Today was my first day on the Longevity Diet.  I restricted my calories and ate only highly nutritious foods today with the exception of having two glasses of wine tonight at dinner with my dear friend Patricia.  We went to McMennamin’s and sat out on the deck that overlooks the bike paths that run along the Willamette River.  The view is always breath-taking yet at the same time rather common place having lived here for so long.  Strangely, it reminded me of when my husband and I stopped over in Las Vegas a couple of years ago on our way to a bike tour of Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park.  We chuckled inside when we saw people eating in restaurants with tables situated near synthetic reproductions of river banks and streams.  We realized  two very important things on that trip; how fortunate we are to live in the beautiful Northwest where dining next to a river is an everyday experience and secondly, that we really don’t like Las Vegas.

I almost made my daily goal of 1450 calories but fell short by having 100 more calories than I was supposed to.  According to the book, I can make it up so I will have to have just 1350 tomorrow.  The goal is to average your calories over a week to deal with the reality of situations that life thrusts upon us.  Like the bittersweet dinner we will be having with my son and daughter-in-law tomorrow night.  It will be our farewell dinner to them; they will be leaving for New York in just one week.  We have to say our good-bye’s early because we will be visiting my father in California for a few days immediately before their sorry departure.  My father is turning 80 and that’s a birthday I am just not willing to miss.  I don’t know how long we will have him with us given that serpent of a disease he has.  It is hard to believe that it was about this time last year that we had gone on a 15-mile bike ride with him along the very same bike path that I sat next to at dinner tonight.  I thought about him in flashes but never talked about him; I wonder why that is…maybe it’s just too painful right now.