40g pine nuts, 1 coconut. (9 am: 14C/57F/77%. Cloudy, but looks as if the rain is over. Will probably walk to Gabriel Rd to look for proper coconuts.

Tue 20: 8 naartjies*62g, 2 Pink Lady apples*140g, 2 tomatoes*84g, 2 bananas*100g, 10 dates*4.4g, 150g spinach, 3 avocados*133g, 8 Brazils*3.3g, 60g pine nuts. (9 am: 14C/58F/78%. Cloudy, but dry. David took me to Access Park, I intended to walk home, but it started to rain so I changed my mind. But I'd already got in a nice walk to the library, and later in the day I took another walk down to the Mall to get tomatoes and naartjies and bananas.

My Journal (6)

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:40:18 +0100

My Journal (6) covers the period March 14, 2011 to June 30, 2011 and beyond.

Notes:
(1) If amount or type is unspecified, assume it's the same amount and type as last mentioned for that fruit.
(2) spinach = Swiss Chard.
(3) C = degrees Centigrade/Celsius
(4) F = degrees Fahrenheit
(5) % = humidity.
(6) * = each.
(7) g = grams.

14 March 2011 - 31 May 2011:

On 12 March I bought another set of 3 small avos for R5, which lasted me for the 12th and the 13th.
Yesterday I also finished the 140g of Brazil nuts that I started with on 12 January. That means, I ate about 70g yesterday - I call that a binge. Still, the 140g over the 2 month period adds up to an average of less than 3g per day.

I've really abandoned my idea of no overts. That was okay for about 8 weeks, and helped to speed up the detox maybe. From now on I'll try keeping in touch with avos, with at least 3 - 7 small ones per week, and nuts also, to a more realistic tune of about 20g per day. Don't tell me that is high fat. In the old days (1975 winter) I ate ten times that.

I find the idea of overts far more palatable - and stomachable - than the idea of plentiful greens. In any case, this is a diet designed for the high-detox, weight-losing start of my campaign. I definitely want to get rid of ALL the accumulated, toxin-carrying fat I'm carrying, and I don't mind my weight dropping a bit below optimal.

Today looks like this:
1. Grapes during the morning, 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. - with one tomato to break the sweetness.
2. My hour-long daily walk.
3. The spoils of my walk, a chunk of watermelon, for lunch, with one date to break the wateriness.
4. Odds and ends: a pear, 3 or 4 bananas, some sweet grapes, 2 or 3 tomatoes, one small avo finally (eaten all on its own) before lying down at 3 p.m. for an hour's rest. No nuts today, I haven't bought any yet after yesterday's binge. It's nearly 5 p.m. now, for the rest of today I can choose from a mango (a must, as it's getting too soft), bananas, grapes, tomatoes,sour figs and even, if I like, another small avo.

17th March 2011

On the 15th I had one small avocado, and 6 Brazil nuts, carefully limited to that figure.
And yesterday (the 16th), exactly the same. In line with my new, but temporary, scheme of keeping fats UP to the 80-10-10 level, and giving up the 955 stretch. Those overts are in addition, of course, to the fruits as main staples.
The point being, that after 2 months of my experiment in banishing cereals, legumes and potatoes, I am still very much in full-scale detox mode and so in no position yet to assess the particulars of this experiment.
The thing is now just to get through another month, and then assess the position. As long as I do not eat any toxin-producing or -containing stuff, that's all I'm really concerned with. If I stop the intake and production of toxins, things can only get better, even if they seem to get worse.

Apropos is this messsage I posted today:

Michele Schmidt,

I think your experience is a very important one to share, as few people have much idea of the time spans involved in diet.

This very morning I was thinking of writing something (the fruits of 40 years of experiments!) along these lines:

when trying a radical experiment in diet, do not assess the results within the first two months: you can expect the situation to get worse and worse.

However, after 3 months, you are in a position to assess. Things should have bottomed out by now. If things are still nose-diving, your experiment was too ambitious and you should ease off so that you can start recovering. In other words, add back some of the items you cut out in your experiment.

In the light of your experience, maybe I should revise my period of three months to four?

Greens: Yesterday I was tempted by some very fresh-looking spinach, with nice thick, fleshy leaves, to buy a bunch. I quite enjoyed chomping about a quarter of the bunch, leaving enough for a good few more days at this rate.

19 Mar 2011:

Today I am trying some new ways of looking at things:

To live thus: get up automatically to do something (usually on the computer). Now at every moment I must choose from these possibilities, in this order of importance: if I can imagine enjoying a rest, then rest; else if I can imagine enjoying some work, like writing or organising photos, then do it; else if I can imagine reading and eating, then do it....

which brings us to the question: what to eat next? I've been eating grapes and watermelon every day as staples, now I must face that w/melons are going, and make grapes my one staple.

I have tried grape mono diets of various lengths several times in the past, and they never seemed to do anything plus for me. Easier is to eat grapes until the idea of something else, to act as a "spacer" between grapes, calls out strongly. Usually a tomato, or an overt, or greens - anything not too sweet, maybe even banana. (I think I'll take a break here. Go and get my remaining spinach, and finish it while I read Anna Karenina...)

Week 10: 16 - 22 March
(note, if I do not specify quantity, it's the same as previously)

16th: Bowl of Grapes,1/4 watermelon,2 dates,6 tomatoes,mango,6 leaves spinach,1 small avo,6 Brazil nuts.
17th: Grapes, watermelon, dates, tomatoes, spinach, avocado, 5 bananas, Brazils.
18th: Grapes, w/melon, dates, 4 very ripe small mangoes, tomatoes, spinach, bananas, Brazils. NO avo.
19th: Grapes, watermelon, tomatoes, spinach, bananas, 2 small avocados, 4 Brazils.
20th: Grapes, watermelon, tomatoes, 1 cucumber, bananas, avocado, Brazils.
21st: Grapes, watermelon, tomatoes, bananas, 3 small avocados, Brazils.
22nd: Grapes, 1 mango, tomatoes, bananas, 3 small avocados, 10 Brazils.

23rd, morning: Detox seems to have diminished a lot, especially the mucus discharges through the anus, though I'm sure there is much more debris in me still to be removed. (The nagging little cough not yet entirely gone...). Could be the avos and nuts slowing the detox, maybe, or my system taking a rest, or whatever, doesn't matter anyway.

Week 11: 23 - 29 March
During this week the detox returned to the previous higher level. But I've had no more thoughts of potato salad or anything else off my plan. I'm just letting the amount of overts find their own level, just following my desires naturally in this.

24-Mar-2011:
sunmaiden, Anne, and Raspberry, it really feels good to be here with you guys, I feel so much on the same wavelength with your ideas.
All three of you express the same attitude of relying on one's personal taste and experience, rather than on dogma or scientific speculations. Correct me if I'm misreading you, please!

One of our supermarkets here in Wynberg gets in tempting looking packets of rocket, and of mixed herbs (mainly varieties of lettuce, and watercress). I felt like giving them a go, so I bought one packet of each, total 225g of leaves, for the price of about 14 of the small avos I've been eating at the rate of 3 a day lately. I thought if I'm going to eat leaves, at least splash out a bit to get more flavour.

I finished off half the leaves today, must say I quite enjoyed them, just hope the mustard oil doesn't damage my bacteria friends inside.

During the leaves I ate 3 small tomatoes, not in the same mouthful though. And just after all that, I had one of my small avos.

Yesterday and today something new for me - instead of eating 2 - 4 of the old, rather boring and ordinary, pitted dates, I tried something double the price, "Medjool" dates. Had 2 yesterday, plan 5 today. A good discovery, definitely worth it!

Raspberry, your 8 - 10 avocados a day made me smile, I thought that was going it some, then remembered the old days when I once hit 14 avos in one day. If you have actually reached a point where you can get overweight on raw then you have got somewhere where I have never yet even been near. In my 9 years of raw I stayed on my bottom of 109 lb (for 5'9" height, decidedly too little) for 7 years, and never got much above that... despite eating 200g of nuts and 4 - 6 avos a day.). But then I never saw myself as a natural for this diet, because I have seen others adapting much faster than me.

I will stuff this post on my site too, so others can see it there too.

Here's health!
*******
23 Mar: grapes, 3 tomatoes, 1/4 watermelon, 1 mango, 3 bananas, 2 Medjools, 2 medium avos, 10 Brazils.
24 Mar: grapes, 4 tomatoes, watermelon, 2 mangoes, 1 banana, 5 Medjools, 125g greens, 3 small avos, 6 Brazils.
25 Mar: grapes, 5 tomatoes, watermelon, 4 bananas, Medjools, 75g greens, avos, 9 Brazils.
26 Mar: grapes, tomatoes, watermelon, 4 dates, 2 avos, 8 Brazils.
27 Mar: grapes, tomatoes, watermelon, 5 Medjools, 2 avos, 6 Brazils.
28 Mar: grapes, 2 tomatoes, 1 large mango, 6 bananas, 2 avos, 5 Brazils.
29 Mar: grapes, watermelon, 5 dates, 8 bananas, 150g lettuce, 1 papino, 3 avos, 16 Brazils.

Week 12: 30 Mar - 5 Apr :

30th Mar: Today it's raining lightly for the first time this autumn. It dried out a bit at noon so I delayed my walk to the shops till then. My umbrella got just a little bit wet on my way back, but I didn't bother to open it. I loved walking in the cooler weather.

W30 Mar: grapes, 3 tomatoes, watermelon, dates, 3 bananas, 3 avos (still small), 6 Brazil nuts.

Today I added the page Biorhythms to my new site http://gurthbruins.wordpress.com .
It rained most of today, the first rain for weeks, but my walk fell in a dry hour. I needed a jersey for it.

T31 Mar: grapes, 6 tomatoes, watermelon, dates, 2 bananas, spinach, 3 avos, 7 Brazils.

Note that today I bought a huge bunch of spinach, and ate half of it with much less discomfort to my throat than last time. There was no more rain today, and I took my jersey off before I went for my walk. It was 23C/74F.

F1 Apr: grapes, 5 tomatoes, watermelon, dates, 1 banana, 1/4 bunch spinach, 2 medium avos, 8 Brazils.
S2 Apr: grapes, 3 tomatoes, watermelon, dates, 1 banana, spinach, 1 small avo, 3 Brazils.
S3 Apr: grapes, 4 tomatoes, 18 dates, 2 bananas, 3 small avos, 1 large avo, 11 Brazils.
M4 Apr: grapes, 3 tomatoes, 60g dates, 1 pear, 2 bananas, 1/2 bunch spinach, 3 medium avos, 9 Brazils.
T5 Apr: grapes, 3 tomatoes, watermelon, 30g dates, 1 pear, 1/4 bunch spinach, mango, 2 medium avos, 6 Brazils.

Note: I had a bout of "flu" on Sat, went to bed about 4 pm with no supper, but was too bored to lie in bed Sunday, so ate a lot of overts and played around on my computer with pics and albums. Missed my walk Sun (not up to it) but fine enough Mon and even better today after a heavenly night where my coughing seemed to have departed. It's made a few returns, but less than before. I'm feeling good.

Week 13: 6 - 12 Apr:

W 6 Apr: few grapes (too terrible to eat more - I don't know what has happened to the quality of the grapes here, it seems to have collapsed. Irradiation perhaps? The grapes seem to be lifeless somehow)
1 pear, 1 smallish pineapple, 3 tomatoes, 20g dates, last 1/9 of small bunch spinach, 5 bananas, 3 small avos, 6 Brazils.

T 7 Apr: grapes (found some better ones, red seedless), 3 pears, 3 tomatoes, 10g dates, 1/4 bunch spinach, 1 banana, 1 small mango, 3 small avocados, 9 Brazils.

F 8 Apr: grapes, 1 pear, 3 tomatoes, 1 apple, 70g Medjool dates (nice!), 1/4 bunch spinach, 3 medium avos, 11 Brazils.

Today was heavenly, hot for April at 28C/82F with humidity down to 62%. Dollops of mucus evacuated: I love to see this happening, it's such a visible evidence of improvement. At night sometimes I wake to find my gums sticking together like velcro - reflecting action of the stomach lining. Then later on it has just gone back to normal.

S 9 Apr: grapes, 4 tomatoes, 1 large mango, 3 apples, 2 bananas, 30g Medjool dates (couldn't keep up with yesterday's intake!), 1/4 bunch spinach, 2 avocados, 10 Brazils.

S 10 Apr: grapes, 5 tomatoes, 1 pineapple, 4 apples, 4 bananas, 70g Medjools, 1/8 bunch spinach, 2 avocados, 10 Brazils.

M 11 Apr: grapes, tomatoes, 3 apples, 1 banana, 30g Medjools, 2 other dates, 1/8 spinach, avocados, Brazils.

T 12 Apr: 1 Kg grapes,3 tomatoes, 2 apples, 1 pineapple, 1 banana, 2 Sayer dates (10g), 3 avocados, 8 Brazils.

The 12th was also my 3rd monthiversary of 100% raw vegan diet. On this day I had perhaps the biggest surprise of the whole 3 months: looking for a bunch of spinach, I found the shops empty of it except for one scruffy-looking bag in one shop - that didn't appeal to me, not did they even have their usual packets of fancy lettuces. Too bad, I went without greens for the day. The surprise was how disappointed I felt! I must be getting addicted to greens... not that I will have any reason to resist them, if my bodysoul calls for them.

Week 14: 13 - 19 Apr:

W 13 Apr: 1 lb grapes, 2 tomatoes, 1 apple, 1 pineapple, 9 Sayer dates(40g), 1/4 bunch spinach, 4 small avocados, 8 Brazil nuts.

T 14 Apr: grapes, 6 tomatoes, 1 pineapple, 1 banana, 1 mango, 9 Sayer dates, 5 fresh dates(50g), spinach, 3 small avocados, 9 Brazils.

F 15 Apr: grapes, tomatoes, 2 apples, 1 pear, 2 bananas, 2 Sayer, 7 fresh dates(70g), spinach, 3 medium avocados, Brazils. (bought 50 sour figs R6)

S 16 Apr: grapes, 2 tomatoes, 1 apples, 1 mango, 6 fresh dates, spinach, 2 large avocados, 5 Brazils.

S 17 Apr: grapes, 2 tomatoes, 2 pears, 2 bananas, 1 mango, 3 fresh dates, spinach, 5 Sayer dates, 1 large avocado, 14 Brazils.

M 18 Apr: grapes, 1 tomato, 3 pears, 1 banana, 3 fresh dates, 3 Sayer dates, spinach, 2 medium avocados, 9 Brazils.

T 19 Apr: grapes, 2 tomatoes, 1 pear, 1 apple, 3 bananas, 1 mango, 6 Sayer dates, spinach, 2 avocados, 10 Brazils.

Note: Spinach leaves enjoyed every day; of all items, bananas the least exciting. I think somehow they are not of high quality, I don't know what is done to them, they look alright on the outside.

I added another article, "Letter to an overweight omni friend", to my Articles page yesterday.

-------------------------------
Week 15: 20 - 26 Apr:

W 20 Apr: grapes, 3 tomatoes, 2 pears, 2 bananas, 1 mango, 6 Sayer dates, spinach, 2 small avocados, 9 Brazils.(This evening 20C/68F is coldest daytime yet this autumn. Drizzle this morning)

T 21 Apr: grapes, 3 tomatoes, 1 apple, 1 banana, 3 pears, 1 papino, 6 Medjool dates(66g), spinach, 2 medium avocados, 11 Brazils. (8.40 am: 16C/61F; 5 pm: 19C/66F/66% humidity)

EF 22 Apr: grapes, 1 tomatoes, 1 apple, 4 pears, 1 mango, 6 Medjools, spinach, 2 medium avocados, 11 Brazils.

ES 23 Apr: 1/2 lb grapes, 2 tomatoes, 2 apples, 2 pears, 1 pineapples, 6 Medjools, spinach, 1 avocado, 6 Brazils.

ES 24 Apr: 1/2 lb grapes, 4 tomatoes, 5 apples, 1 pear, 1 pineapple, 1 papino, 6 Medjools, spinach, 2 avocados, 7 Brazils(25g). (9.30 am: it's just started raining and the temp is 17C/63F with 80% humidity.)

EM 25 Apr: 1/2 lb grapes, 3 tomatoes, 1 apple, 4 pears, 4 bananas, 5 Medjools, spinach, 3 avocados, 14 Brazils(50g). (10.20 am: 16C/62F/78%; dry, sunny, cloudy)

T 26 Apr: 1/2 lb grapes, 5 tomatoes, 1 apple, 4 pears, 1 banana, 8 Medjools, 1/4 lettuce, 3 avocados, 18 Brazils(60g). (much rain overnight. 10 am: 17C/62F/75%, clearing, windy) -Couldn't find spinach today, so bought lettuce instead. The holidays have interfered with grape picking, none available at the moment.

With the first cold spell and wet weather, I'm feeling a bit weaker psychologically. I don't like to see the overts escalating as they appear to be doing. At some stage I might judge that it would be better to eat some boiled sweet potato instead of too much fat from avocados and nuts. Detox is showing no signs of coming to an end. Today is exactly three and a half months of 100% raw vegan.
-------
Week 16: 27 Apr - 3 May:

W 27 Apr: grapes, 4 tomatoes, 1 apple, 2 pears, 1 pineapple, 12 Sayer dates(50g), 1/4 lettuce, 2 avocados, 9 Brazils(25g). (Much rain last night, showers this morning, cold)(15C/59F)

T 28 Apr: grapes, 4 tomatoes, 1 apples, 1 pear, 1 pineapple, 3 bananas, 12 Sayers, 1/4 lettuce, 6 avocados, 9 Brazils.(9 am: coldest yet this year: 14C/57F/82%)

F 29 Apr: 1 lb grapes, 5 tomatoes, 1 pear, 2 bananas, 5 Sayers, 1/4 lettuce, 3 s avocados, 9 Brazils.(9 am: 14C/57F/82%)

S 30 Apr: grapes, 3 tomatoes, 1 apple, 1 pear, 3 bananas, 8 Sayers, beet leaves, 3 s avocados, 9 Brazils. (9.40 am: 15C/59F/77%, dry and sunny, but a bit of a chill factor from the strong breeze)(2.20 pm: 19C/66F/68%, the breeze having abated).

S 1 May: 1 lb grapes, 3 tomatoes, 1 apple, 1 pear, 1 banana, 1 Sayer, 1/4 bunch spinach, 2 avocados, 9 Brazils.(9.25 am: 15C/58F/76%: perfect day!)

M 2 May: grapes, 2 tomatoes, 1 apple, 3 pears, 1 pineapple, 3 bananas, 6 Sayers, spinach, 3 small avocados, 12 Brazils(33g).(9.45 am: 22C/72F/74%. A lot warmer, but overcast and windy.Had a nice, leisurely 2 hour walk to Plumstead before lunch.)

T 3 May: 1 Kg black grapes, 5 s tomatoes, 2 apples, 1 pear, 1 pineapple, 1 banana, 1 Sayer, other dates(55g), spinach, 3 s avocados, 7 Brazils(18g), walnuts(25g). (Rain overnight. 10.20 am: clearing, dry, 20C/67F/79%. 12.30 pm: very sunny.)

---------------------
There are signs the last week that the detox is easing off for longer periods during the day. The nagging cough is no longer nagging but mostly gone, the velcro in my mouth at night is hardly noticeable, the anal discharge of mucus less, with less gas. The BMs first thing the last two days have been unsurpassed in my past: solid, well-processed debris, very clean, with no gas or mucus. This is in contrast to the old days when I used to consume enormous amounts (like 120 tomatoes per day) and my BMs seemed to be very little processed and numbered about 12 a day. Currently they are about 2 real ones, and 1 - 3 mostly just gas and mucus, per day.)

Week 17: 4 - 10 May:

W 4 May: 1 Kg grapes, 3 small tomatoes, 3 pears, 1 pineapple, 3 bananas, 2 persimmons, 8g dates, 1/4 bunch spinach, 3 small avocados, 25g walnuts. (noon: 22C/72F/73%; 5.30 pm: 23C/73F/74%)

T 5 May: 1 Kg grapes, 5 s tomatoes, 1 pear, 1 pineapple, 1 banana, 50g dates, spinach, 3 s avocados, 50g walnuts. WEIGHT: 56 Kg=123 lb.(noon: 20C/69F/76%, cloudy with N breeze)

F 6 May: 1 Kg grapes, 4 s tomatoes, 3 pears, 1 pineapple, 2 bananas, 10g dates, spinach, 3 s avocados, 25g Brazils.(4 pm: 20C/69F/76%. Today started cloudy, then became sunny, later clouded again)

S 7 May: 1 Kg grapes, 4 tomatoes, 1 pear, 50g dates, spinach, 4 s avocados, 50g Brazils.(9 am: 18C/64F/80%, sunny, fresh southeaster)

S 8 May: 1 Kg grapes, 4 tomatoes, 1 pear, 3 bananas, 25g dates, 100g Mazafati dates, spinach, 3 s avocados, 50g Brazils. (8.40 am: 18C/64F/77%, sunny)

M 9 May: 1 Kg grapes, 2 s tomatoes, 5 s pears, 1 pineapple, 1 banana, 75g Mazafati, spinach, 2 avocados(250g each), 50g Brazils. (noon: 22C/72F/68%: warm wind)

T 10 May: 1 Kg grapes, 4 s tomatoes, 2 s pears, 25g dates, 50g Mazafati, 20 s naartjies, 2 avocados(2x275g), 50g Brazils. (11 am: 19C/66F/79%: showers overnight and this morning)

Comment: The 5th May was the first time I've weighed myself in years. The weight 56 Kg compares favourably with the 49.5 Kg which was my chronic weight during my first 7 years of raw veganism (1974 - 1980)

Week 18: 11 - 17 May:

W 11 May: 1 Kg grapes, 5 small tomatoes, 5 apples(Golden Delicious), 1 s pear, 75g Mazafati dates, 9 s naartjies, 1/4 bunch spinach, 1 large avocado(350g), 50g Brazils. (10.20 am: 18C/64F/77%, cloudy with North breeze (prevails in winter)

T 12 May: 1 Kg grapes, 5 s tomatoes, 1 apple, 100g Mazafati, 2 s naartjies, spinach, 350g avocado, 50g mixed nuts(almonds, cashews, Brazils, Macadamian), 25g Brazils. (11 am: 18C/65F/77%, fine day)

F 13 May: 1 Kg grapes, 7 s tomatoes, 2 apples, 2 bananas, 100g Mazafati, 5 s naatjies, spinach, 400g avocado, 75g Brazils.(11 am: 17C/63F/80%, a sunny day)

S 14 May: 1 Kg grapes, 2 tomatoes, 1 apple, 2 Packham pears, 50g Mazafatis, spinach, lentil sprouts, 300g avocados, 50g mixed nuts.(10 am: 16C/61F/80%, overcast)

S 15 May: 1 Kg grapes, 2 tomatoes, 1 pear, 1 banana, 100g Mazafatis, spinach, lentil sprouts, 400g avocados, 25g Brazils. (11 am: 15C/60F/82%; overcast but calm.)

M 16 May: 1 Kg grapes, 3 tomatoes, 2 Packham pears, 100g Mazafatis, spinach, lentil sprouts, 450g avocados, 25g Brazils, 25g Cashews, 25g walnuts. (Packham pears: 200g each, very juicy, delicious, yum-yum!)

T 17 May: 1 Kg grapes, 3 tomatoes, 1 banana, 3 pears, 75g Mazafatis, spinach, 500g avocados, 75g cashews&walnuts. (10.15 am: 16C/61F/80%)

Note: This week the discharge of gas and mucus has increased again. I feel, however, more vigorous in the cooler weather, and enjoy walking faster.

Week 19: 18 - 24 May:

W 18 May: 1 Kg grapes, 1 tomato, 1 banana, 2 pears, 25g Mazafatis, 1 leaf spinach, 250g avocado, 75g cashews&walnuts.(9 am: 16C/62F/80%, thinly overcast, calm)

T 19 May: 1 Kg grapes, 2 tomatoes, 1 pear, 1 brown pear, 50g Mazafatis, 3 green outer lettuce leaves, 1/4 bunch spinach, 400g avocados, 30g Brazil nuts. (noon: 18C/65F/73%; nippy SE breeze, sunny with thin cloud)

F 20 May: 1 Kg grapes, 6 small tomatoes, 1 pineapple, 75g Mazafatis, 1 lettuce leaf, spinach, 600g avocados, 50g Brazils. (10 am: 14C/58F/79%, partly sunny, calm)

S 21 May: 1 Kg grapes, 2 s tomatoes, 1 brown pear, 1 Packham pear, 1 Kg Papino, 75g Mazafatis, spinach, 350g avocados, 50g Brazils. (9.40 am: 15C/59F/76%, overcast, calm)

S 22 May: 1 Kg grapes, 7 s tomatoes, 1 P pear, 50g Mazafatis, spinach, 222g avocados, 30g Brazils.( 9.40 am: 16C/62F/75%, overcast whole day)

M 23 May: 1 Kg grapes, 6 s tomatoes, 1 apple, 2 b pears, 3 P pears, 3 small naartjies, 75g Mazafatis, spinach, 600g avocados, 345g Brazils, 25g desiccated coconut.(10 am: stormy, 19C/66F/78%)

T 24 May: 1 Kg grapes, 6 s tomatoes, 1 apple, 3 P pears, 5 s naartjies, 100g Mazafatis, spinach, 350g avocados, 40g Brazils, 16g desiccated coconut.(showers. 9.30 am: 18C/64F/80%)

Note: I can't remember when last I drank a drop of water, or anything for that matter. Weeks ago I think.

Week 20: 25 - 31 May:

Note: If amount is unspecified, assume it's the same amount as last mentioned for that fruit.

W 25 May: 1 Kg grapes, 4 small tomatoes, 1 apple, 1 Packham pear, 6 naartjies, 50g Mazafati dates, 1/4 bunch spinach, 300g avocados, 40g Brazils, 16g desiccated coconut.(9.30 am: showers, S wind, 15C/60F/80%). WEIGHT = 57.5 Kg = 126 lb.
(compare 5 May)

T 26 May: .7 Kg grapes, 2 apples, 2 red pears, 3 P pears, 2 naartjies, 100g Mazafati, spinach, 300g avocados, 50g Brazils, 16g coconut. (9 am: 15C/59F/77%, clear sky, calm)

F 27 May: .5 Kg grapes, 3 s tomatoes, 1 apple, 1 red pear, 2 P pears, 1 pineapple, 3 naartjies, 100g Mazafati, spinach, 300g avocados, 60g Brazils, 16g coconut.(9.15 am: 13C/56F/77% - perfect weather. 4.20 pm: 18C/64F/67%)

S 28 May: .8 Kg grapes, 5 s tomatoes, 1 red pear, 1 P pear, 3 naatjies, 100g Mazafati, spinach, 3 s avocados, 25g Brazils, 16g coconut.(9.20 am: rain starts. 4.25 pm: Dry. 16C/61F/72%)

S 29 May: .8 Kg grapes, 1 s tomato, 1 red pear, 2 P pears, 3 naartjies, 75g Mazafati, spinach, 3 lettuce leaves, 3 s avocados, 39g Brazils. (10 am: 14C/56F/80%, wet.)

M 30 May: .2 Kg grapes, 10 s tomatoes, 8 apples, 2 P pears, 100g Mazafati, spinach, 3 lettuce leaves, 3 s avocados, 50g Brazils. (9.30 am: stormy and wet, 15C/59F/78%)

T 31 May: 7 s tomatoes, 2 apples, 2 brown pears, 1 Paki pear, 3 naartjies, 2 bananas, spinach, 350g avocados, 75g Brazils, 60g raisins.(9.30 am: overcast, showers; 13C/55F/80%! That's rock bottom daytime winter temperature in Cape Town! Now I can start getting used to that...)

Week 21: 1 - 7 Jun:

Wed: 8 naartjies, 3 apples, 1 Paki pear, 3 bananas, 7 small tomatoes, 100g Mazafati dates, 10 leaves spinach, 350g avocados, 60g nuts (Brazils, with a few almonds and cashews). (9.30 am: 14C/57/77%, cloudy, north wind)

Thu: 7 naartjies, 5 apples, 1 brown pear, 1 Paki pear, 2 bananas, 5 tomatoes, 100g Mazafati, 14 spinach leaves, 350g avocados, 50g nuts.(10.30 am: 14C/57F/78%: sunny and calm with some cloud cover)

Fri: 8 naartjies, 4 apples, 3 brown pears, 1 banana, 5 tomatoes, 100g Mazafati, spinach, 350 avocados, 55g nuts, 80g raisins.(9.20 am: 13C/55F/80%, partly overcast)

Sat: 6 naartjies, 5 apples, 1 bananas, 3 tomatoes, 100g Mazafati, 250g spinach, 400g avocados, 70g nuts, 30g raisins.
(10 am: 15C/58F/84%, wet. 12 pm: 16C/61F/85%, dry, a bit of sun.)

Sun: 6 naartjies, 2 oranges, 7 apples, 5 s brown pears, 6 tomatoes, 5 tomatoes, 100g Mazafati, 250g spinach, 300g avocados, 40g Macadamian nuts, 25g Brazils.(9.30 am: 14C/56F/78%, showers, wet with blue sky and clouds.)

Mon: 3 naartjies, 2 oranges, 1 Golden Delicious apple, 2 apples, 12 s b pears, 5 tomatoes, 100g Mazafati, 100g lettuce, 400g avocados, 65g Brazils. (9 am: 13C/55F/78%, showery)

Tue: 11 naartjies, 2 oranges, 1 GD apple, 2 apples, 9 s b pears, 1 tomato, 50g loose dates, 150g spinach, 300g avocados, 50g Brazils.(9 am: 13C/55F/74%, cloudless, icy SE wind)

Week 22: 8 - 14 Jun:

Wed: 6 naartjies, 3 oranges, 1 GD apples, 1 Packham pear, 4 s b pears, 4 tomatoes, 2 bananas, 50g dates, 200g spinach, 350g avocados, 65g nuts(Brazils, Almonds, Cashews) (9 am: 16C/60F/81%, half cloudy, SE breeze)

Thu: 5 naartjies, 2 oranges, 1 GD apple, 4 Pink Lady apples, 7 s b pears, 2 tomatoes, 50g dates, spinach, 450g avocados, 75g nuts. (9 am: 17C/63F/84%, half cloudy, SE wind. This 17C is a warm front, as opposed to the 13C of two days ago.)

Fri: 14 naartjies, 1 orange, 1 GD apple, 2 PL apples, 3 Packham pears, 3 pears, 1 tomato, 2 bananas, 50g dates, 100g Mazafati dates, spinach, 350g avocados,75g nuts.(12.30 pm: 18C/65F/76%)

Sat: 13 naartjies, 2 oranges, 4 PL apples, 1 Packham pear, 2 pears, 4 tomatoes, 2 bananas, 160g Mazafati dates, spinach, 230g avocados, 20g Brazils. (9 am: 17C/63F/83%, overcast)

Sun: 15 naartjies, 1 orange, 4 PL apples, 2 Packham pears, 1 pear, 3 tomatoes, 3 bananas, 90g Mazafati dates, spinach, 230g avocados, 35g Brazils.(9.20 am: 16C/61F/77%, fine and calm, a perfect day to be.)- My mind is setting itself to reduce overts, because it seems to me they need longer to digest than fruits and greens, slowing all the intestinal traffic and making it more difficult to eat enough to satisfy one's hunger without feeling bloated.

Mon: 13 naartjies(500g), 5 PL apples, 2 Packham pear, 1 tomato, 2 bananas, 150g Mazafati dates, spinach, 500g avocados, 75g Brazils.(9.20 am: 15C/59F/80%, overcast with cold south breeze, perfect for a long walk of 90 minutes to fetch the best, thick-leaved spinach from Access Park - the first time I've walked all the way there.)- 5 MONTHS OF 100% RAW VEGAN COMPLETED.

Tue: 4 small naartjies*50g, 1 naartjies*120g, 6 PL apples*130g, 2 Packham pears*210g, 2 bananas, 100g Mazafati dates, spinach, 300g avocados, 30g Brazils.(9.20 am: 15C/59F/80%)WEIGHT = 57.8 kg = 127.2 lb : compare 25 May: a slight gain.

Week 23: 15 - 21 Jun:

Wed 15th: 7 small naartjies*50g, 2 naartjies*120g, 4 PL apples*130g, 2 Packham pears*210g, 250g Romanita tomatoes, 1 bananas, 50g raisins, 250g spinach, 350 avocados, 50g Brazils.(9.20 am: storm,wind and heavy rain - 15C/59F/80%)

Thu 16th: 9 s naartjies, 2 naartjies, 3 PL apples*130g, 2 Packham pears*210g, 250g Romanita, 3 bananas, 50g loose dates, 50g dates, 250g spinach, 500g avocados, 50g Brazils.(11 am: storm,wind and heavy rain - 15C/59F/80%)

Fri 17th: 5 s naartjies, 1 naartjies, 4 PL apples*130g, 1 Packham pear*210g, 250g Romanita, 1 banana, 50g dates, 150g spinach, 600g avocados, 50g Brazils.(dry, cold, mostly overcast with cold wind:good for a brisk walk to Access Park, and back, after getting a lift one third of the way there. Somehow my usual timetable ran late today, only getting away for walk at 2 pm)

Sat 18th: 5 s naartjies, 1 naartjie, 2 PL apples*130g, 1 dark red apple*120g, 3 Packham pears*210g, 250g Romanita, 2 bananas, 75g dates, 150g spinach, 600g avocados, 20g Brazils.(9 am: 12C/54F/79%, blue skies with promise of perfect day. 1 pm: temp up to 16C, humidity down to 69%.What a fantastic pleasure it was to go walking down to the fruitseller, coming back through an open field in the sun, finding some nasturtium and fennel shoots to pick and chew on the spot. Got a book by Malouf out of the library, I don't know him, looks as if it might be a discovery, we'll see... Ten minutes ago David called me to come and see an amazing sight on the bougainvillea: a tiny, tiny baby chameleon, sunning itself with its tail curled up. Quite unfazed by the terrific storms we had this week. 1 - 2 pm I sat in the garden reading Ransom in the sun while chewing spinach leaves.)

Sun 19th: 3 naartjies, 1 PL apple*130g, 2 dark red apples*120g, 1 Packham pear*210g, 4 bananas, 25g dates, 100g seedless raisins, 150g spinach, 600g avocados, 50g Brazils.(10 am: 15C/59F/83%, last night back to hectic storm weather, heavy rain and wind - it's continuing this morning...)

Mon 20th: 7 s naartjies, 2 PL apples*130g, 3 dark red apples*120g, 4 Packham pears*210g, 2 bananas, 50g dates, 100g seedless raisins, 150g spinach, 400g avocados, 50g Brazils.(10 am: 14C/56F/80%, storms over, semi-overcast but will probably clear)

Tue 21st: 7 s naartjies, 3 PL apples*130g, 3 dark red apples*120g, 1 Packham pears*210g, 1 banana, 65g dates, 180g spinach, 400g avocados, 50g mixed nuts. (9.15 am: 11C/52F/76% - the lowest I've seen this year - but it's a perfect day and by 3 pm reached 17C)

Comment:

After 5 months of 100% raw vegan, this campaign at the moment is still all about detox. Marked detox continues, to my great satisfaction as all I am interested in at the moment is reducing the accumulation of tox till it becomes normal rather than abnormal as it still is. Then I will start considering optimising my diet, to carry detox on to extreme levels of purity.

I am pleased that my weight has apparently bottomed out at about 123 - 127 lbs. I have only weighed myself 3 times, on 5th May (123 lb), 25th May (126 lb), and 14th June (127 lb). This weight is perfectly acceptable to me, though I wouldn't mind if it increased further.

On 24th May I noted that I had not been drinking any water. Nor have I drunk any since then, since I have never been thirsty. Of course my diet is over 90% water so drinking water is patently unnecessary. Dry fasts would be more useful, if anything.

A typical routine of events appears this week:

I go to bed at variable times, usually between 7 and 11 pm, then get up at 8 - 9 am. No abnormal anal or nasal discharges overnight, but I urinate (normal discharge) about 5 times.
Then I get up, often to produce a gas-free and mucus-free crap, and soon abnormal discharge of mucus through the nose starts and continues for 4 - 6 hours. The other usual symptoms of a cold are NOT present (facial itch, discomfort, irritation and malaise). During this period I breakfast on fruit and sometimes some spinach leaves, then take a walk of 1 - 1.5 hours, usually to go shopping.

Sometimes I have not yet crapped by this time, sometimes I will have crapped twice already. Other times I will only crap after my walk.
Then I have a big lunch of fruit, greens, avocado and nuts. This provokes a build-up of gas which is discharged through the anus, with copious clear, liquid mucus. Sometimes there will be no gas, only the mucus discharge. Sometimes there will be crap too.

I am eating for about 6 hours each day, and always when I am eating, I am reading. This is my spiritual nourishment.

My afternoon eating is usually interrupted by me taking a lie-down of 1 - 2 hours. Then it continues till bedtime, but is interrupted for an hour while I watch TV. The soapies give me much spiritual nourishment.
Week 24: 22 - 28 Jun:

Wed 22nd: 10 naartjies*87g, 5 PL apples*150g, 2 Packham pears*240g, 1 bananas*100g, 1 tomatoes*61g, 90g dates, 100g spinach, 600g avocados, 50g mixed nuts (mainly almonds & cashews). (9.30 am: 15C/59F/79%, stormy NW-er which will probably bring rain by evening... the rain started at about 4 pm, lots of it..)

Thu 23rd: 10 naartjies*87g, 2 PL apples*175g, 2 Packham pears*240g, 2 bananas*100g, 1 tomatoes*61g, 50g dates, 100g raisins, 150g spinach, 300g avocados, 28g Brazils.(9.30 am: 14C/56F/76%, heavy showers, wind lighter.)

Fri 24th: 9 naartjies*87g, 1 PL apples*175g, 2 Packham pears*240g, 2 bananas*100g, 1 tomatoes*61g, 100g dates, 100g spinach, 400g avocados, 50g Brazils. (9.30 am: wet, heavy showers, wind stronger.)

Sat 25th: 10 naartjies*87g, 1 PL apples*175g, 1 PL apples*130g, 1 Packham pears*240g, 1 brown pears*200g, 3 bananas*120g, 2 tomatoes*61g, 50g dates, 100g raisins, 150g spinach, 300g avocados, 20g Brazils.(1 pm: 15C/59F/77%, dry, overcast, calm)

Sun 26th: 6 naartjies*87g, 1 PL apples*130g, 1 largeGolden Delicious apples, 3 brown pears*200g, 50g dates, 150g spinach, 250g avocados, 40g nuts, 100g sprouts (mung, lentils, chick peas).( 11 am: 15C/59F/75%, perfect day). Nice walk to P&P Gabriel Rd: timed myself 27 minutes to return, at a steady but never hurried pace.

Mon 27th: 7 naartjies*87g, 1 PL apples*130g, 1 largeGolden Delicious apples, 2 Packham pears*240g, 3 bananas*120g, 1 tomatoes*61g, 100g dates, 150g spinach, 500g avocados, 50g Brazils, 100g sprouts.(9.20 am: 13C/56F/72%, partly overcast, calm)

Tue 28th: 6 naartjies*87g, 3 PL apples*130g, 1 largeGolden Delicious apples, 1 Packham pears*240g, 1 bananas*120g, 2 tomatoes*61g, 50g dates, 150g spinach, 500g avocados, 50g Brazils.(9 am: 11C/52F/80%, sunny, N wind.At 11 I walked to Access Park (2.5 Km) to buy spinach and some avocados - in the cool weather I enjoyed a fast walk downhill most of the way.Later the temperature rose to 15C. At exactly 1 minute past midnight the first shower came down.)

Week 25: 29 Jun - 5 Jul:

Wed 29th: 3 naartjies*87g, 5 PL apples*130g, 1 Packham pears*240g, 3 bananas*120g, 100g dates, 200g spinach, 400g avocados, 25g Brazils. (9 am: 14C/57F/82%, heavy showers since midnight, strong NW-er)

Thu 30th: 1 naartjies*91g, 1 oranges(navels)*150g, 4 PL apples*130g, 1 Packham pears*240g, 4 brown pears*140g, 1 bananas*120g, 75g dates, 80g raisins, 200g spinach, 340g avocados, 25g Brazils, (10 am: 12C/54F/79%, wet, showers from the south, likely to clear up)

Fri 1 Jul: 5 naartjies*91g, 2 oranges(navels)*150g, 2 PL apples*175g, 1 P pears*300g, 1 brown pears*140g, 3 tomatoes*88g, 50g dates, 150g spinach, 2 large green outer lettuce leaves, 400g avocados, 25g Brazils, (9.30 am: 11C/53F/80%, dry, overcast, SW breeze)

Sat 2nd: 3 naartjies*91g, 2 oranges(navels)*150g, 2 PL apples*175g, 1 P pears*300g, 1 brown pears*140g, 1 bananas*86g, 3 tomatoes*88g, 85g dates, 200g spinach, 240g avocados, 25g Brazils, 0.5 coconut. (9.30 am: 12C/54F/83%, wet, showers, SW breeze. This winter is sure turning out wetter and colder than the last few.)

Sun 3rd: 3 naartjies*91g, 2 oranges(navels)*150g, 2 PL apples*175g, 1 P pears*300g, 2 brown pears*140g, 3 bananas*86g, 1 tomatoes*88g, 50g dates, 200g spinach, 120g avocados, 0.5 coconut. (9 am: 11.5C/53F/83%, wet, showers, SW breeze - we left for Muizenberg in the rain but once we were there the weather cleared up)

Mon 4th: 9 naartjies*67g, 2 oranges(navels)*150g, 2 PL apples*175g, 1 P pears*300g, 2 brown pears*140g, 3 bananas*86g, 1 tomatoes*88g, 60g dates, 200g spinach, 520g avocados, 50g Brazils, (9.15 am: 12C/54F/77%, dry, patches of cloud and blue sky, cold SE wind.)

Tue 5th: 14 naartjies*67g, 1 oranges(navels)*150g, 2 PL apples*175g, 2 P pears*300g, 100g dates, 200g spinach, 400g avocados, 50g Brazils, (9.45 am: 12C/54F/79%, dry, mostly blue sky, SE breeze.)
Today I had a very nice 1.7 hour walk to Access Park again, to get more spinach and also dates and coconuts.
Having eaten a coconut this week, the first coconut I've had in years, my verdict was: not too bad, if I had to choose between avos and coconuts I'd stick to avos, but I think I'll add some coconut to my list of permissibles for this stage of my programme. So I bought three more today.

Week 26: 6 - 12 Jul:

Wed 6th: 10 naartjies*67g, 3 oranges(navels)*150g, 2 PL apples*175g, 2 P pears*250g, 1 bananas*137g, 80g dates, 200g spinach, 300g avocados, 32g Brazils. (9.30 am: 13C/55F/75%, perfect day. 100 minute walk to AccessPark to buy spinach, dates and 3 coconuts.)

Thu 7th: 11 naartjies*68g, 1 oranges(navels)*150g, 3 PL apples*175g, 2 P pears*250g, 4 bananas*137g, 56g dates, 200g spinach, 300g avocados, 14g Brazils. (9 am: 12C/54F/76%, dry, partly overcast)

Fri 8th: 10 naartjies*68g, 4 PL apples*175g, 1 P pears*250g, 3 bananas*137g, 90g dates, 200g spinach, 500g avocados, 50g Brazils. (9 am: 12C/54F/76%, perfect day. Max temp today 16C.)

Sat 9th: 7 naartjies*60g, 1 PL apples*165g, 1 Crisp Pink apple*250g, 2 bananas*170g, 8g dates, 200g spinach, 280g avocados, 0g Brazils. (9 am: 12C/54F/76%, again; perfect day: rose to 15C.)

Sun 10th: 15 naartjies*60g, 3 PL apples*165g, 2 bananas*170g, 32g dates, 200g spinach, 180g avocados, 25g Brazils, 1 coconut, 75g sprouts. (11 am: 15C/59F/64%, again; perfect day, rose to 19C.)

Mon 11th: 11 naartjies*60g, 1 PL apples*165g, 1 P pears*250g, 1 bananas*170g, 40g dates, 100g spinach, 240g avocados, 30g Brazils, 25g sprouts. (9.40 am: 16C/61F/67%, half cloudy)

Tue 12th: 7 naartjies*65g, 2 PL apples*165g, 2 Crisp Pink apples*250g, 6 brown pears*117g, 2 bananas*164g, 40g dates, 200g spinach, 300g avocados, 30g Brazils, 0.35 coconut, 50g sprouts. (9 am: 15C/59F/77%, no cloud)

I celebrated the completion of 6 months today by finding myself emerging from a really fine bout of detox in the shape of the so-called common cold - a pleasingly acute attack, with a very ferocious cough. It sent me to bed at 3 pm on Saturday, but wasn't able to stop me from my hour's walk on any single day. Fortunately the weather stayed fine.

My Journal (5)

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 05:47:56 +0100

A Mental Breakthrough re Overts

I've been feeling some doubts about my beliefs re overts (high fat fruits, nuts).
Now I've revised my attitude somewhat, and am feeling much happier as a result.

I was fortunate to read the following thread on rawvegantalk a day or so ago:
http://www.rawvegantalk.com/forum/topics/801010-vs-9055 .
Please see my correspondence with Adam on this thread. Here's my side of it:

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Thanks, Adam,for your detailed report on overts eaten.

It comes at an opportune moment for me because after deciding against avocados about six weeks ago, I found myself tempted by the sight of the new season's avos, bought 3 small ones two days ago and rather guiltily ate two with lettuce and tomato, thinking they would be the last. But no, today again the sight of the avo was too much for me and I bought a large one. Wondering now, how many avos a day or week can I eat without losing my 811 status?

What your report shows me is how wrong my thinking has been, to base my ideas of what I should eat on mathematical proportions rigidly adhered to, or unfounded prejudices against specific, natural, attractive fruits, rather than the body's commonsense plan of eating what you crave, regardless of quantities!

What a lesson you have taught me, I hope I remember it. I feel as if you have set me free from bad thinking.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks, Adam, and what you now say about symptoms I find a useful addition. The cravings before eating, and the symptoms after eating, both useful guides - of course, as you say, provided the food under consideration is 100% from all angles: raw, natural, unprocessed... and unmixed... as we are talking about something under slight doubt here, we should investigate one thing at a time!

Incidentally, re the large avocado I ate yesterday: (unmixed): I enjoyed the first half, then felt I'd had enough: still, I finished it.... no bad symptoms at all followed, and when I went shopping today I saw the avocados with disinterest and didn't buy any.

Thanks again Adam.

Gurth

******

My Journal (4)

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 06:47:36 +0100

SKIRMISH IN THE SUPERMARKET

As I have said before, this campaign has been remarkably easy so far: the decision to go raw, made in a moment of sickness, has carried me on without another thought being necessary, for over 6 weeks. Internally, in my mind, there was perfect peace and harmony. The very word 'campaign' seemed out of place. No effort was required.

A week or so ago, I was standing in the supermarket waiting for the guys to cut me up a watermelon.
My eye fell on the salad section. Suddenly the potato salad, the 4-bean salad, and the lettuce-olive-feta salad caught my eye, and thoughts arose in my mind - memories of 2009 when I had enjoyed such salads many times. A flicker of resentment arose in me at the thought that I was now constrained to avoid these dishes. I felt unfree. Unfree to indulge in inconsistency. Surely the universe itself, truth itself, was inconsistent? Surely inconsistency was an essential virtue?

I envisaged buying and eating of these salads. I felt a little stunned at the tricks my mind was playing on me. I didn't need much effort to master these thoughts and walk away from them, but a doubt arose in my mind: can I trust myself in future?

Something had to give:

A few days ago I bought 2 lettuces. All this talk of greens must have been getting at me. But greens don't make sense to me. They are inferior to fruit in power, and ease of digestion, and above all in taste. Often we hear of people making dressings to render them more palatable, or in fact blending them into tasty items such as tomato or orange juice. Surely a food, to be regarded as a natural item of diet, must be able to be eaten and relished PLAIN?

Well, the greens led to an even worse mistake: I bought 3 small avocados, and 2 days ago I made a salad of lettuce, tomato, with one avocado. Yesterday I did the same. Now, thank goodness, the avocados are finished and only a small piece of lettuce remains. What was I thinking?

I must be excused for thinking that fruit is the best food for man, and that therefore it can safely be regarded as complete in all essentials. If anyone wishes to persuade me they can be deficient in minerals, they are barking up the wrong tree. Stuffing myself with lettuce just means I have less room for fruit, and that is an intolerable deprivation.

My Journal (3)

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 06:40:21 +0100

During the Eighth Week of LFRV

Things are continuing almost exactly as during the seventh week.
Let's look at what I ate yesterday:
Breakfast of grapes as usual, with a tomato.
Lunch of one quarter watermelon as usual.
Supper spread over the afternoon and evening: one papino, two smallish mangoes, four or five tomatoes, one Brazil nut, half a dozen or so small sour figs.... No greens today thank you!

(sour figs - Memidex dictionary/thesaurus 20 Jan 2011 ... "sour figs" is a plural form of "sour fig": a low-growing South African succulent plant having a capsular fruit containing edible pulp ...
www.memidex.com/sour-figs

My fat layer is not getting any thinner, but I'm satisfied with my figure which is very trim.
I attach a few photos taken this morning:

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I believe we are part of the universe, part of God, but part of nature we are not. Nor do we follow the laws of nature: science has given us dominion over nature.
Everything that is not mankind, is nature. Everything unnatural is part of mankind.
It is a given that our immense intellectual capabilities will all be turned against nature, and lead to the impoverishment of life. Genetic engineering will be our fate. There's no way the one unnatural species can be saved from itself.

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Fruit the Food and Medicine for Man by Morris Krok

In January 1971 I read this book by Morris Krok (1931 - 2005).

I thought it deserved a trial. After two weeks I knew that it would cause the greatest revolution in my life. A new world of experience had already become visible to me as I gave up meat, fish, dairy, eggs, and all cooked or processed substances. Leaving raw fruit and vegetables and nuts.

I imagine this book, which is full of interesting anecdotes and letters, would be hard to find today. I thought I might describe some of them here, for the interest of our readers. I might add some anecdotes of my own, as I once made a week-long trip with Morris Krok to the house he was building of clay in the Natal Highlands.

Morris Krok often talks about Arnold Ehret as the main figure in diet: e.g.

<< (13) F. S. Hirsch's Letter

     This, the second letter which I am quoting, is written by the gentleman who wrote the introduction to Ehret's "Mucusless Diet Healing System."
     California.
     25th January, 1960.
   "Prof. Ehret had some of his followers living on an orange and orange juice diet for three months, but this is the longest period of diet that I can recall. The Professor did not consider the orange to be a completely balanced article of diet, especially if it is not eaten tree ripe, which means that the individual should be living in an orange grove, or at least right next to one.
   As far as Ehret was concerned, he believed the tree ripened, organically grown, unsprayed apple eaten together with unsulphured raisins, produced the most perfectly balanced diet: and he repeatedly offered to undergo an exclusive apple and raisin diet under strict medical supervision in a locked room, for as long as a six month period, if they cared to pay all his expenses. He was never given any consideration by them.
   ............... >>

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After 6 weeks of LFRV:

Reading my last report (after 5 weeks), I might just as well repeat the first two paragraphs - they still apply exactly. Except my throat feels better, but the cough is not much better yet. Time is all I need for that.

I also carried out my intention of not buying greens. When I pass the fennel bush along the sidewalk, I pick off one-thirtieth of a gram of green seeds, and eat them. That was enough greens for me last week.

Also, as intended, I ate exactly one Brazil nut per day, except on Wednesday (or was it Thursday) when I left it out.

Yesterday I left out the dates completely - they're not so good I don't think. My morning food was a bowl of grapes and a tomato and one tiny sour fig; my midday food was a quarter watermelon, and my afternoon food was a mango, 2 bananas, 4 tomatoes and a Brazil nut.

Report on Summer Start after 5 weeks of RLFV.

I'm feeling good. Nothing to rave about yet, but good enough. Better than 2 months ago. What's nice is to have escaped the mindset of before, when I knew I could do better but lacked the motivation and resolution to do so. Now my mindset seems quite different - beyond struggles.

My fat layers have not got any thinner the last week. That's OK, because I can feel detox is still going on fast enough. I can tell by the coating inside my mouth at night - I've read that the inside of the mouth reflects the inside of the stomach. Discharges of mucus from the colon are less frequent now. I can still feel my throat as the focus of discomfort, and still have a nagging little cough at times, but most of the time not. I'm sure this will stop at its own time, when the detox has gone far enough.

When things are ready I think my body will decide to get rid of all the superfluous fat, as this no doubt contains a lot of fat-soluble toxins which the fat was there to sequester. (or imprison). But I can't entertain or harbour those toxic passengers for ever - at some point they must go.

I finished my packet of spinach on Tuesday, I'm not buying more. Nor am I buying any more greens or cucumber before I feel a desire for such. To that extent I am now daring to trust my own instincts.

I've decided to cut my overt fats to one Brazil nut maximum per day until my remaining 140g of nuts run out, then nothing. For the next 3 months my main staple will be grapes. Supplemented at the moment mainly by watermelon, mangoes and 4-5 dates per day.

I have no cravings at all for anything that I am not eating. That is a state of affairs in sharp contrast to past campaigns.

My Journal (2)

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 06:37:53 +0100

My Summer Start : Report after 4 weeks:

The last week, and indeed the whole 4 weeks, have been satisfactory from 2 points of view:

1. The ingestion of harmful, cooked food has been stopped.
2. The work of elimination, the removal of harmful accumulations, is proceeding well. That could take years to complete, but already some signs of improvement are appearing:

- A partial recovery of vitality. My movements (arms, legs, body) seem freer and lighter. Hot days do not reduce me to exhaustion as before. While a walk home in the sun, uphill with back and arm weighted, can make me feel very tired, recovery is fast.

One focus of elimination is in my throat. This forces bouts of coughing. Sometimes there seems to be a swelling of the tissues which might throttle me. My voice is affected, sounding raucous and sexy (says one woman). It's unpleasant and irritating, but not worrying or serious.

The discharge of clear mucus from the anus was quite frequent this last week, reminding me of old days.
This process is somehow satisfying and not at all unpleasant.

There's been no essential change in my diet during the last week,, it has continued almost identical to the first three weeks. My body is feeling pleasantly lean and the subcutaneous fat layer at the side of my ribs is now down to about 4 mm, down from about 8 mm a month ago.

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Jen, I am having (have been all along) a lot of trouble connecting to Raw-pleasure: I don't know if it's my Service Provider or what. Having to try usually for 10 - 20 minutes to get to the first screen, a process which often fails completely. My time available for this struggle may become less. If I should give up altogether, please remember you are always most welcome to correspond with me via my gmail email, gurthbruins@gmail.com.

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Today is day 24 of my 'Summer Start' for 2011 - my first noteworthy campaign for many years. My intention is to stick to 100% raw, 95% fruit diet, indefinitely. This journal is to record my failure or success, or degree of such, for the benefit of anyone interested.

To summarise what I've eaten the first 3 weeks:

1. A quarter watermelon most days, especially the last 2 weeks.

2. Mangoes: two per day for the first 2 weeks - then replaced by litchis, of which about 25 per day.

3. Tomatoes: about half a dozen per day.

4. Grapes, my main staple during the season: start every day with a bunch of grapes.

5. Lesser amounts of bananas, nectarines, pears, sour figs, at odd times during the period.

6. About 7 raw potatoes, a bunch of carrots and a bunch of parsley: the 5% non-fruit part. I intend to discontinue these forms of non-fruit already. Today I had a cucumber instead. Is that fruit? Hardly I think, but perhaps there is a better case for tomatoes? What do you say?

7. I treated myself to an imported avocado after about one week; today I had another.

8. Brazil nuts, the last 4 days: 3, 2, 1 and 2 per day.

9. One large sweet melon (cantaloupe). (one day about a week ago, instead of watermelon)

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Jenergy, you are very supportive and encouraging, I do appreciate it!

And thes..up, thanks for putting me onto that video, I watched one third of it already and will definitely finish it soon. I was also interested to see, on the YouTube page, a link to the famous South African "fruitarian pioneer" Essie... who is now 85 and whom I met over 30 years ago. I MUST check that out too. (The links I saw may be slanted for S. African viewers?)

My weekend went as planned, mainly watermelon and litchis. To start, I did wonder how I'd take to a much larger consumption of litchis, not having done so in memory. The first few litchis raised some doubts, made me thinking of selling some of the 120+ I'd bought, but luckily I soon got into them and found I could eat 20 - 30 a day quite easily.

I finished my last two small potatoes yesterday - raw, of course, and also have parsley for only one day more. I think I'll lay off the potatoes now. Maybe buy a cucumber or two - an idea I got from reading patchwork kitten's journal.

On Saturday I finished the day with 3 Brazil nuts.
It put an idea in my mind - rather eat only one Brazil nut at a time, between rations of fruit. The idea is to sort of "blend" the concentrated fat and protein into the lower-concentrated food. On Sunday I had two nuts only - eight hours apart - and I enjoyed them more this way.

I have started many failed campaigns in the past, too many to remember and perhaps they are best forgotten. This is my first new start for a long time. So far it's been a pretty smooth ride, as I undertake the operation of clearing out accumulated rubbish and toxins from dead, cooked foods.

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simple living, Costa Rica

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rI-r5eD-ag

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thesunnysideup, nice to hear from you, feel free to write exactly what you please here - there's plenty of room for you. Thanks for the welcome.

Re your queries: in the old days I had a juicer and a blender and grinder and I used them a lot. I also did a lot of sprouting and fermentation of sprouts.

At the moment I have no such equipment, I can really be called a minimalist who likes to simplify life to the utmost. And have as few possessions as possible. Or am I just making excuses for my laziness?

So no, I eat the fruit as is, sometimes I don't even bother to rinse it. Here again I can find excuses for my laziness: I need a steady supply of 'germs' so my defenses are kept up to scratch and don't get pampered too much.

Today I bought watermelon for today and tomorrow, and a 2 Kg box of litchis because they were going cheap and I do like them a lot. Apart from those I will also have grapes and tomatoes in my boxes.

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Thanks for your warm welcome, Jenergy.

It's 11 a.m. on a lovely day here. I must walk down to the shops now to get two quartermelons (quarter watermelons) for today and tomorrow, and also some more of their delicious mangoes. That's all I need to get today I think.

Yesterday I stuck entirely to fruit, after a few days trying out some raw veggies in addition: chomping parsley, grating a couple of carrots, eating one or two raw potatoes. In total, I had:

quarter watermelon, 3 mangoes, 2 bunches grapes, 4 litchis, 5 tomatoes (fruit?), 4 dates.

That is very little if I think of the huge amounts of fruit I used to consume in the 1970s - I remember eating 120 tomatoes per day... things change a lot over many years, it seems.

Finding this forum, with its focus so much on the right point, is also a great inspiration to me. Last night I started to realise once again the value and importance of this direction.

5.20 pm Fri 28 Jan:

Day 17 of RAW:

Three different fruits since this 'Summer Start' started:

1. Found some nice large, tasty nectarines: slightly soft and bruised or dented in one or two places, this only made the fruit seem nicer. Funny how fruit IS often nicer a bit after it LOOKS its best.

2. Bought a sweet melon (cantaloupe) instead of the watermelon today. It was harder to finish in one sitting than the quartermelons, because it was much firmer and more solid. Flavour was excellent, which is not always the case with these melons here. Sometimes they lack enough sugar.

3. Sour figs: seldom seen in a market here, usually one picks them off the common or off the low mountain tops. They are tiny, smaller than a grape, with one or two drops of sticky 'juice' having strong flavour, like a cross between marmite and grenadilla.

These days I continue to base myself on fruit and tentatively see if other things will go with this diet. I grated my last carrot today: I am feeling that my body is not so keen on these raw veggies, the parsley, carrot and potato: finding them just not good enough to bother with. They seem to impose a slight strain.

An imported avocado I had about 4 days ago went down better. But I'd rather stick to in-season stuff I think. Imported stuff shouldn't be necessary in a place like this.

I have an unopened packet of Brazil nuts which I'll open soon and see how they fit in.

A Summer Start - My Journal for 2011

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 13:36:38 +0100

January 2011.

I was about 99.7% vegan during 2010.

So when people were talking about New Year's resolutions I thought: why not tighten up on strictness? Forego the occasional ice-cream cone. Refuse an offer of potato salad with delicious mayonaise on it. Aim at 99.97% vegan! Then I might still have two ice-creams in the year...

But on 12 January I woke up feeling really terrible. No apparent reason. Neuralgia in my head, a bit feverish, no possibility of eating. Maybe that's when the penny dropped. Time to really pull my socks up! No more half-loaf of rye bread every day!

In fact, in this warm weather, with delicious fruit plentiful, I saw no excuse to eat anything else.

It's now day 15 of 100% raw vegan, and that means mostly fruit: plenty of grapes, watermelon, mangoes as a basis; fewer bananas, pears, tomatoes, litchis, dates.

I have been writing it up on another site, but those readers are a bit out of it I feel in their northern winter.

This is the best place to put this journal, I think.
It may interest readers to hear what I do.

I do invite specific questions of any kind from the curious, I certainly won't take it amiss even if I feel I have no answer to offer.

Basic info: I am a bachelor, 75, living in Cape Town, South Africa.
I was a dedicated omni for 35 years, then started becoming a raw vegan, which became a !00% reality for the nine years 1974 - 1983.

Since then I have been strictly vegetarian, but by no means vegan.

DietExperiments

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 02:36:48 +0100

Introduction

I was a dedicated omni till I was 35. I was satisfied with my diet, which included everything plus a moderate amount of alcohol.
I never smoked, however.