It takes about 21 days of not eating sugar to transform your tongue into a tastebud-touting, pleasure producer. In 2011 Terry and I quit sugar by getting it out of our home and consequently our diet and it was a shock to both of us how sweet vegetables became after those 21 days. Fruit is so sweet it's like biting into a candy bar and whenever I've eaten cake or ice cream on rare occasions, they are sickenly sweet and I feel awful afterwards. In fact every time I've eaten sugar I get a hangover like I'd been on some kind of drinking binge.

You ought to try cutting sugar out of your diet for just 21 days and see if you aren't shocked too. 21 days, just three weeks, and by that time you'll have established a new habit and you won't miss sugar at all.

Here's a post that comes from a very happy eater and I wanted to share with you what she discovered.

This spring I decided to feed the birds peanuts. I put a big pile of nuts on our deck and they sat there unnoticed for days! When I thought about it, I realized I hadn't seen the birds that love peanuts (the Steller's Jays) for quite awhile and wondered if they'd been off on a winter vacation in Hawaii. 

Then a couple of weeks ago we had the Craig's (our neighbors) over for lunch and my conversation with Shay went something like this:

Me in a rather confrontational tone (Shay knew I was playing with her), "Are you, by any chance, feeding MY birds?"

Shay, "Uh, which ones?"

Me, "The Steller's."

Shay, "Well, uh, yeah."

Me, "What are you feeding them?"

"Peanuts."

"What time?"

"About 8:00 in the morning."

"So that's where they are! They're going over to your house and filling up on your nuts and they're not coming here. Do you call 'em?"

"Yeah, I whistle, do you?"

"No I can't whistle, but I use a shrill, very high-pitched voice and say, 'Come on birdies!'"

"Yeah, we've heard you."

Until we wise up, we tend to go to someone outside ourselves for help when the answers to most of our problems are within. You know that feeling that comes to you when you know something isn't right? That's a sign that you're always guided to do what's best for you, even though you don't always listen. 

Even when you don't listen, that's okay, because when you choose not to listen, your guidance will always show up again when you're in a similar need for guidance. Here's an example of not listening and then finally listening. 

Do you like to shop for spring clothes at Ross Dress for Less? Do you make the same mistake I make, if I'm not careful?

The other day I had a half hour to kill,  so I decided I’d go to Ross and just browse. I’m sure this isn’t right, but I do it often, especially at Ross; I buy something not because I really love it, but because its original price is horrifyingly high and the mark down is too good to pass up.

Think about how fun it is to start a new project when it's something you love to do? Say you love to knit, quilt, work on car motors or read your favorite author, as long as you love the action, chances are you'll enjoy the project. But what about those projects you don't necessarily like to do? How can we get the same emotional joy at the start of one of those projects and keep it going to the finish?

Somehow we have to find inspiration to do them. Motivation from someone worked when you were a child, and your mom got you to do things you didn't want to do by holding a consequence over your head. But now that you're an adult, it's a good idea to find ways to talk yourself into doing those things you don't really want to do, but should to make your life better. 

Limit watching the news and you'll be happier for it.

Back in 1929 when the stock market crashed, we didn’t have CNN or FOX or news on the Internet. Our grandparents (or great grandparents in some cases) didn’t get over-fed the news 24-7. They got a newspaper once a day (maybe) and they listened to the radio (maybe).

Because of this age of information we can be (if we choose) bombarded with bad news because the access is as close as our finger on the clicker or the mouse on our computer or the thumb on our phone. It’s one thing to be aware of what is going on in the world, our country and our community, but it’s quite another to watch the reruns and regurgitated opinions of “the experts” as they re-hash the re-runs while we click to another channel to watch the news covered from a different camera angle.

The GOOD NEWS is that to the media, the only newsworthy material is what is negative AND sensational. Dog Bites Man, is not “news.” Man Bites Dog (and don’t forget to put music behind the story) is. (I learned that from my journalist husband.) It is the extraordinary that makes “the news.” So most everything you see on the news is unusual and extraordinary. IT IS NOT THE NORM. But we in our naivety (or stupidity) allow our sweet minds to watch what happened not once but on the hour until the next day when the next batch of bad news is ready. How many times do you have to watch the bank robber caught on tape? Isn’t once enough?

We cause ourselves needless suffering

I know we’re human and most of us are naturally curious about bad news.

A good rule of your green thumb is Plan, Prepare, Purchase, Plant. If you try to prepare and plant at the same time, you’ll poop out and then those plants that you’ve taken into your care face possible death. Of course it’s not premeditated, but the plants will be just as dead.

 Death by good intention

Have you ever seen a honey bee that’s got so much pollen on her feet and thighs that she can barely fly? I often wonder if some of them never make it back to their hives they’re so overloaded. 

If you're the outdoorsy type you're probably excited for spring. No matter where you live, there's nothing like seeing a cloudy day clear up and having the sun come shining through the gloom and getting out in the fresh air.

April, here in the Pacific Northwest, gets a lot of rain, but we get used to it, or we move to someplace sunny. Most of us don't own umbrellas, well a few BOs (Born Organized) do, we just have easy hair dos that can get wet and we learn to dash, our speed depending on the severity of the rainfall. "Movie" rain is the only rain fall that keeps us inside. We're like the wild animals around here who don't worry about getting wet. 

Today was intermittent "movie" rain all day long. We built a fire and I pulled out my spring wardrobe and got out the ironing board. Then I turned on Pandora for some music. I was not prepared for what happened next.