When we surveyed the options, we looked at a “zimmer” – a room in German, which translates to a fully furnished room in a quiet place, surrounded with amazing scenery, panoramic views, wholesome people, candlelight lit hot tubs and dinners, really strange people with a strong relationships to the environment.  In short – this is the anti-city environment.

We chose Rosh Pina.  Various reasons.  The grandparents live in Cabri, a Kibbutz near Nahariya.  It was like a military operation.  We picked the kids from school.  They were packed already and so were we.  We drove to the Gramps and after thirty seconds of kisses and warnings, we hit the road.

We arrived at Molly’s Suite at 15:00 and at 15:05 Dorit already told me to change position so the snoring stops, and she could sleep too.  If it wasn’t for the stupid cat stumping on the next door neighbor’s door, we would have slept for the night.  But, when we woke up at 18:00, the hot tub – a two engine full size two adults hot tub – looked extremely inviting.  I lit a few candles, poured some liquid into the tub, and two minutes later, we were basically boiling our asses in water so hot, that adding some celery and potatoes would have taken care of dinner as well.

We emerged out of the hot tub, red, relaxed, tired, and starving.  We looked at the few brochures and found “Julian”, a bar – restaurant.  we got dressed and drove over.  A side comment: I eat a lot less than I look.  Dorit and I started to order for one lately.  It’s working pretty well for us.  House salad (excellent, although someone must explain the presence of the pears), creamy Broccoli soup (divine), an entrecôte steak done to perfection, with some strange (but outstanding) mashed potato and sweet potato, nailed it.  As I said, one diner only, amazingly reasonable price.  Julian of Rosh Pina – a definite yes.

Back to the “Zimmer”.  Good night sleep.  Excellent mattress, complete silence, no interruptions.

Amazingly, in nine hours, we were able to achieve an afternoon siesta, a hot tub experience, an outstanding dinner, some quality time together.  If you’re looking to get away, quick disappearance into nothingness, good time – I recommend Molly’s Suite in Rosh Pina.

Link: Molly’s Suit.  Call Molly at 054-4859592.  Just like her suite (zimmer), she is calm, accommodating, helpful.  If you want to get closer to someone close, you may want to consider Molly’s Suit…

Watering one’s back yard would have become a significant expense.  We decided to take countermeasures and take out the lawn.  Instead, we poured concrete over the entire back yard, place ceramic tiles over it, and let plants around the edges take care of themselves.  Fortunately for us, our neighbours on the east and south water their gardens often.  We have advised our plants to redirect their roots to the east and south, or else.  So far, I’m happy to say, they have complied, and have survived.

We also fired the gardener, who was doing absolutely nothing anyway.  Every month he would have come to collect his pay, and every month it would have been harder to explain the gardener’s contribution to the misery of the back yard.

However, the surviving plants did need grooming, as we realized six months later, so we found this new guy, who was willing to work without a retainer.  He agreed to come on occasion and charge a reasonable price while leaving the garden spotless and well groomed.  Last week, in preparation to Guy’s seventh birthday, I called him and told him to come at his earliest convenience.  He was there the next day.

I cam back early from work and was working in the garden.  I offered coffee, and said no thanks.  I insisted, and he agreed.  I then returned embarrassed because we ran out of black coffee.  I offered tea.  He accepted.  I added a birthday cake.  He liked it.  We started to talk.

He said his family originated in Tripoli, Libya.  I offered that my family was from Romania, The Ukraine, Russia, Morocco, Spain and Turkey.  My wife has all the above, plus Bulgaria.  We started talking about food.  I can’t remember how, but the conversation went to spicy fish.  Khreime.  I said I loved it.  He said his father makes the best Khreime ever.  He said his father wouldn’t give up the recipe.  Amazingly, or not, my grandmother, who was a great cook of a few dishes, left none of them behind, except one, which I gladly make any time I have a chance…

To make a long story short, he finished working on the garden, packed his things and left.  Twenty minutes later he came back with a plastic container with two slices of the best Khreime I ever tasted.

And the point is?  The world is full of good people.  In fact the absolute most people are good.  All you need to find is the way to their hearts.  Finding the way to one person’s heart is an accomplishment I am really proud of.  Make sure you look around today, see the good in people, and find ways to their hearts.  It will make our world a better place…

While I still like hummus, and while I still eat it almost daily, I measure the amounts I eat in teaspoons rather than pounds.  Since I don’t eat bread, pita is out of the question.  Soda is out of the question as well.  And last but not least, at this point in time, falafel is suicide…

I don’t miss the larger size meals at all.  In fact, when I look at a large amount of food in one place (someone else’s plate for example), I can think of many things, none of them is eating it.

I am not hungry.  Only lately I started to notice that on occasion, I feel as if a bit to eat would be nice.  But exactly that.  A bite.  My meals are small and frequent, like babies’.  A half cup of yogurt, a few teaspoons of hummus, tahina.  Last week I added a ground chicken burger and a few spoons of mashed potatoes.  I fill up quickly.

I separate drinks and food.  Otherwise, I’d up not eating at all…  I drink either twenty minutes before a meal,  or an hour after.  It’s working out pretty well.

I feel much more energized, surprisingly happy, more optimistic, lighter, and younger.

I dug up old clothes, a few sizes down, and I wear them with pride.  My wife mentioned that my belt can actually be seen.  I lost a chin.

And roughly 20 kilos.  Or about 45 Lbs.  In less than one month.

No need to be alarmed.  It was the upper side of the expected, given the fact that I don’t eat very much.

I will not write more about my progress in the near future.  I may refer to it later, when I get to my target weight in a few months (hopefully).  But I must pitch the following to whoever is out there looking for a solution for obesity.  You can spend you life and life savings at the gym, on dieticians, acupuncture, Voodoo, low carbohydrate food, magicians and witches.  You can go hungry for a while.  You will feel as if you have no will power.  But maybe you should know.  Chances are, you will lose weight, and gain it back.  And then some.  Then you would make a decision that you are losing the excess pounds, and you will again indeed lose them all.  And gain them back.  Almost for certain.  The overeating-dieting-exercising-medicating-overeating again, is way too lucrative a market to be given up.  Each cycle you would go through will contribute thousands of dollars to the food/drug/self improvement industries.  They won’t give you up so easily.  They will sell you fast food loaded with fat and sugar, they will sell you gym subscriptions, psychotherapy, drugs for your heart disease/hypertension/diabetes/high cholesterol, and they will convince you that the “problem is in your head”.  They will tell you to run/swim/ride a bicycle.

And one day, like me, you’d understand.  If you want to break the cycle, you have to do something extreme.  You have to take the personal responsibility to understand that living hungry is not a good way to live.  Bariatric surgery is a way to break the cycle.  I’d done it.  If you are obese to the point it puts your life in danger, you should consider it too.  This surgery is not a cosmetic surgery.  This surgery is a life lengthening procedure.  Please don’t confuse the two.

I’d be happy to provide advice on a personal basis.  Use the “email me” button on the page.  I promise I would answer every question.  The ones I believe are worthy for a larger community will be published on the site.