Continuing some earlier tweaks, I also ate beans almost every day, until Friday.

When I got a bad case of food poisoning!

That kind of did away with the fruits and veg and beans for a few days. Once I started eating again, I am afraid I could only stomach simple carbs and bananas. I actually ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches on white bread.

White bread!

And I don’t mean a nice artisan bread, but soft Arnold white bread.

(I sent someone to buy the white bread, because it is not something I have around.)

But it’s fine. I am almost back to normal, eating some fruits and veg and even tuna.

This week, tweak seven, will be most appropriate for someone who was at an advanced state of dehydration over the weekend: I am going to drink 64 oz. of water per day, every day. More if I do more than a little exercise.

And I am going to count refills of my Sigg bottle, so there’s no question whether I did it or not.

I figure this one is both do-able (for a week when I am not quite 100%) and essential. I have always been a water drinker, but I don’t always have the recommended eight 8-oz. glasses. Seems like a good time to start.

How are you, readers?

How’s your tweaking going?

Is anyone out there?!?!?!?!?!

How’s it going?

If you remember, my tweak was to eat beans every day.

Well, I haven’t quite.

Sunday: cannelini beans in soup for dinner

Monday and Tuesday: no beans

Wednesday: pre-packaged Tasty Bite brand Madras Lentils (which actually appears to consist of black lentils and kidney beans) for lunch

Thursday: cuban style black beans for lunch

Monday and Tuesday it just didn’t happen.  I  left it for dinner time and on Monday I felt gassy, sorry to be graphic.  (As I said, beans are nothing new to me, so I don’t assume they were the reason).  Tuesday I just plain forgot.

No worries!  Onwards.  If anything, I have learned it may be best to plan to do something X number of days a week, but not seven.  Too hard.

I hope it is going well for you?   If not, focus on identifying a great idea for next week.

What would make life better?

Well, this was a short tweak, New Year’s Day coinciding with a Tuesday. If you prefer to start the week on Sundays as I do, you only had to endure it for five days.

In my own case, it was not difficult at all.

Was it worthwhile? Yes, and no.

Since I’d prefer to eat less fried food and fewer simple carbohydrates, it might seem like my last tweak (giving up french fries) was a good idea. In practice, five days is not long and probably too short to notice.

I do wonder, though, that I seemed to be craving simple carbs even more during this time. So in effect, I probably ate more potatoes and white rice than I might normally in five days. Again, not an enormous amount. But it gave me pause for thought.

So here’s what I am taking away from the tweak: if I want to tweak my diet (using the word in the broader sense), it might be best if I added things, rather than subtracting them. Forbidding foods seems to make me want them more, or at least similar ones, and this seems self-defeating.

I did in fact make an additional diet “tweak” this week, though it was not planned nor “official.” I ate steel cut (Irish) oats for breakfast. I like steel cut oats. I had them the last five mornings.

For those not familiar, Irish or steel cut oats are more whole-grainy than regular American oats or “oatmeal.” They take a while to cook. Cooking them in a pan can be messy and take a while. Microwaves work. But my preferred method is to stick them in the rice cooker, with the amount of water specified on the package. I then add dried fruit, a good amount, which rehydrates using some of the water. (It’s not an exact science, but if you intend to add a lot of dried fruit, then you might need a bit of extra water.) I then run the rice cooker on the normal setting, and when it’s done, stir it.

I have done this with all kinds of dried fruits, including peaches, Trader Joe’s “just flattened bananas,” mangoes, and apricots, but my favorite right now is dried pineapple, which rehydrates and cooks nicely. I throw a few chopped nuts on top, and it keeps me going until the afternoon. I should note that normally, I have little or no use for dried fruit, which I find to be too dry and sweet. But rehydrated, it’s just cooked fruit.

Sometimes, as a special treat, I use the flattened dried bananas and a tablespoon of dark chocolate chips. With nuts. Very decadent, but not unhealthy. (Unless you’re really avoiding simple carbs, and not just dancing around them as I am.) This is a good way to get skeptical people (like picky boyfriends and children) to try steel cut oats, and then later, you can slip them the pineapple, and they’re happy. (Note: This has been tested on picky boyfriends, but not children or others; your mileage may vary.)

Anyway, I might have made this my tweak, but after five days, I might need a wee break from the oats.

So this week, in continuing with my goal of eating more whole foods, and in the spirit of adding, not banning foods, I am going to eat some beans (legumes, not green beans) every day. (”Some beans” need not be a lot.)

I like beans. I am not a vegetarian, but I eat them often. But not every day. And I think it would be a good economical thing as well as healthful thing to do so. (And would you believe, I often prefer to boil my own, in the rice cooker? Easiest thing in the world. Recipe next time if anyone is reading this and interested and has a rice cooker. That’s a lot of ifs.)

Finally, as I said the other day, I keep getting weird urges to do other things on my long list of possible future tweaks. I cleaned my desk, and started on the steel cut oats, both probably a bigger achievement than my “official” tweak this week. And now I have the urge to exercise more vigorously. I will be continuing to give in to these whims, as they arise, and not wait to make them “official” tweaks. I do hope they continue.

How about you?

Did your tweak suit you? Or not? Did you do it, or abandon it? Will it continue next week?

Remember, no pressure, no guilt. What you are doing is fine. You’re still here, right? It wasn’t a New Year’s Reoslution, just a tweak.

And since it’s all about where we are right now, and what we’ll do next,

What are you tweaking this week?

Please comment below and let us know!

My first tweak was going to be to tackle a long-delayed task every week. I have a number of them, small ones many of them, so I thought I would just pick one at random and see if I could get it done. And I did, today. Which makes me think that is not the kind of tweak that is in the spirit of this endeavor. Or is it? Should I be doing (or resisting!) something every day?

As you know, the spirit of 52tweaks is that it’s not about rules or overhauling your entire life in one day. Which–it occurs to me–were exactly the kinds of resolutions I’d make in the past. Before New Year’s Eve. And they’d be discarded usually even before New Year’s Day, when I would wake up on a day off feeling slothful, and thinking, “maybe tomorrow.” When you have to do something for a year, or forever, why not try and get another day before starting?

My own answer to Renee is that yes– a manageable task planned and completed: what could be better?

Remember, this is supposed to be easy and do-able, in the way past resolutions were not (at least for me).

But do what you need to do. If your tweak was too manageable, or not manageable enough, then tweak it. No need to wait.

I am finding my tweak manageable too, as I expected. But this whole experience is making me mindful of other changes. I feel like just having made a list of possible future tweaks, I may be unconsciously implementing some of them without planning to. As I mentioned in the comments yesterday, I was led to clean my desk: no promise necessary.

I wonder if others will experience that too.

I also added some static pages which might help you determine your first “tweak:” the method, rules (don’t let the term fool you), and benefits sections.

What are my goals?

I may not go into too much detail, but I have a pretty concrete idea where I want to go.

It’s pretty scary saying I want to make changes in so many areas, but it won’t happen overnight.

I am willing to accept that small changes, small victories, will add up to bigger ones.

My goals fall under these categories:

• diet
• fitness
• health
• organization
• productivity
• skills
• spiritual

(Note: I know how much weight I want to lose, and just how disorganized my desk is, but I am not going to go into too much detail at this time.)

What goal am I working on this week?

My first tweak falls under (for want of a better word) “diet.” I am not using the word in the narrow sense of restricting calories, nor in the shortsighted sense of “eating a certain way for a period of time and then giving it up.” I mean it more holistically.

My diet is not terrible. I eat lots of vegetables, fruits, and a good amount of wholefoods like legumes. It could be better.

I don’t eat fried foods every day, but I admit a weekness for french fries. If the sandwich comes with fries, I am all over them. I’ve been known to order fries and a salad. Not the worst thing in the world, but I could do with a bit less of them.

My first tweak is not to have any this week. I’m starting at midnight, New Year’s Day.

I know, it is not a very big tweak, but it makes sense to me. It’s a five-day week from 1/1 to the Sunday when my next tweak begins.

We’ll see if I decide then to keep this one up too.

No pressure. That’s the idea.
What are your goals?

What’s your first tweak?

Say as much or as little as you like, but let me know you’re out there, tweaking.

Remember, one small change, one week five days.

We can do this, eh?

Next week, we’ll re-assess and see where to go next.

Onwards!