Raw Food Diet Diary

Today’s Raw Food Diet

• Strawberries (48 oz.)
• Grapes (8 oz.)
• Green Smoothie (7 bananas/3 peaches/ 1 bunch spinach/ 8 oz. water)

On the days that I strictly and successfully follow the raw food diet, it’s because I see myself living it as a lifestyle.  I see myself, in the future, as trim, athletic, free from illness, and having abundant energy.

What about the other days?

I have feelings about what I’m missing out on.  I’ve already mentioned that much of my social life is centered around meal times.

I think about

• Dinner and a movie with my wife . . . both at the same time!
• A weekly Chinese food “date” with my youngest daughter (who is Chinese by birth).
• Our Friday night Mexican food take out.
• Barbeque and Mexican food on the San Antonio Riverwalk with my friends.
• Chocolate milk and donuts with my middle daughter.
• Beer with my colleagues on Fridays after school.
• Sneaking out for a pizza buffet lunch with my colleagues who work across the hall.

And, I wonder how I’ll fill the voids that crop up by not eating that way any more.

Finding enough to do has never been a problem for me . . . even when growing up in a town where there was supposedly “nothing to do.”  I can keep myself as occupied as I want . . . whenever I want.  Sometimes, it even happens when I don’t want it.

However, most of those activities are either work related, household-maintenance related, or things (like writing this blog post) that I do alone.

Granted, it’s easier now than ever to find support for just about any endeavor simply by searching for a group of like-minded people on the Internet and joining it.  Virtual communities (a.k.a. Web 2.0) are springing up all over the place.  In fact, I belong to a raw food diet support community online.

I’ve done the chat thing in the past.  I won’t reveal my online identity here, but I will say that I enjoyed quite an active “virtual social life” for awhile.  After awhile, though, that got old.  The conversations seldom had a lot of depth, many of the chat room denizens were there for purposes other than just socializing, and I came to the realization that I was neglecting my “real world” relationships by hanging out online.  So, I stopped.

I’m confident in my ability to form new bonding experiences with my family.  Granted, we may miss doing some of the old eating-centered ones together, but we’ll get it figured out.

Figuring out how to replace those activites with my friends, on the other hand, is going to take a bit more thought and work.  I’ll talk about that more in another post.

Today’s Raw Food Diet

• Strawberries (3 lb.)
• Grapes (27 oz.)
• Bananas (7)
• Avocado (one-half)

My little trip off of the reservation yesterday cost me 2.5 pounds.  No worries . . . they’ll be gone in two to three days.

Today’s strategy: Eat raw fruits and greens until I’m at the bursting point.  I need to stretch the stomach, and I need to kill any cravings.

I’m not sure that cravings are my number one issue, though.

Hi, my name is Ron, and I’m a raw food diet commitmentphobe.

(By the way, is “commitmentphobe” a real world.  My WordPress editor says it isn’t.  Of course, it says that WordPress isn’t a real word either . . . ) 

Roger Haeske talks about this in his book, Think and Go Raw. Roger says that his epiphany came during a vacation trip when he realized that many of his fondest memories centered around food.  He realized that he was going to have to find new ways to make memories if he intended to stay raw.

That’s my problem.  Most of the social activities that I do with family and friends are centered around food.  And, some of the places I go with them don’t even have a decent salad on the menu to order.

One of the commitments I made to myself is that I would only eat food that I enjoy.  So, if my only salad option is iceberg lettuce with underripe tomatoes, I’m not going to eat it . . . period.

So, if there’s nothing good to eat, what’s my option?

More about this tomorrow.

Well, today I had my Steve Pavlina moment . . .

You may remember that Steve undertook a 30 day trial of the raw food diet at the beginning of this year.  He decided to return to eating cooked food on day 31.  And he paid for it.  Over the next several months, he decided that going raw was the best choice for him.

Today, I detoured from my commitment of eating 21 days raw.

The Princess and I are home alone this week.  Typically, we go out for “fun” foods when Mom is away to take her mind off of her mother’s absence.  She asked this morning if I would take her to Chuck-E-Cheese.

I wasn’t fond of that place when I ate pizza.  I definitely didn’t want to go there now.  So, I suggested a compromise that I knew would blow my 21-day plan.  But, I knew that she would enjoy it and I could minimize the “damage” to my plan.

We went to Pei Wei Asian Diner.  I had a vegan dish; she had lo mein.

She had a great time.  I, on the other hand, feel nauseous and sluggish.  It’s a little before seven right now, and I could easily crawl into bed for the night right now.

And I couldn’t be happier about feeling this way!  The only thing that could possibly have been better is if I had puked it all back up.

I’ll give you a minute to express your disgust . . .

Feel better now?  Good!

A little story: When I was younger, I enjoyed pepperoni pizza a lot.  I also enjoyed margaritas and had a reputation among my friends as a master margarita mixer (try saying that five times fast ).  One night, I made the mistake of overindulging in both and then passing out on my water bed.  I’ll leave the rest to your imagination . . .

Needless to say, I rarely indulged in either of those “treats” after that.  In fact, I couldn’t even bear the smell of any tequila-based drink for about five years after the incident.

My experience tonight gives me an anchor to fall back on the next time I think I want to eat cooked food.  In just a little over two weeks, I’m going to be out of town on business myself.

This conference, held in San Antonio, is an opportunity for me to grow professionally; more importantly, it’s an opportunity to spend time with friends that I don’t get to see nearly enough of.  And, we usually spend that time together eating.

So, I have a challenge.  I am going to spend time with my friends.  That’s important to me.

However, I’m not going to pay for that time with them by feeling sick as a dog because I went out to eat with them.  So, I’ve got some planning to do.

I know that most of the places we go serve salad.  I can stick to that when I’m with them so that I’m eating (and so that the propietors of the restaurants won’t kick me out).  However, I’m going to have to pack food if I don’t want to be hungry and tempted.

Will I succeed?  I don’t know.  One way or the other, though, I’m going to gain valuable knowledge and experience.

I’m below 260 as of today!  This is the lightest I’ve been in about four years.  I plan on losing more.  However, today also taught me that I need to be very careful not to restrict calories.  Granted, my appetite hasn’t been very big the last few days.  However, I think that I’m going to have to make myself ingest at least 2,000 calories daily to assure avoiding temptation.  Today, the Princess and I went to the store and stocked up on lots of yummy fruit!  So, I’m set to avoid temptation for the next few days.

I’ve also made an adjustment in my exercise program.  My left shoulder has bothered me on and off for years.  Two things seem to make my rotator cuff hurt:

• Sleeping on it when I haven’t exercised much.
• Bench pressing.

Since I haven’t darkened a gym door in about five years, or exercised much at all, my pushing strength is pretty low.  I’ve been doing push ups to restore it, but the combination of push ups and sleeping on my left side isn’t working for me right now.  So, I began cleaning and pressing my 16 kg. kettlebell instead.  My cleans are pretty ugly (because I haven’t practiced them for awhile) but my presses are strict and true to form.  I did some presses off and on throughout the day and my shoulder feels much better.   So, this is going to take the place of my pushup program for the time being.

Today’s Raw Food Diet

• Green Smoothie (6 bananas/2 nectarines/1/2 bunch spinach/8 oz. water)
• Grapes (27 oz.)
• Blended Salad (8 oz. tomato/8 oz. celery)

It looks like I was right about the extra weight I had accumulated.  This morning I weighed in 2.5 pounds lighter than I did yesterday.

Tonight is Mexican food night at our house.  The girls are having food from Berryhill Baja Grill.  This has been a Friday night tradition at our house for the past year.

I used to love the food from Berryhill.  But, their menu doesn’t jive with my current eating plan.  So, I had to figure out how I was going to deal with that urge.

Enter the blended salad.

Tonight, I kept it simple.  Since I was wanting salsa, I blended tomato and celery together.  I figured that would take care of the urge to consume the salty salsa.

I have mixed feelings about the blended salad.  One pound blended is only 75 calories.  That’s a good thing.  It’s also nice to eat something that’s not sweet without resorting to avocados (since I’m working on minimizing overt fats in my diet).  I can safely say that I don’t crave salsa anymore, too!

The texture is a little different.  I thought that the high water content of the tomatoes would make for a pretty thin texture.  Boy, was I ever wrong!  I’m still working on this thing as I write, and I’m going to need a spoon if I want to finish this before midnight!!!

I’ll have to experiment further with this.  The jury is still out on whether or not I want to make this a regular part of my diet.  I may wind up sticking to traditional salads and green smoothies to get my daily quotient of green vegetables.

The Princess was a little frugivore today.  We were running behind getting her out the door, so she grabbed a bag of grapes and a bag of shredded carrots to eat in the car on the way to her day camp.  Those were also her morning snack at the camp.  At lunch, she had me split three mangos and cleaned up on them!  She had a lot of questions about my way of eating today.  She’s not quite ready to make as drastic a move as me, but the notion of being vegetarian (still eating dairy and eggs) is quite appealing to her.

My appetite is still pretty low today.  I’ve eaten several pounds of food today, but it hasn’t been very calorie dense.  Maybe my stomach is still stretching . . . or maybe my body is feeding on its considerable reserves since it’s getting far better nutrition than it used to!

Today’s Raw Food Diet

• Strawberries (28 oz.)
• Grapes (24 oz.)
• Green Smoothie (6 bananas/2 nectarines/1/2 bunch spinach)

I may have shot off my mouth too soon . . . my weight didn’t move from yesterday to today.  I’m still inclined to believe that my body is holding water and waste.  I haven’t exercised enough to put on any muscle, and I don’t think I could have put on that much fat in two days . . .

Today, I didn’t feel very hungry when I got up.  When I poked around in the refrigerator, I saw the remains of a big box of strawberries that looked like it was “now or never time” if I was going to eat them.

The Princess and I went to HEB after I picked her up from her day camp.  She has been pestering me for grapes for the last couple of days.  A lot of good deals were to be had today in the produce section; I won’t be wanting for food for the next three or four days.

I added more spinach to today’s Green Smoothie blend.  It’s still pretty sweet, but not as sweet as yesterday.  Perhaps I’ll try a smoothie with a full bunch of spinach tomorrow.  Maybe my taste buds are more sensitive to sweet tastes and less sensitive to bitter ones.

Today is another one of those low-appetite days.  Yesterday, I was really impressed at how easily I consumed 2400 calories.  Today, I don’t see much chance of that happening.  If I cross the 2000 calorie mark, I’ll be surprised.

I noticed, as I sat down to write this post, that I’m beginning to get a mild headache.  My body must be fixin’ to detox from the stuff I ate for most of the last week.  It doesn’t feel like it, but I know this is a good thing.

I wonder if the two are related?  When I did a quick search on Google, I didn’t find a lot of information.  The only thing I can point to is Dr. Graham’s statements about the innate intelligence of the human body.  So, I’ll trust that I’m fine eating so little, and that my body will tell me when I should eat more.

Today’s Raw Food Diet

• Three Green Smoothies (6 bananas, 2 nectarines, 1/3 bunch spinach)

The three smoothies put my calorie intake over 2400.  That’s enough to keep me full . . . in fact, it’s more than enough (based on past experience).  Plus, 3% of the calories are coming from leafy greens; Dr. Graham recommends 2-6%, so I’m within that range.  Later in the week, I may try 2/3 bunch of spinach in the smoothie and see what happens.

FitDay says that my caloronutrient ratio is 88/6/6 (carbs/protein/fat).  That’s an acceptable ratio, too, according to Dr. Graham.

I was a “bad” boy yesterday . . . I went way off of the reservation.  I wound up gaining a couple pounds.  Again, realize that it’s pretty much impossible to gain two pounds of fat (or muscle) in a day, so the extra weight is water and waste.  It’ll be gone by tomorrow or the next day.

I’m curious to see if I’ll maintain a one pound weight loss every two to three days.  I’m guessing it will stretch out to four to five days.  I might surprise myself, though.

My next big obstacle to clear is exercise.  I don’t get enough.  One of the big reasons I want to lose weight is to make it easier to be active (like I used to be).  Ironically, I’ll have to get active at some point to get to the physical condition that I want to be in.

Today, on Roger’s forum, a member (who is returning to eating all raw after a “break”) asked the question: “How many Day Ones is someone allowed to have?”

Today is my third “Day One” since June 9.  I suspect that I’ll have some other “Day Ones” before this journey is over.

I think that lifestyle design is like any journey in that it can be subject to some wrong turns along the way.

Up until pretty recently, I used to get myself really worked up about taking a wrong turn while travelling.  I used to rant and curse and sometimes drive more aggressively in response to my mistake.  I’m not sure what it is about being lost that triggered those feelings, but they were sure strong ones.

Ironically, I always found my way to where I needed to be.  Sometimes, it meant retracing my path until I found a correct turn.  Sometimes, it meant consulting a map.  Sometimes, it even meant (shudder) stopping and asking for directions.  But, I always made it to my destination.

There are a couple of reasons that I do better with “detours” in my life than I used to (although I still have my moments).  One is that I’ve done a lot of work on my anger and I have gotten better at making the conscious choice not to get angry in the face of adversity.

The other is the work that I’ve done over the last year at becoming Complaint Free.  For those of you unfamiliar with the program, I wear a purple bracelet on my wrist that I obtained from http://acomplaintfreeworld.org.  Whenever I complain, I switch the bracelet from one wrist to another.  The goal is to wear the bracelet on the same wrist for 21 consecutive days.  My record, since May of 2007, is 9 days.  My average, at this writing, is about three days per wrist.

In other words, I can’t begin to count how many “Day Ones” I’ve had becoming Complaint Free.

Have I been a failure?

Absolutely not!  My family, friends, and colleagues have all noticed that my attitude and overall mood are greatly improved.  I’m much happier.  I’ve just about eradicated my swearing habit (I consider swearing a form of complaint).

Most importantly, I’ve never given up.  And, every “setback” has given me new knowledge about myself that helps me to improve myself.

I feel the same way about my raw food diet.

Examples abound of people who haven’t touched cooked food in years (and who wouldn’t touch cooked food if their lives depend on it).  I suspect that, someday, one of those stories will be my own.  In the meantime, I’m on the journey and determined to learn from it.

Even though I’m not 100% yet, I’ve realized a number of benefits:

• I’ve dropped weight.
• I’m sleeping without my CPAP more.
• I’m saving money (in spite of rising fuel and food prices).
• I spend less time in the kitchen preparing and cleaning up.
• I’ve gotten the upper hand on a raging sugar addiction and eliminated my dependence on caffeine.

Pretty good for a guy who hasn’t been successful remaining on a raw food diet for more than a couple of weeks at a time, don’t you think?

I’ve been home from vacation since Friday.  On Saturday, Sunday, and today I ate two raw meals and had a sandwich in the evening.  I plan to allow one more day of transition, then I intend to go 100% raw for the next 21 days.

Three weeks from Wednesday, I have my last “road trip” of the summer planned.  I’ll attend a professional conference out of town from July 29 until August 2.  During that time, I haven’t decided whether I’ll continue to eat raw, or whether I’ll go ahead and enjoy dinner with friends.

On Friday, I noticed my old sugar cravings coming back.  Interestingly, they disappeared by Saturday.  My conclusion is that my sugar cravings were a signal that I needed to be eating more fruit all along.  I’m sorry that I stopped for so many years.  I’m thankful that I’m in good enough health to be making this transition out of choice rather than urgency.

I noted in my last post that I had gained seven pounds over a period of three days.  By Sunday, I had lost five of those pounds.  I suspect that by Thursday (my first 24 hours of returning to 100% raw), I will lose the remaining couple of pounds.

My twelve-banana lunches have been an interesting experience.  I’ve blended them with 16 oz. of filtered water.  The mixture takes me about 30-40 minutes to consume.  I’m not quite up to eating a dozen bananas in a sitting just yet . . . but I may try it in the not-too-distant future.

My breakfasts have been juicy fruits like grapes and peaches.  Two to three pounds of either of those isn’t a huge calorie load.  When I return to school, I may need to have the banana smoothies first thing in the morning, and have the juicier fruits at lunch.

Tomatoes were down in price a little today at Randall’s.  I bought several.  I’m going to attempt a “blended salad” either tomorrow or Wednesday with tomato, spinach, and celery.  My thinking is that the combination will be like a thick vegetable juice and will satisfy the desire for salted food.  I’ve never salted the food that I eat, but I do enjoy the salt that is an ingredient in the food I consume.  Years ago, a naturopath told me that he felt the addiction to salt was far stronger than the addiction to sugar.  My experience over the last few weeks makes me inclined to agree.

My elimination is working overtime today.  Even though the Natural Hygienists don’t recommend it, I administered an enema (with water) once before the trip and once after returning.  Back when I was reading Norman Walker’s books and following much of his advice, I did them once daily.  While I’m inclined to believe that our bodies, given the right environment, can purge themselves without the extra help . . . I’d rather not endure the discomfort waiting for Nature to take its course as I’m working on my transition.  So, I got the “wave” rolling.  For me, it was a good decision.

A few weeks ago, the Sweetheart took some “before” pictures of me at 271 pounds (bear in mind that a couple of years ago, I was over 20 pounds heavier than that . . . and at the end of the school year, I was seven pounds heavier).  Last Wednesday, she took my “ten pounds lost” pictures.  They’re still in the camera at this writing.  When I lose the next ten pounds, to 251, I’ll post all three sets here for the world to see.  Warning: They ain’t gonna be purty!

II’m back from vacation at the beach.  The Princess, the Sweetheart, and I all had a good time.  We timed it well, too.  We were leaving as the hordes were arriving from the city to enjoy the Independence Day weekend.

We planned time to do activities that all three of us enjoy.  Vacation for the girls is getting out and getting active whether it’s playing at the beach, skating on the seawall, or shopping for new clothes.

Vacation, for me, has to include some down time to read, nap, or just veg.

My reading this trip was The 80-10-10 Diet by Dr. Douglas N. Graham.  This is the third time I’ve read the book.  Since it’s a familiar read at this point, I’m able to glean a lot more from it than I did the first two readings.

Ironically, I allowed myself to stray very far from the “811″ ideal while on the trip.  I’m really glad I did, too, because I learned a few things that motivate me to stay the course in my transition to a raw food diet.

A few posts ago, I talked about how poor food combinations affected my elimination.  On the trip, I got more experience with how poor combining affects my digestive tract.

The first night of vacation, I was awakened twice by severe abdominal cramping.  The meal that caused it was extremely high in fat and excitotoxins.  I’m convinced, based on my experiences of the last week or so, that my system is adapting to the point that it wants to expel both as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately, “as quickly as possible” still likely amounts to two or three days.

Fascinated by the results of my poorly combined dinner on day 1 of vacation, I decided to try the same thing again on day 2.  Again, I was awakened in the middle of the night by intestinal cramping.

By day 3, I was beginning to adapt to poorly combined meals.  I also noticed that, on the third day, I was beginning to feel some of the addictions creep back in.  I ate a ton of poor food yesterday.

This morning, back at home, I weighed in.  The scale showed a gain of seven pounds in three days!

I notice, though, that the veins in my hands and feet are less visible than they have been.  That tells me that I’m retaining a good deal of water.  I suspect that I’ll lose at least five of those seven pounds in the next three to seven days.

Today,  I also notice that my tummy is a little tender.  I suspect that my intestines are working overtime to process the last three days’ meals, and they’ll probably continue to work hard for a couple of days more.

It’s noon, and I haven’t eaten yet today.  I don’t know if I will or not.  I’m not particularly hungry.  I am thirsty, though, and I’m drinking filtered water regularly throughout the morning to help my body get rid of the extra toxins that I’ve ingested.  The salt alone requires an enormous amount of water to get rid of it.

One thing I noticed from my most recent reading of The 80-10-10 Diet, is that it can take several years to get rid of all of the excess salt in tissue.  I also read that we need to be sufficiently hydrated in order for the organs of elimination to process and expel toxins effectively.

Generally, a raw food diet based primarily on unprocessed fruits and vegetables supplies suffcient water for the body to do its job eliminating toxins efficiently.  Raw fruits and vegetables provide the purest, most easily assimilable water one can “drink.”

I’m thinking, though, that while I’m in transition I may want to drink a bit more water to encourage elimination.  My body appears to be striving to heal itself, and I want to make sure that it has the nutrients to make that job as easy as possible.  So, I’m going to make sure that I include at least a liter of water daily in my diet for awhile.  If I start having to make more than a dozen trips to the bathroom daily, I’ll cut back.

Another decision I’ve made is to commit to eating at least 2,000 calories a day.  While raw, my calorie intake was all over the map.  I’m guesstimatng my ideal weight to be at or below 200 pounds, so I’ll eat for that weight right now and make adjustments as I go along.  If it becomes evident that I’m undereating (especially as I increase my activity level), I’ll eat more.

I love banana/strawberry smoothies.  I’m not sure that they love me back, though.  I think, instead, that I’ll try having bananas alone for awhile, or I’ll mix them with some sub-acid fruits like peaches, pears, apples, and the like.

In the book, Dr. Graham suggests a meal pattern of the following:

• Juicy fruit in the morning
• Sweet fruit at lunch (i.e. bananas and other calorie dense fruits)
• Acid fruits and greens for dinner.

I’m going to work with that for the next few days and see what I notice in the way of results.

That’s enough for today.  Time for another glass of water and a nap!

I won’t be updating progress again until Saturday, July 5.

Today’s Raw Food Diet

• 2 Cantaloupe Smoothies (2 large cantaloupes)
• Banana/Strawberry Smoothie (4 bananas/10 oz. strawberries)
• Banana/Peach Smoothie (3 bananas/2 peaches)

I slept about nine hours last night.  When I awakened fully, I noticed that I had greater energy than yesterday.  I also noticed that my mental focus was much improved.

I’ve started easing my way back into an exercise program.  Exercise is kind of a tough nut for me to crack at present.   I used to be very active and in very good shape.  In fact, that’s one of the reasons that my wife was attracted to me.

The biggest mistake that I make when I attempt to begin an exercise program is to do too much too soon.  When that happens, I usually feel so much worse after doing so that I can’t stand thought of exercising again too soon.

Last summer, I had some success with beginnng a new exercise program.  I rode my bike daily.  Each day, I gradually increased the time that I spent in the saddle.  By the end of the summer, I was able to easily ride the distance to work and back . . . about 10 miles.

During daylight savings time, I rode to work 2-3 times weekly plus weekends.  My morning ride was in the dark, but the roads that I needed to take had little traffic at 6 a.m.  My afternoon ride was in daylight with substantially more auto traffic.  Some drivers weren’t happy to see me on “their” road, and they made it clear . . . sometimes by honking loudly as they went past; sometimes by passing me so closely that I could reach out and touch the vehicle without fully extending my arm.

(Note: Texas law allows bicycles on just about all roads . . . unless specifically prohibited by local ordinance.  Bicyclists are allowed to occupy a lane of traffic two abreast, and they are subject to the same rules of the road as automobile drivers and motorcyclists.  It was a rare day that I didn’t pass a police officer, constable’s officer, or sheriff’s deputy . . . and I was never stopped for riding on a road that didn’t have bike lanes.)

During the five months that I rode, I dropped about 5 pounds from 278 to 273.  I gained that weight back when I stopped . . . but it didn’t happen until the month of May.

Since June 3, I’ve lost 14.5 pounds.  The only “regular” exercise I’ve engaged in even close to regularly is mowing the lawn, moving the lawn sprinkler, and walking the aisles of the grocery store.

The other night, I watched an Oprah episode (with my wife) featuring a number of people that lost substantial amounts of weight.  One young man, who lost something like a couple of hundred pounds, showed post-weightloss pictures showing folds of loose skin hanging down.  He’s had several surgeries, and was preparing for another, to remove the excess skin.  I have a good friend who also lost a lot of weight that had the same problem; she had surgery done to remove the excess skin from her arms.

Yikes!  I think I’d rather be fat than deal with that.  Plastic surgery does not sound like an acceptable option to me.

I also don’t understand the whole loose skin thing.  Some people seem to get it after enormous weight loss; some people seem to have skin that covers them tightly (without surgical assistance).  Why is that?

According to Ron Brown, author of The Body Fat Guide, loose skin is a sign that one has lost too much muscle weight and still is overfat (even though that person is at “normal” body weight).  He says that if one loses that excess fat without sacrificing muscle, one’s skin will snap back.

All of the reading I’ve done says that if I want to maintain muscle, I have to exercise my muscles.

So, I’m starting off simple.  A few days ago, I tested myself on push ups and bodyweight squats.  My numbers weren’t impressive, but I now have a starting point.

My initial strategy is to do about 50% of the number of pushups and squats I’m capable of several times a day.  That way, I’m increasing the volume of exercise I need to maintain muscle while doing so at a pace that won’t overtire me or make me so sore that I don’t want to continue.

I’m also “playing” with my kettlebell.  I pick it up and do a clean or a snatch to relearn the form.  I intend to get more vigorous with it once I can do so with good form and minimal soreness.

Finally, I plan on incorporating a training program called PACE.  I’ll tell you more about that as I get into it.