So … for many months, due to crazy life issues of one happy kind or another, I’ve not been tracking (Wait! Don’t jump in and chastise me! I will do that for you in just a second). And of course my weight was creeping back up, but I had this handy excuse of hypothyroidism (Again … I see you’re just about to crawl out of your skin wanting to whip me – I promise I will self flagellate!). And it HAD to be the hypothyroidism now, didn’t it? I mean – after all, I follow a vegan diet (except when eating out or when someone else prepares a meal for me, I don’t get all ninja over whether there’s an egg in the bread or something. I sometimes settle for vegetarian when I’m out, but am vegan when I’m “in.”) You really don’t see many overweight vegans running around, and I wore that V-word like a magic cape around my shoulders.

But what I was wearing around my HIPS was getting’ a lil tight!

When I re-devote myself to tracking once again, the error of my ways becomes immediately clear … I’m Freaking NUTS!

Nuts. Pecans. Almonds. Walnuts. Cashews. THAT kinda Nutz.

Holy cow, I can’t believe how I’d come to rely on those little nuggets. They were like the little nuclear bombs and I was in the middle of a minefield. My uber-healthy Kashi Go Lean cereal in the morning? I threw in a couple-a tablespoons of toasted almonds. That shredded Brussels sprouts salad I’ve been making constantly that has to be off-the-charts salubrious? Mmmmmm: so much better with several pecans added. A little hungry at 2:30 in the afternoon? Why look: it’s the Blue Diamond Habanero BBQ almonds – just a handful. Certainly don’t want to eat refined sugar, but for dessert, you can’t beat the raw vegan “donut holes” made from walnuts, almonds, spirulina and dates. And check it out: the vegan answer to cream? Is soaked and pureed cashews. Makes soups creamy, makes an enchilada sauce to die for, makes me …. FREAKIN’ NUTS!!!

Now I’m in nut withdrawal. Sheeeeesh. It’s always somethin’, isn’t it?

But the moral of the story isn’t that I need to banish nuts. They’re just too darn wonderful. It’s that I should never have stopped tracking in the first place. I could have easily SEEN that I was headed down the Pistachio Path. Across Walnut Way. Over to Pecan Parkway.

OK. Have at it. Say why you’re dyin’ to say to me. I can take it. I already know I’m nuts.