Ann Benjamin's Blog, page 247

In memoriam: Threes and Fours.

This short story was shared at my grandfather’s memorial on Saturday.  As a St. Patrick’s Day baby, this had special meaning to me…  RIP Grandad.  Thank you for finding creativity in pretty much everything; my childhood was more interesting because of it.

Threes and Fours

by

Robert Berry

The old man ambled across the park, his wife of fifty-four years and another married couple with them. The women, chatting about their children and grand children, the men talking about the economy and their football team’s chances of going to the next year’s Super Bowl.

He casually bent down and picked a four-leaf clover, holding by the stem between his thumb and index finger of his left hand. Several yards later he spotted another four-leaf clover. Picking it he placed it next to the one he already held. At the back of his mind was the thought of making his wife a bouquet.

After repeating the maneuver several times, his friend’s wife asked him,

“How do you do that?”

“Do what?” he answered.

“Find so many four leaf clovers,” she said.

He paused a minute, then said, “Just don’t look at the threes.”

He started to turn away, then turned back. “I’ll show you what I mean.”

He spotted what looked like a four-leaf clover, but knew it was not. Moving the leaves of the plant he showed her how a three overlapped another three with just one of the hidden plant’s leaves showing making it look like four leaves on one plant.

A few steps further on he stopped again. “There is a four-leaf clover about eighteen inches from your left foot, “ he said. She looked for several minutes and then with a triumphant cry picked her first four-leaf clover.

As they strolled along, the old man thought that leading a happy life was like finding four leaf clovers. You concentrated on fours and ignored the threes.

Drumroll please, the results are in!

So, I’ve been on the C9 cleanse since last Sunday, and barring one or two cheats, I’ve actually been honest about following the program.  Apologies, as I meant to post this on Tuesday, but then life got in the way a bit…

With 1.5 kgs lost (!) and a few inches, here are my big takeaways:

This program gave me crazy insomnia.  I’m already a bad sleeper and this seemed to exacerbate things…  I stopped taking the pills with dinner, because I was turning into a zombie.  Your results may vary.
While it’s good to cut out unnecessary things like sugar and caffeine and alcohol, the calorie restriction felt overwhelming at times.
Aloe vera juice is flat out horrible and disgusting.  I couldn’t bring myself to take the suggested amount after the first morning.
I have will power, which is great, but going forward, I should do better to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  It’s no secret when losing weight, it just takes commitment (something I’ve been lacking).
I’m not sure if the two are related, but between my no sleep and lack of calories, I am convinced my immunity level dropped and I picked up my first (terrible) cold in a year (really, I don’t usually get sick).
Let’s see how quickly I gain the weight back!
Balancing weight loss and being a foodie isn’t an easy thing!

Have you tried the C9 program?  Do you have any secrets to drinking aloe juice?

Sunday Sentence.

How will God, if there is a God, remember us? Will he even know our names? All stories end when they have returned to their beginnings. What can we do but remember in his stead?

Justin Cronin, City of Mirrors

I managed to get a copy of this via NetGalley and absolutely tore through the final book in the trilogy.  This isn’t a spoiler, just one of the many gorgeous lines from the novel.  When it is available, I highly suggest picking up a copy!

Week by Numbers.

I’ve…sort of neglected this for a few weeks, but I’m back!

71 pages, the Queen series (book #2) is coming along
21,088 words, is where I’m at and hoping to hit 25K in the near future… Which puts me about 1/3-1/4 through the rough draft.
???, weight lost.  While the plan I’m on tells me I should’ve checked, I’m going to go for a big reveal on Monday.
0, amount of caffeine I have consumed since starting the diet, including very limited processed sugar (which, unfortunately, has had no impact on my insomnia, except to make it worse somehow).
1, nice write up of me over on MediaSource
1, dog we took out for a walk on Saturday.  Yay Smint!  (If you live in Dubai, why not check out K9 Friends?)
1, book, I really enjoyed (Sarah Maas, Court of Mist and Fury).

In honor of the alcohol I am not drinking, your .gif of the week:

Author Challenge, Day 18: Food!

I like food so much, I started an entire blog dedicated to it.

Here are some recent snaps from my A to Za’atar Instagram… If you like what you see, please feel free to follow!

 

Your daily introvert.

As I am at home most days procrastinating working on a book, this is practically my entire being.  Original artist found here.

Author Challenge, Day 17: Quote From Your Favorite Book

As I cannot pick one favorite book, I think I’ll share a quote I’ve used for one of my Sunday sentences:

“No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful.”

It’s from Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline and I still think it’s awesome.

 

Author Challenge, Day 16: Motivational Monday

I’m less motivated these days and more functional (if that makes sense).  And for my practical, check-things-off-the-list self, I’ll share this:

What’s motivating you these days?

On the topic of weight loss.

Replace ‘Nick’ with ‘Ann’ and you’d be right!

As my hiatus goes into its fourth month, I realize I am nowhere close to the goal weight I had initially set out myself.  (Probably, it has something to do with launching a food blog, but that’s just a guess).

At a recent charity event, we won the C9 detox cleanse (!) and it also happened that a friend had just come off experimenting completing the system.  As her weight loss was encouraging, I decided ‘why not?’  To be fair, I’ve never done something like this before.  Yes, I’ve done a boot camp (with little to no results), so I’m curious how this effort will end (and how quickly I will gain back the weight).  With less than a month until our trip home (gots to look good), I’m glad to have a regime to follow.  Whether or not I lose 1kg or 1lb, it will be nice to kick off a bit better effort in my health!

Do you have any hints or suggestions?  I know what equation works for me, but can’t seem to find the motivation to kick it up like I did for Vegas.

Sunday Sentence.

An old Ukrainian proverb warns, “A tale that begins with a beet will end with the devil.”

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins