Madame Piggy Cried Wii Wii Wii All the Way Home

That means what you think that means...

Like most creatures I believe in the conservation of energy. I could easily follow the lead of the Princess, for example.

She feels no compulsion to bob up and down or twist her torso this way and that. She cannot imagine running without chasing something. Sure, she put on a little weight after her hysterectomy, but she doesn't complain about her clothes being too tight. She just runs around naked. Problem solved.

Alas, I cannot run around naked and I don't have any interest in chasing squirrels. If I ever hope to get my weight under control I will have to do as the humans do—eat properly and be physically active. That is not easy for me these days, but I still have to try. I have to try and then I have to start over and try again every time I fail. Because I always "fail" eventually. I do well for a while, then I don't do so well, then I totally stink at it. That's OK as long as I go back to the square labeled "start" and try again.

So I am about one square past start, that most hopeful place of all. Some of the Wii Fit exercises still come pretty easily to me, some are going to have to be relearned. It doesn't matter, as long as I just keep on keeping on.

The Carbo-Loading Continues

Yesterday was a lot like Monday. Same breakfast, same lunch. Carbs, carbs, and a little protein. Supper was cheese-stuffed tortellini, a sibling to the cheese-stuffed shells that were on Monday night's menu.

Paying attention is starting to pay off, though. I've eaten more fruit today and if supper goes according to plan I will get at least two servings of veggies.

The American Cancer Society provides useful comparisons for estimating one serving of different types of fruits and veggies.

One serving of fruit = 1/2 cup or 1 medium piece (about the size of a tennis ball). For dried fruit a serving is 1/4 cup.

One serving of vegetables is 1/2 cup, except for leafy veggies like lettuce or spinach, which require a whole cup to constitute a serving. But that isn't as much as it sounds. A cup of lettuce is four lettuce leaves.

Public Humiliation As Dietary Aid?

Well, it's worth a try. Take one public forum, mix in a camera, and serve up the pride and punishment.

Even though almost no one actually looks at this site (I said almost--Hi Sam!), the act of making public my food choices should have a positive effect. Like a food diary, it forces me to pay attention to what I consume. Making it public should shame me into making better choices.

So here is Day 1, which was yesterday.

My favored breakfast: multi-grain sour dough bread from Broad Street, and a diet coke. (Yes, I know.)

For lunch I had the only slightly more nutritional:

This is probably at least 1.5 servings.

Servings are always much smaller than gluttonous Americans (like me) think they are.

This is really all I had to eat during the day. No snacks, nothing I've conveniently "forgotten" to include. By early evening I was hungry, which can work against me, I know. Like most people I tend to overeat when I am really ravenous. On the other hand, eating less at each meal helps shrink the stomach, so that we feel full more quickly.

Supper was prepared by Irvin with help from Justin and I didn't object even a tiny bit. Irvin's chosen menu:

Tilapia, sprinkled with Tony's and pan fried. Occupying the other half of the plate: three giant pasta shells filled with ricotta cheese, smothered in tomato sauce (the only vegetable of the day--egads!!), and topped with more cheese. Because you can never have enough cheese.

It is readily apparent that I have a serious carbohydrate problem. Some of these are "good" carbohydrates (whole grains), but there are way too many of them, regardless of their complexity. It is also clear that my meals yesterday suffered from an appalling lack of fruits and vegetables, although I did have an apple that didn't get photographed.