Half A Mind

by Kris Pitcher

I have half a mind right now to tell the electrician installing an outlet...not to let me eat anything. He doesn't know about my diet, what's on my plan, or what I'm supposed to be eating.

Yet, at this very moment...he may be the only thing standing between me and my imaginary eating frenzy. It is imaginary. What, you ask is an electrician doing in my kitchen? Well, why wouldn't you rip out your stove three, maybe four weeks out from a competition?

Or just when you are about to begin your diet, as in my husband's case. Yet, there the old stove sits in the living room leaving a gaping hole in the kitchen. "Don't worry, honey, I'll bbq everything." he said as we began the project. We're closing in on two weeks now.

In all fairness, my oven quit working. So what do you do when it won't come up to temperature and it's lived a good 5 years past it's expected life span? You tear it out and begin a kitchen project. Diet or no diet.

And this is how I learned to bbq egg whites. In full disclosure, the bbq has a side burner...so the only real challenge is ensuring I have neighborhood appropriate attire on when I'm ready to go out there. It can be a challenge.

The truth is though, I don't have to tell the electrician to keep his eye on me and make sure I don't eat anything. I can do that myself. It's just my ravenous imagination that can get the best of me in these hard times, difficult times, times when I have half a mind.

This is when I remind myself, hard things are hard. This is not easy. It's been going on for a long time now. I'm not talking about the stove installation, I'm talking about my competition diet. So, hard things are hard, stove or no stove. I can cook what I need, and eat what I need. Without a watchful eye. This I know, even with just half a mind.