Another week slides by , our 23 rd month in LA . After a long winter the Atypical conditions of SoCal have shown just in time for St.Patricks day . St.Patricks day and Hermosa Beach go hand in hand . Today’s the day Hermosa awakens from winter , the crowds , the parade , the bars and the bikinis return .We still don’t finish winter until March 20 ,you wouldn’t know it this weekend .
Of course this coincides with the 3rd week of our health conscious diet , a tough juncture on self discipline. Ahh ……. I’m just hanging in there .
The continual hunger has got the better of me and my portion size and snacking has increased . Still , I’m not eating carbs or sugar ……until Friday night . It was time to gather for the kids basketball season party and bbq . The esky ( cooler ) had a couple of IPAs , a bottle of sav Blanc and a bottle of Pino ( cheap and pretty good here ) . Geezus we are not gonna drink all this are we? 
You bet .
Your taste buds : they’ve adjusted . You still crave and want stuff , with a memory of how things taste , but that’s where the shock comes in . The IPA blew my head off on the 1st mouthful. It was so powerful , sweet and lacked subtlety. The flavour burst was an assault on the taste buds , I gave my 2nd can away . My 1st cup of red wine ( a mixed red ) had me grimacing . What the fuck am I drinking ? Is this cherry juice ? It’s the sugar , your tongue picks it up instantly and sends a message to your brain imploring you to spit it out . …Not here , I tell myself . Leo , one of our neighbours asks what I think of the wine ? I politely tell him I like it . It’s when he turns around in another conversation that I quickly tip it out so know one can see . The wine is probably fine it’s just that my tastebuds are hyper sensitive . Don’t worry I get over it quickly and it’s not before long that I drank Pino , cabsav , anything dry red and finish with a mouthful of Nates straight bourbon ( awful ) . With alcohol , snacking is mandatory . Crisps ( yes we all them chips ) savoury biscuits and anything salty is tough to resist . That means carbs , fuck I miss them , and shit they still taste good . ……..The next morning is where I feel it , the hangover is worse than usual and 3 weeks prior to this weekend I’d probably have woken up only slightly jaded . …… That’s where the pain doubles up , it’s the St.Patricks day parade and there’s Guinness flowing , hotdogs sizzling and burgers wafting . Fuck … this ain’t fair .
Finally , observations have leant me to the obvious change in your tastebuds . Sugar , you sense it dramatically when it arrives . I’m coming around to all those fitness junkies who view sugar as the enemy . They’re onto something , you don’t need it , and when shopping for products it’s incredibly hard to find stuff without it . Even a bag of broccoli I bought that is prepackaged and set up for steaming by microwaving the bag had 2 grams of sugar added . I couldn’t believe it . The 3rd week completed and it’s still tough , more so the social events and alcohol which I won’t quit on ( ever ) . I still feel good but I feel I may not have dropped much if any weight this week . The plateau was inevitable . Next week : cyclical Keto ……….Yes there’s more ………until then ,keep drinking Guiness .
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