4PM: Hunger pains again. But the main part of the day is almost over, and you are looking forward to your huge reward at dinner time. Pour yourself an 8oz glass of Red Grape Juice. It will give you another 160 calorie kick in the pants, and will help benefit your heart.
5PM: Right about now, you are on the way home and you really really want to eat. Not to worry. When you hit the door, it's time to prepare your dinner, while you salivate. Take your 4 quart glass mixing bowl, fill at least half of it with your bag of pre-packaged lettuce. Cut up two carrots into thin slices. Cut up the tomato into four wedges. Cut the broccoli stalk in half and further cut the half you will put into the bowl, saving the other half for tomorrow. Take a small handful of mushrooms and cut them if necessary into bite sized pieces. Add five olives. Remove 1/3rd of the bag of spinach from its package and pull off and discard the thick stems. If using baby spinach, this step will not be necessary. Add two slices of standard thickness packaged turkey or three large slices of the thin cut delicatessen turkey. If you were given slices from the end of the deli turkey, which means each slice was smaller in diameter, add four thin slices. If you purchased any other raw vegetables, such as a red potato, cut it in half, save one half for tomorrow, and cut up the remaining half to bite sized pieces and add it to the bowl. You now should be looking at a full bowl. Next, pour the red wine vinegar into the salad mixing container to the "V" line, followed by a splash of water to take it to the "W" line, and then the virgin olive oil to take it to the "O" line. Add one half packet of Italian powdered dressing. Make sure the snap on plastic cap is firmly attached to the bottle and shake well. Pour liberally into your bowl. Use up to half of the dressing in the bottle if you wish. Unlike many other oils, olive oil is excellent for your health. With clean hands, toss the salad with your fingers. Wash hands with Dawn dishwashing liquid to remove the oil from your hands. If you are 21 years of age or older, pour yourself two ounces of Taylor New York Port (or the Gallo equivalent). The wine in this limited quantity has been shown by studies to be good for heart health. Also pour yourself another 16oz glass of decaffeinated tea.
6PM: It took quite awhile to change out of your daytime clothes and prepare the salad by hand. It's now time to consume your dinner. Advice: do not do this in front of others. They may be scandalized by the voracious manner in which you eat it. However, you may notice that after you reach the halfway point, a strange think happens. You may become full. Reason? It's the "volume" trick. Your stomach is packed to capacity with all that roughage and needs time to digest. If you've hit your limit, put plastic wrap over the remainder, put it in the refrigerator, wait an hour, and then go back and finish your meal.
7PM: Assuming you have now finished your dinner, it's time for your reward. Take a one ounce shot glass (the same one you used to measure your two ounces of 18% port wine if you are 21 or older) and fill it with Ghirardelli double chocolate chips. If you do not have a one ounce shot glass, count out 40 chips. This is your dessert. If you use Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips instead, you will notice they are smaller in size. That's why I used the jigger as a measurement device. Studies have shown dark chocolate provides a sense of well being and happiness and may also be good for your heart. Dark chocolate contains more flavanoids — an important antioxidant — than green tea, as well as fiber and magnesium. It is also your "night cap" for having concluded a successful day of your diet. There is no reason to eat a chocolate chip cookie with all the flour, sugar, butter and eggs inside, when you can get the same satisfaction without the extra calories!
7PM: This is your quiet time, either to watch television, read or chat on the Internet. If you have a favorite television show, watch it on videotape so you can zip past the food commercials without becoming tempted. Be aware that television can stimulate appetite, so restricting your television viewing to only your absolutely favorite program without commercials is an excellent idea. Reading is a better activity because it will often put you in a relaxed state preparatory to sleep. Spending quality time with your diet buddy in person or online should also prove supportive, if you did not see that person at work during the day.
9PM: Yes it isn't late yet, but you are getting up early tomorrow, and in a week from now, you may be arising earlier because you might be taking a longer walk. Besides, you have to prepare for bed because if you stay up too much later, your digestive system is going to figure out it was tricked by the roughage at dinner and demand more food.
9:30PM: Lights out. You need your eight hours of rest! Having trouble getting to sleep? Look for a one-time group session with a local area psychologist who will teach you to elicit the "relaxation response," also known as self-hypnosis. The clinic may be offered through a local community group. A multi-person setting is better than a one-on-one session, because the demonstrated ability of others to relax reinforces the effect, making it easier for you to also achieve the same goal. It does not matter if you are a hyper person or not. Anyone can do it, because you did it when you were a toddler. Sleep is not a function of going from awake to subconscious. One has to go through a transitional phase to get from awake to asleep. This is what the relaxation response is all about. It is the twilight state. It requires focus to conjure it up. Toddlers do it by staring at a fixed point and then passing out. You do it the same way. You take two deep breaths and let them out slowly and stare at a fixed spot on the wall from a chair in a quiet room. When any other thought enters your mind, you make it go away. You just focus on a spot on the wall and think about absolutely nothing. Eventually, your eyelids become heavy. They close. You think about the number "1" on a one dollar bill. You don't let any other image or thought intrude. You focus on the "1". If you aren't careful, you will fall asleep in that chair! After you are relaxed, you go to bed. You lie on your back on the bed and start with the number "10" from a ten dollar bill. You imagine the "9" of what a nine dollar bill would look like, and then an 8, and a 7 and a 6 and a 5 of the five dollar bill and a 4 and a 3 and a 2 and a 1 of the one dollar bill, and then you get to the number 0. The zero is just floating in outer space. You are floating with it. The zero starts to float down to Earth, and you grap onto the zero and float down with it. No other thought intrudes. All is peace and quiet. That's how I used to go to sleep. Now, I just say my prayers. I'm out within ten seconds thereafter, because prayer is focus and letting go and another gateway to sleep.
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