Thursday, April 29, 2010.....Day 103

Day 103 of the Fruit Feast....Contentment has been my recent theme.......

Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
 1 Timothy 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Being self-employed, my life is always a series of either feast or famine. Last week was mostly famine but i did have fruit and the lack was supplied by the Lord through my brethren. Today my house is overflowing with fruit. i have 3 cases of oranges, 15 cantaloupe, 5 Durian and a host of other stuff including a case of bananas and several cases of mangoes. But i have learned that since all things work together for my good as i am seeking to be conformed to the image of Christ, i can be content whatever my situation. So last week i could rejoice for the scarcity and this week i can rejoice because of the abundance. In all things i can give thanks and rejoice.

Proverbs 15:15 All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.

Well, this week has indeed been an abundance. i have been able also to close in on 1000 push ups for the week. i have 895 as of the end of today. Friday, my son Joshua and i plan on hitting the park for some calistenics. We usually seek to do at least 200 push ups each so i will surpass the 1000. This means that i have over 4000 for the month of April. Now let's see if i can push it to 4500 for May. A sprained ribcage limited my chin production but i believe i can get 100 for this week (40 so far). i'd like to be knocking out 2000 push ups and 500 chins per week by year end. i don't think that is an unreasonable goal and i believe its quite attainable. This coming Sabbath day will complete 15 weeks of 100% Raw fruit. Its a good start and i praise the Lord for His grace.

Today was a fun sort of day as i spent most of the afternoon shopping for fruit at various places. Over the past year on Fruitarian forays, i have learned about some of the various types of tomatoes. Last year i discovered the Campari tomato. It appears to be a cross between a vine-ripened tomato and a cherry tomato. i find them totally delicious and at times if i am spending hours in my car driving i will carry them at a meal. As i was in this mode yesterday, my lunch was on the go as it were. i went to the spanish market in Roanoke first, then drove down to Greensboro, NC to the Super G Asian market. If i am going to spend over $100 on Fruits at one place i always sample some of the produce to check for freshness and quality. i usually get no issues from the grocers but this particular asian market always gives me funny looks. Nobody says anything to me because they know i am going to spend good money (i spend $153 there yesterday). So i was picking some Roma tomatoes and i ate one. As i was enjoying its goodness a tall Asian man (an employee) was looking at me as if i did something bad. He looked down and saw my cart overflowing with produce and he asked 'Is it good?', i answered 'Very good'. After that he smiled and left me alone. Sometimes i sample the mangoes but i could seem the quality of the ones they had was good so i didn't. i did sample the mini-clementines and they were sweet like candy. i bought large quantities of all of these. i also got a case of honey tangerines as i have been really enjoying their juice this season.
Regarding durians, my local Roanoke asian markets have been telling me that because of the recent political/social upheavals in Thailand, the durian is more scarce and the prices are higher. i just so happen to have a very good friend whom i grew up with from gradeschool who works in the state department. He is always traveling and i spoke to him this week. He told me he was just in Thailand and its not as bad as the media is saying, but that its mostly calm. This was confirmed with the Asian market in Greensboro as the durian was abundant and the price was $1.79/lb which is on the cheaper side in these parts. i have found that that smaller durian are usually much sweeter and of higher flesh quality than the large ones. i saw one very large one there (the largest i ever saw actually), it weighed at least 20lbs. But i ended up getting 5 of them each one weighing around 5llbs. When i got to the cashier she said her country had the best durian. She was from Burma (now i didn't even know they grew it there). The young lady bagging my groceries said her country had the best and she was from Thailand. The lady i buy it from in Roanoke said, her country has the best and she is from Cambodia. i figure southeast Asian my be Durian heaven for sure. If the Lord permits, perhaps one day i will see for myself.

Today's fare was:

Breakfast: 5 bananas, 36oz of fresh OJ.

Lunch: 1 Roma Tomato, One box (approximately 12) of Campari tomatoes, 3 small atafaulo mangoes, a few handfuls of dried organic mango, 1 mini-clementine.

Dinner: 36oz of Mango-Cantaloupe-watermelon juice (Delicious). It was mostly mango, which made the drink rich and gave it a smoothy type of texture. Very filling, delicious and satisfying. i also ate the rest of the dried mango from the afternoon.

Spiritual Bread: 1 Chronicles 17-22

Exercise: 335 push ups in 24 minutes.

Grace and Peace be multiplied.

todd