if he was from venus, would he meet us on the moon?

Children by the million sing for Alex ChiltonI started sliding down the steep grade of some major sad stuff yesterday afternoon. I think it’s just working too much and not getting enough sleep. Could be the 3-day diet I was on (which is over as of yesterday and I am enjoying the sweet, sweet nectar of having creamer in my coffee again this morning). But I did feel better after teaching a couple of guitar lessons. Teaching those kids can be so therapeutic. Grace really did well with her two songs and I gave her two more good ones – “MacDougal Blues” by Kevin Kinney (of Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ fame) and “In the Street” by Big Star (further continuing my indirect preaching of all things Alex Chilton).

If he was from Venus, would he meet us on the moon?
If he died in Memphis, then that’d be cool, babe.
“Alex Chilton” by The Replacements

Oh, back to that 3-day diet – here’s what I ate for the past three days… I think I lost around 8 pounds, needless to say, I’m very grateful to not have to eat beets for a little while…

First Day
Breakfast : black coffee or tea, ½ grapefruit, 1 slice of toast, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter
Lunch : ½ cup of tuna, 1 slice of toast, black coffee or tea
Dinner : 2 slices of any type of meat (3 oz.), 1 cup of string beans, 1 cup of red beets, 1 small apple, ½ cup of vanilla ice cream

Second Day
Breakfast : 1 egg, ½ banana, 1 slice of toast, black coffee or tea
Lunch : 1 cup of cottage cheese, 5 saltine crackers
Dinner : 2 hot dogs, 1 cup of broccoli, ½ cup of carrots, ½ banana, ½ cup of vanilla ice cream

Third Day
Breakfast : 5 saltine crackers, 1 slice of cheddar cheese, 1 small apple, black coffee or tea
Lunch : 1 hard boiled egg, 1 slice of toast
Dinner : 1 cup of tuna, 1 cup of beets, 1 cup of cauliflower, ½ cantaloupe, ½ cup of vanilla ice cream

I talked to Viv last night after not being able to for the past couple nights due to her not feeling well. She was all giggley and that elevated me a little more.

After the lessons, I turned on the very disappointing Flyers game, fixed a small CSS issue with Flutter’s background (thank to Marty for the tip!), finished the Blackcrow project, did my push ups and crunches, read a couple chapters of The Time Traveler’s Wife, and then put on Ever Since the World Ended.

Ever Since the World Ended was a decent, but there were a lot of imperfections – society has effectively ended yet the streets of San Francisco are immaculate, the people are still very well groomed (women still wear make-up even post-apocalypse?), and everyone’s clothes are still nice despite some living in the tree tops of the forrest? All that said, I’m glad a film like this was made and I did enjoy it.

49 Responses to “if he was from venus, would he meet us on the moon?”

  1.  Tink Says:

    I don’t think God intended beets to be eaten. I think they were intended to be weapons or something. Hey, I’m sure I could club a deer with a beet! Or MAYBE we were supposed to make clothes out of them. But they were definitely not intended to be eaten. Bleh.

  2.  furiousBall Says:

    Tink – or like back in college, fired out of a potato bazooka

  3.  Chris Says:

    Ok, eating that kind of diet for three days could make you sad just because your brain needed more nourishment! :) (Also, so could listening to MacDougal Blues.)

    My sure-fire sadness cure is to put on crazy music (Pop! Goes the World is my song of choice and then dance around crazily in your living room.

  4.  Cindy Lou Says:

    Hey, we can’t let ourselves go just because the world ended. If I had to go underground with just three things I’d choose my son, my cat, and my makeup.

  5.  Franki Says:

    Reading that diet made me go eat a pound of bacon. Thanks a lot.

  6.  V-Grrrl Says:

    I hit the skids yesterday too. Was I channeling you or were you channeling me?

    A little scary how quickly I slid to the basement of my psyche and hit the concrete wall.

    Ouch.

    Today is better. Gotta hold on for that next day.

  7.  furiousBall Says:

    Chris – most of that album is a downer, but I really love Chico and Maria and Hey Landlord

    Cindy Lou – when you get crazy enough, I bet you’d put make up on the cat

    Franki – I like your diet better

    V-Grrrl – it all hit me when I went to go pick up my buddy Doug on my way home, I was sitting in the parking lot just thinking (a depression lubricant apparently)

  8.  On a Limb with Claudia Says:

    Gosh… Where did you find that diet? How did you feel while you ate it?

    It looks like a kind of detox diet – if so, then it makes sense that you were sad. Remember, emotions are peptides (Check out Candace Pert’s work at:http://www.candacepert.com/). You would detox those peptides/emotions as well.

    All that said, I always admire your fearless attitude to diet and staring into the dark. You are a courageous being.

  9.  flutter Says:

    If I did that 3 day diet my bloodsugar would be 800.
    Lordy.

  10.  furiousBall Says:

    On a Limb with Claudia – I got it from a co-worker (who quit on day 2), I felt ok actually, day 3 I got sad, but I think it was some idle time that caused that. In all honesty, the best part of that diet was getting myself back into the practice of eating breakfast, I am going to start eating oatmeal and that’s good stuff for me

  11.  furiousBall Says:

    flutter – yeah the low calories started getting to me at the end for sure

  12.  meno Says:

    Any diet that includes hot dogs is okay by me.

    I love beets. The way they turn your teeth red is cool.

  13.  Maddy Says:

    that diet would be enough to put me into a deep depression, there again I wouldn’t recommend replacing your choices with Ensure.

    Glad you got to talk.
    Best wishes

  14.  Carolyn Says:

    Sounds like you need cookies.

  15.  Lorrie Says:

    Diet is Die with a T.

  16.  Apertome Says:

    That diet sounds terrible. I’m a little puzzled why you’d do something like this especially given that the article you link to criticizes it pretty strongly (mostly on page 2). Are you trying to punish yourself?

  17.  i, squub Says:

    MacDougal Blues ROCKS. Nice choice.

    Diet: ih? That word doesn’t compute.

  18.  furiousBall Says:

    meno – why does it have to be my teeth? oh wait you meant that differently…

    Maddy – it wasn’t that bad actually, the black coffee thing bugged me tho

    Carolyn – can you put bacon in them?

    Lorrie – I concur

    Apertome – nah, I was mostly doing it to encourage the co-worker. I needed to dump the water weight anyway, so this just gave me a head start, I’m going to start a lower carb diet with lots of protein (and breakfast). also, i hadn’t read that article until today

  19.  Cynnie Says:

    I like beets..
    but I’m southern, we eat crazy food ( banana sammie anyone ?)
    depression..
    arghh..
    i rarely get depressed, but i always feel the slide ( slide is the perfect description btw)
    sometimes you’re just on a fucking soaped up slip &slide and all you can do is wait for it to be over.

  20.  furiousBall Says:

    Cynnie – go on about the soaped up slip and slide, what were you wearing?

  21.  furiousBall Says:

    i, squub – you always surprise me with your musical tastes, much because they are so similar to mine. it’s odd we dig many Patton incarnations and yet also enjoy stuff like John Gorka and Kevin Kinney solo albums

  22.  Greta Says:

    Was wondering how the beet diet treated you. You have WAY more will power than I. I would have probaby made it about midway through day 2 and then gone on a cocoa puffs binge.

  23.  furiousBall Says:

    Greta – I’m totally down with a cocoa puffs diet, just say the word

  24.  The Smirking Cat Says:

    I notice things like that in movies too: people who have been through car wrecks don’t have wrinkles in their slacks, and women who were submerged beneath water don’t smear their make-up, and their hair is perfectly tousled!

  25.  furiousBall Says:

    The Smirking Cat – like in Bad Santa when Bob Chipeska is in the Women’s Plus Size dressing room, he overhears Willie saying “You ain’t gonna shit right for a week.” But when he’s talking to Gin, he quotes Willie as saying “for a month.”

  26.  On a Limb with Claudia Says:

    Hurray for breakfast.

    I talked to Oz Garcia a few years ago and he outlined an idea that people burn food at different rates. I ran upon it again in Jillian Michaels books (she’s on the Biggest loser so I’m told) – the idea is that some people do well on a high carb/veggie diet, others on a high protein diet, and some are mixed.

    I think it makes tremendous sense to me as I was feeding D. what is really best for me – protein – and he felt like crap. We took the test together and he’s mostly veg. Switch it around and he’s got great energy all day – losing weight – running again.

    Have you seen this idea? It’s now a part of the Mercola.com diet evaluation.

    I’m curious to know which you might be. (I would guess veg as veggies tend toward the “depression” end of things.)

  27.  On a Limb with Claudia Says:

    P.S. I bring this up because, I love oatmeal, but it’s absolutely the wrong thing for me to eat – without protein. I eat it sometimes with a couple eggs in it.

  28.  Jenny Says:

    One time I got on that cabbage soup diet and it almost killed me. I was crazy sick and mentally unbalanced for a week. I mean more mentally unbalanced. Obviously.

  29.  E Says:

    that diet is ok – just need to throw some alcohol in there. crack open a nice, creamy, thick-headed guinness.

    watching the nitrogen bubble-up through milky head is also somewhat cathartic.

    cheers!

  30.  Mary Says:

    There’s no vodka in that diet! How can there be a diet without vodka! What were you thinking??

  31.  Paul Kuntz Says:

    Hey Van-man,
    I think that diet is called the Cleveland Clinic diet, after the famous nutrition center that devised it. I seem to recall that from high school wrestling. Never tried it because it is filled with so many gross things like cottage cheese and beets. More power to you for trying! I think I need to diet, but perhaps a good 40 day fast would be better for my fat ass!

  32.  furiousBall Says:

    On a Limb with Claudia – hmm, I think oatmeal is good for me. I definitely associate it with happy childhood memories.

    Jenny – please go on about how you got sick on cabbage soup, it’s getting my organ in an uproar

    E – i think a donuts and beer diet would be much easier to follow

    Mary – I’m still working on my own vodka diet

    Paul – actually if you check out that article I linked to, the Cleveland Clinic came out and said they have nothing to do with it and don’t approve, so you’re probably going to jail now. sinner.

  33.  Claudia Says:

    Van,

    I did that diet before my wedding. They give that to patients who are overweight in the hospital and need to lose some pounds before surgery. It’s hardcore. I remember it well. ;) Bless you. And beets are NASTY, but damn, I remember how good that icecream tasted.

  34.  mamatulip Says:

    Ugh. I can’t even look at beets. My mom told me I used to love them…she said she would crush them up, freeze them in ice cube trays and then give me beet cubes to suck on when I was teething. I always thought she was confusing me with a robot.

    Do you like anything from the CD?

  35.  furiousBall Says:

    Claudia – yeah it’s good to just get a jump start on shedding weight (albeit all water) and that’s all i really wanted, just get the ball rolling

    mamatulip – dude, that Frank Black song is fucking awesome. Love the Peter and Bjorn song as well, still got your disc in the car along with a bunch of mixes from Chris too

  36.  mamatulip Says:

    I love that Frank Black song. And you know…of that entire CD of his (I think it’s his newest one), that was the only good track.

    The PB&J song is sweet too. The kids call it “the whistle song”.

  37.  furiousBall Says:

    mamatulip – ahhh good to know. I loves me some Pixies and dug the first solo CD he put out. Oh and that Arcade Fire song (No Cars Go?) is freakin unbelievable.

  38.  slouching mom Says:

    So it was YOU who redesigned flutter’s site. Fantastic job!

  39.  furiousBall Says:

    slouching mom – yeah, it’s all my fault :) thanks!

  40.  Christy Says:

    I was eating double chocolate milano cookies at the beginning of this post. I put them away at the end of the post. But I will not eat beets!

    *stomps off*

  41.  heart in San Francisco Says:

    My biggest problem with this diet would be that I like huge amounts of half and half in my coffee. I even like beets, but no one else around here will even look at them.

  42.  Peter Says:

    I’d advise against any diet when not feeling like “hey, this is a great day”.

    On a supportive note: I stopped dieting completely: I convinced myself that I can live with a “certain amount of abdominal /visceral fat” –
    “certain amount” being open to discussion :-)

  43.  Jocelyn Says:

    Kiss me on the bus, baby.

    Okay, so your diet was so extreme that I had to go to the cupboard and take out not one, but TWO, boxes of cookies to munch on while I read it over.

    And, slathered with lots of butter, beets can be amazing. I adore beets. But then I pee and look in the toilet and have to shriek because: a), I’m miscarrying, except I’m not pregnant; b) I’ve got my period, except I just had it last week; c) I have cervical cancer, and my body is bleeding out; d) oh, yea, that’s right–I ATE BEETS.

    Finally, I have a new life dream: going out for a beer with FB and Paul Westerberg.

  44.  liv Says:

    totally with jocelyn on this. well, maybe except for not feeling it necessary to meet PW.

    i’m still sort of unimpressed with the idea of such a weird combo of food for a diet…ice cream/hot dogs. idk (i love to type that). seems silly. i think you should talk to flutter about her amazing friend who said lean protein, lots of veggies and whole grains doth a healthy person make.

    no cookies for you. (well except for the whole grain, organic breakfast variety. who makes those?!)

  45.  furiousBall Says:

    Christy – i think it would have been weirder if you were eating a box of beets

    heart in SF – that killed me, no cream in my coffee!

    Peter – i’m convincing others that i’m just undertall

    Jocelyn – just don’t ask Paul to play “Gary’s Got a Boner”, he hates that

    liv – that’s what i’m going from here on out, but the 3 day diet did allow me to drop 8 pounds and as long as i don’t go have a carbgasm, my usual exercise and altering my diet should allow me to stay where i’m at or possibly drop a few more

  46.  mamatulip Says:

    Check out Arcade Fire — both Neon Bible and Funeral are great albums.

  47.  furiousBall Says:

    mamatulip – I’ve got Neon Bible and thought it was decent, Black Mirror is a really solid song and I actually linked to a cool video in today’s post.

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  49.  joaquin Says:

    what a tough diet! learn to live with a certain amount, like someone said.

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