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Lately...people have been coming up to me, people I've known a while, and giving me the oddest compliments. Today for example, my downstairs neighbor told me how great I looked. Let's keep in mind, I was coming back from the laundry-mat, had a coat and hat on, and no makeup. And yesterday...had the following conversations with co-workers:

Co-worker 1: It's more than just the weight, you look amazing. It's chemical. Your skin is different. And it's almost as if you have a glow? It's as if you are a completely different person. And I never noticed before how incredibly pretty you are. Whatever you've been doing - keep up the good work. [Weirdly, I was not feeling all that great when she told me this, having digestive issues - but nothing serious. Just ate one too many nuts - I find that I've been using nuts to deal with food cravings.]

Co-worker 2: God, you're so skinny, I'm so jealous of you. [It's probably worth mentioning, that I've not lost any weight since the 40-46 pounds. And technically speaking - I'm still a good 15-20 pounds away from my medically approved weight/BMI and my goal.]

So...this does help provide incentive to continue doing the diet and the therapy. It isn't easy. Can't eat 75% of the stuff at Whole Foods. None of the prepared stuff - except for the roitsseri chicken. Although on the plus side - I'm saving a ton of money. Also, it's faster - I just have to stick to the front of the store - or the fresh veggies, meat and fish and nuts sections. And I'm done.

Learning a lot about eating...and our spiritual and emotional relationships with food.
There are certain food triggers - food that triggers a binge in certain people. Yes, food can be as addictive as drugs. Not for everyone perhaps, but some. Just like smoking and alcohol aren't addictive for everyone.

( Read more... )

A Tale of Two Sherlock Holmes...Elementary and the BBC's Sherlock!

I'm not completely certain you can compare Elementary and Sherlock - since the intent behind the two series is quite different.

The BBC's series, Sherlock (at least I think it's the BBC's...it's on PBS (public broadcasting system) here) is really just a quick character study or taste. It has no more then 3-6 episodes each season, and often huge gaps between seasons. It feels more like a "mini-series" or a series of made for television specials. Yet highly serialized. You'd be a bit lost if you watched this season, without watching the prior seasons. The characters feel a wee bit more exaggerated and archetypal yet modernized versions of Conan Doyle's originals. And there's almost a romanticism attached to them. The series slants towards the comical or humorous,and Sherlock is described as a talented sociopath, although he doesn't quite fit the clinical description of one. If anything he strikes me more as ausperger's syndrome or autistic...in his inability to quite deal with others. And the focus is on the relationship between Sherlock and Watson. Sherlock's addictions are not touched on, yet he's a bit frenetic, talking a mile a minute, jumping about, as if he were on some sort of drug.
Watson in direct contrast..is a bit mild-mannered, soft-spoken, bumbling, and careful. He's compassionate, and emotional. Sherlock struggles with emotion and can't quite handle it.
It bewilders him. He tends to wall it off.

Also on the BBC series - the cases are flung at us. Sometimes more than one. And at a frantic pace. Technology is a big deal, and Sherlock's mind feels at times as if we are inside a computer. In fact the writers and Cumberbatch appear to play Sherlock as if he were a robot, a highly functioning robot. Calculating and deducting as a robot would, without taking into consideration the human element.

In stark contrast, the CBS series Elementary - which takes place in New York as opposed to Sherlock's London, and features a female Watson, who is also a surgeon, is less frentic in its pacing and plot structure. Sherlock Holmes, played by Johnny Lee Miller, doesn't speak at a rapid pace, he's speaks slower and more precisely, biting off each syllable. He's covered in tattoos and is rather muscular, while Cumberbatch's Sherlock is younger, has no tattoos (is this an American thing?) and less muscular. One works out, the other does not. And he's a recovering addict. He met Joan Watson, because he was an addict, and she'd been hired to assist in his recovery. So he's more subdued than the BBC's version, quieter, more contained, less frantic.

( major plot spoilers for both series )