4th of July

Fourth of July... the day most Americans are grilling burgers, hot dogs, with sides of chips or potato salad and homemade ice cream for dessert. Hmmm... not this girl!

I had a trip to Nashville planned to move my daughter into her first apartment. I was going to leave on Wednesday, but with this cleanse, I still wasn't feeling too sporty, so I opted to wait and go the morning of the 4th. Nickey was able to go with me, but due to a few factors (mainly being able to find a reliable puppy sitter at the last minute of a holiday weekend), we decide to go on Thursday and return on Friday night. We had planned carefully and had meals, snacks, and smoothies and everything else we needed ready for our trip. We took two coolers--one with snacks and water for the drive, the other with the main guts of our meals and smoothies. Nickey washed grapes and I made some Sassy Water (a gallon jug of ice water with diced cucumber, grated ginger, sliced lemons and fresh mint leaves). I had made Tabbouleh with Quinoa the night before and had the ragout I had made, along with two leftover turkey patties. The spinach, bananas, mango, peach and Kefir also made it to the cooler for my smoothies. I packed paper plates, a knife, cutting mats, reusable cutlery and a blender. Add in some almonds and sunflower seeds, three or four Larabars and my supplements and we were ready to go!

We left around 11 am (with a smoothie in my glass and water in my Tervis) and decided to take a short detour on the way. We ended up in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Who knows what Lynchburg is famous for? A bunch of drunks, that's who! Lynchburg is the home of the Jack Daniel's Distillery. Now, I'm honestly not a whiskey drinker myself, but I love the story, the history and besides, it was something fun to do on a quick trip. We had a wonderful time there! By the end of our visit, though, I was starving! They had a boarding house type restaurant, but we had missed the seating times. We ventured into the general store where they were handing out fudge samples. A week ago, I would have sampled every flavor they had out. Not anymore. I didn't try even one sample. I walked away. They had a little BBQ restaurant on the square. It was still open (even though most everything else closed at 5:00). But... BBQ wasn't on my diet any more than fudge was, so we left and headed out of town. I was hungry, but there wasn't anything there for me to eat. And I'll just be honest--I didn't want healthy food. I was out of town. I've always had a "rule" that when I'm away from home, I eat things I can't find at home. So guess where we went?

Subway. We went to Subway. Subway has salads that will keep me on my diet. I had a salad with turkey breast. Lettuce, turkey, green peppers, red onions, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. That was my one big meal of the day. A salad. From Subway. So, I was really a little disappointed in the meal itself, but SO proud of myself for sticking to it!

We got to Nashville and I got to see my baby girl! We met Hanna and Joey (her boyfriend) at Target. Have you ever been to Target? Every Target I've ever been in either smells like wonderfully just popped buttered popcorn or Starbuck's. Have you noticed that? Do you know that I can't have EITHER of those things? Do you know that I love BOTH those things? Target is a test. I pass the test. I am strong. I don't have the popcorn.

It has rained on and off ALL day on the 4th. The weather was kind of dismal and gloomy and so was the mood of my stomach.