Please Don't Talk About Murder While I'm Eating or There Will Still Be Cake Tomorrow

You get all hot and bothered at the strangest times and places
But you don't notice the looks on all the other faces
You're dressed for the summer in the middle of December
What you've all but forgotten, I painfully remember

Now I don't care in the least what you're reading.
Please don't talk about murder while I'm eating.
Let's not talk about murder while I'm eating...
~the inimitable Ben Harper

I have no statement to make. I just love that song.

I made a great pot of coffee this morning. But then, I like to think I make a great pot of coffee every morning. I cut my coffee budget by 80% (because we're kinda broke, since we aren't working right now). I have to make due with Chock Full O' Nuts, when I was accustomed to stuff from the Coffee Fool & Gevalia. Once I returned to grocery store grounds, I returned to my roots, via Cleveland, specifically Ohio City. An old friend of mine still lives there, and when we met in my second year of college (1989) this was one of our hangouts, along with several others. My friend could charm the pants off a priest, and she was able to procure the "recipe" for Heck's fantastic brew: unsweetened cocoa and cinnamon in the filter. It does wonders for crappy store-bought java.

My sister would like to be a licensed personal trainer (sorry, I am too scattered to segue). We started an exercise regimen yesterday. I've been sedentary for far too long. And fat. I remember vaguely what it was like, for a few years anyway, to be a size 10. At 155 pounds, I was always able to fool the "guess your weight" booths at the fair, and shocked my friends by being able to fit into their clothes despite the fact that they were often at least 25 pounds lighter than I. Though I don't harbor any fantasies of being that svelte again, I would like to look at the scale and no longer see a "2" at the left of the numbers I squint to see (when I bother to look at all).

So we took a walk for 10 minutes (today it will be 15, since I plan to arrive on time).Then I rode the recumbent bike for 15 minutes, at an average speed of 80 rpm. After that, I was re-introduced to some basic weight-training moves (once upon a time I strength-trained; that's one of the things that kept me a size 10 for while). I went to bed feeling muscles I hadn't felt in years. And the great thing about exercise when you're so overweight: you burn way more calories than somebody skinny. Take that, Lindsey Lohans of the world.

So we'll be doing this every day. When my sis can't join me, I've committed to her and myself at least 20 minutes of cardio (probably walking). This will work out well, since my Mom is struggling to lose the weight she put on over the last several years due to stress about work and family junk.

My biggest challenge in this will be changing my eating habits. Currently, I don't eat enough, sometimes skipping breakfast and lunch, and then pigging out at dinner time, as well as snacking after midnight. I must reshape the way I consume food, as well as how I look at food. A favorite mantra of my best pal in high school was, "Eat to live, not live to eat." And my approach to sweets (mostly anything chocolate), especially, needs drastic revamping. It's what I like to call the Apocalypse Plan: eat it like the end of the world is coming. Along those same lines, a Weight Watchers leader once said, "You don't have to eat the whole cake. There will still be cake tomorrow."

And tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow....