My dogs, annoying as they can be when they’re barking at 2 a.m. or using the kitchen rug as a litter box, are pretty entertaining. One of my favorite things they do to entertain me? When Sara leaves the house while they’re in our backyard and unaware. Then I let them back in, and they make a mad dash around the entire house for about five minutes searching for their mama. They systematically check every room two or three times before figuring out what’s going on. It’s adorable and funny and I take a little too much pleasure in their confusion.

Anyway, not much to report from yesterday. At some point last night, in the midst of drinking my second smoothie of the day, I remarked to Sara that I felt like this Detox Week was going easier than the last one, and it also felt like I was eating a lot more. I seem to recall being much hungrier consistently throughout the first days of this thing back in December. Maybe I’ve just figured out how to diversify my food selections within the constraints of the plan, maybe I’ve just adjusted more to the decreased carbs and the such since last round. I dunno.

Spent most of the day inside the house working. Finished the first draft of an almost 2,000-word article about gay Jews I’ve been working on for months. I’m going to let it “cool” for a day before I go back at it with my editing eye, and then send it off to my editor while holding my breath.

I also managed to write a new song yesterday. Taking a break from writing, I went into the music room and sat down with my guitar. I actually wrote a few different guitar riffs, but only one really came out with a fully developed structure and vocal melody. I quickly recorded it in GarageBand so I can work with it later, and even started adding some drums to it. Not bad so far. We’ll see how it goes.

Here’s Day Four’s menu, as much as I can remember it. I had the hardest time this morning recalling what I ate between lunch and dinner, so I think this is fairly accurate. If not, sue me:

• Breakfast: Strawberry banana smoothie (with almond milk and 1 tsp sugar)
• Morning snack: One Lemon Bar Larabar
• Late morning snack: One spicy “krispy”
• Lunch: Half order (four pieces) of traditional “pizza” from Go Raw Cafe (raw, sprouted, buckwheat crust topped with “almond cheese,” a blend of basil
  pesto and marinara sauce with veggies and “walnut sausage”) – This is better than you can imagine. Nom nom.
• Afternoon snack: Six or seven chunks of honeydew
• Dinner: Homemade veggie stew (potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower)
• Late night snack: Another strawberry-banana smoothie, this time with a teaspoon of peanut butter (nomz!)
• Beverages: Water all day, maybe a few sips of Kombucha tea

Have band practice today, but first I think I’m going to get some housecleaning done. It’s waaaay overdue.