8/8: Pre-Colonoscopy diet discouraged :(

8/8: I just wrote a whole crap load and the website just decided that it was not going to save it. So it's gonna be one of THOSE days. Already having a rough start and trying to vent.......uggg. So as I was saying, I guess I'll have to start all over again......

The plan for today was to hit up REI to return some stuff and buy some other stuff. I have a $20 bonus gift card that I have to use before 8/26 from my last shopping spree at REI since I spent over $100. I also wanted to go to my favorite health food store (for out here; Trader Joe's, Sprouts, and Whole Foods still rock more!), Wegman's. I have to lump the two trips together since they are both in the same area and that area is over an hour away. But then I thought to myself, what's the point of going to the health food s tore if I can't eat any of the stuff I buy for like 4 days. It'd be a tease.....have it in the apartment to look at it knowing I can't eat it. So I decided to run some errands here locally. I was totally bad this morning and had homemade nut milk (cashew this week since I ran out of almond) with my coffee. I know, nuts are on my list of what I'm supposed to avoid right now. Then I was stoked cause I got to go to Dunkin' Donuts to get a toasted Blueberry Bagel with cream cheese (with my $1.39 coupon!). I couldn't have my standard high fiber cereal breakfast so I had an excuse to eat unhealthy white flour!

I then went to the bank to pick up dollar bills for all the stupid tolls out here for my road trip and rolls of quarters to do laundry on my road trip in case I am too lazy to hand wash (guaranteed I'll be too lazy and will use the washing machine every opportunity I come across). I stopped by Target to return some stuff and peruse all the aisles for stuff I might "need" for my road trip, but not really "need". I picked up a slim line Brita filter. I have a Brita that I use in my apartment every day for everything, but it's too big to bring on the road trip and I was racking my brain at what I could do to still be able to use my Brita filter (without the bulky pitcher) on my road trip. While I was there in the store debating on whether or not it was small enough, I did some Googling of what Brita actually filters out. I've been Googling the Sawyer mini filter (for like backpacking) at REI since that filters for harmful bacteria. My brother has a few and I've had the water filtered from them and I don't always like the taste. So this is my conclusion after the Sawyer and Brita research. The Sawyer filter will actually filter small enough to keep me from getting sick (from bacterial contaminants), Brita filters already drink-safe water and basically makes it taste better (from my point of view, anyways (I'm sure people will argue that it filters out harmful minerals in drinking water; since it's just a carbon filter, like the ones I used to keep for my fish tanks). I drink a LOT of water since I cut out soda and juices. I need it to taste good to keep drinking it as my main source of hydration. Conclusion: I need to have Brita filtered water on my road trip. I'm not saying that I won't buy or use a Sawyer filter as well, but for purely taste reasons, I need water to taste good, to me, in order for me to continue to drink it without artificially flavoring it with....crap. Water issue on road trip: resolved!

I also picked up a Crock Pot Lunch Crock. It doesn't cook food like a crock pot, just made by the same company. It heats food up. So I still haven't decided if I need it. I need to keep things to a minimal in the car and right now the kitchen stuff seem to be taking over all the space. Between the water filter situation, the 5 gallon water container I plan to order from Amazon to make sure I have access to water at all times, the coffee maker (that I feel is ABSOLUTELY necessary) and the blender (which I also feel is absolutely necessary), the propane tanks, the single propane burner, the small pot (old personal sized rice cooker insert that washes way easy, with steamer attachment - from my grandmother that I couldn't toss once the heating element portion of the rice cooker broke) and a small cast iron pan (a gift from a friend for the trip :), and the cooler, I'm not sure I have enough room. I really want to be able to cook most of my meals on the road. Or at a minimum have enough unprocessed healthy packaged foods to eat that I'm not eating in fast food establishments or restaurants much. I figure with the propane stove I can make whole grains, beans, oatmeal, soups, and steamed veggies. With the frying pan, I can make eggs, potatoes, and maybe some fish. I figure, when I stop to cook while camping (or in a hotel...shhhh, no propane indoors), I can make enough that I can have left overs and store in my cooler. But really, if I'm driving during the day and sightseeing, I'm not going to stop to pull out my propane burner to heat food up for lunch. I'm also kind of a hot lunch kinda girl; it's why I don't really like sammiches (well that, and I LOVE

white bread, but stopped eating it). So if I have the crock pot lunch heater. I can throw left overs in there and have it heat while I drive or sightsee and then it'll be ready for me when I get back to my car....courtesy of the solar panel! Yeah, after reading that, I'm still not sure I have convinced myself I need it enough to give up more space.

Next stop: Costco to return the battery that I didn't end up using once I found a better one at Wal-Mart. I also picked up some fresh veggies (baby cucumbers and baby tomatoes), which I am not even sure I am supposed to eat due to the pre-colonoscopy diet. I also tried some of the Tuscan bean salad at the taster station since I've been eyeing that and wanted to know how it tasted before I bought it. Yeah, I'm pretty sure bean salad is high and fiber and I'm probably shouldn't have had that either. I'm glad I tried it though cause it was decent and so next time (when I can get back to my regular diet), I'll know I can buy it. I also tried some of the Crunchmasters seed crackers. :) Ha Ha, also not on he approved pre-colonoscopy diet. This is much harder than I would think to stay away from healthy food. For lunch I thought I could have a hot dog, but I just wasn't hungry for that. I want my healthy food. After all the excitement of having a good reason to eat unhealthy, (last night I went to Applebee's and got the 2 for $20 special. Yes, 2 entrees and appetizer for lil ole me! I was too embarrassed to sit down and order for fear of being judged, so I did take out- Bacon cheeseburger, BBQ french fries, riblets with sweet Asian sauce, crunchy potatoes, and spinach artichoke dip. And the bagel this morning) I'm over it. I want my healthy food back! After years and years of counting calories, watching my sodium intake, making sure I have the right amount of fiber and protein, measuring all the food I eat, I don't have to do that anymore. After a few weeks of significantly cutting back on meat, cutting back on processed foods, eating high fiber, whole grains, and whole foods, I find that I can eat whatever I want within those guidelines. I make myself dinner and put it in a bowl and I eat it, without weighing it or measuring it and if I want more, I just go get more. When I want to snack, I snack, and eat as much of it as I want. I pour it in a bowl and eat it. I don't weigh it and when i want seconds, I just go pour more in a bowl without feeling guilty about having more than what is a portion size. I didn't think that I would ever say that I would way rather eat healthy food than unhealthy, but after 2 meals, I want to be able to eat my high fiber food. :( So the Costco hot dog, pizza, polish dog, brat, just didn;t appeal to me. :( I think I might Google vegetarian approved pre-colonoscopy diets, cause at this rate, I'm not going to make it to colonoscopy, fiber, nut and seed-free. :( But I really need to do a good job prepping cause it's important to me that I find out what's wrong with me.

Still not sleeping well at night so this morning I was only operating on 3 hours of sleep. I took a 2 hour nap and while walking Weeze after, I had a chance to really think about whether or not I needed hot lunches as part of this trip. What it comes down to is that since I am not eating much meat, having hot lunches is not as much of a necessity as it used to be when I was eating meat. I'd rather make the room for my Brita tasting water, coffee pot, and blender. I feel those are much more important and deal breakers than the hot food. So the Crockpot Lunch Crock is going back to the store!



Time to head over and work on my car some before dinner.

I was able to get the inverter mounted today. Unfortunately, placement didn't work out with where I wanted the whole system to go. Once I mounted the inverter, I wanted to push the entire set up as far back as I could under the glove box. With the inverter mounted, I wouldn't have enough clearance to push the set up as far back as I wanted while also blocking my ability to open the glove box. So I unmounted it and figured that i woudl mount it on top of whatever system I put in place to make storage possible above the battery system. Essentially I was looking into putting in some type of shelf thing.

Next car project: switching out the hardware on the solar panel install. Sorry, buddy. I was talking to a friend's neighbor and he suggested that since the panel is mounted on the outside of my car and going to be exposed to weather, I upgrade my hardware to stainless steel and to also increase the bolt size to as large as the holes allowed. I currently was using #10 size machine screws. So the other night when I was at Home Depot getting screws to mount the charge controller, I got a whole new set of hardware (at 1/4"), including Nyloc nuts. I was able to change out 1 set tonight before it started to get dark. I didn't take before and after pics since I am embarrassed that I didn't have the patience to evenly apply pressure while tightening down the bolts on each side of the fastener like I was taught to do; I did make an effort, but because of the increase in difficulty to get Nyloc nuts on , I had some issues and the end result is that it doesn't look like I made an effort at all! The friend's neighbor also made a suggestion that I secure a safety chain to the panel and my roof rack as well, just in case the mounting system did fail. I looked into it, but at this point, I think that might be a little more overkill than I need. I already think that for a month and a half of travel, the stainless hardware wasn't really necessary, but since I had to by Nyloc nuts to replace the existing ones, I figure it couldn't hurt to take as many preventative measures and caution as possible.

After it started getting dark and calling it quits, I decided to go putter around at Home Depot to see if I could find the extension cord and outlets that I was looking for and maybe try to get an idea for the shelving thing for over my battery since the left over pallet wood I have wasn't going to be sufficient. I had to head over to that area anyways since I need to pick up some groceries in preparation of the colonoscopy. With all the reading I was doing, it sounded like hydration was going to be important and it was also suggested that I get something pleasantly flavored (without dye) to mix the Miralax with. So I picked up some Gadorade to help replenish electrolytes and some organic peach flavored tea. So I have some options for flavoring to mix my 64 ounces of liquid I'll have to be drinking for the Miralax. I also picked up some Naked juice that I hoped would pass for "fruit juices (without sediment)" for my day of fasting. I realize it isn't clear and has sediment, but it has 0 grams of fiber?....... (shrugging my shoulders). I thought a little sugar and nutrients would be good while fasting? I mean, I do have to have enough energy to get through the day at work without coffee! I figure at the very least I have it here at the house and if I decide not to have it, I can definitely drink it after I get my colonoscopy. I probably will still be dehydrate and I heard possibly nauseous as well. So despite having fasted, I might not be able to keep food down initially. I also picked up some organic white shells mac and cheese to make tomorrow. I can't possibly continue to eat

out for every meal until this procedure is over.

Home Depot: After walking around the whole store and not finding the extension cord and outlets that I was looking for and not finding exactly the right shelving material I was looking for to make it myself or the right size storage bin I could modify to use, I saw these stackable storage baskets that I thought could be perfect, with some modifications of course! They were supposed to have green and black in addition to this hideously non-discrete blue, but at this store, all they had was the blue. So at the suggestion of the check out lady, I went down to Customer Service and had them call another Home Depot that showed they had 21 in black and asked that they put two on hold for me to pick up tomorrow (it was already 9:30 pm and I still had to head to the grocery store next door so I didn't plan on making it before closing tonight). I bought the blue one to make sure it would fit for what I was looking for. I think it will (planning on cutting off the 2 legs and the 2 inch lip, moving the charge

controller, and hopefully I can fit it to lie flat) , but I guess we will see tomorrow!