New Year's ramble

I'm not a big new year's resolution kind of guy. I spend an awful lot of my energy trying to live up to the standards I already set for myself, so it's not like I'm looking for more.

But this year I'm actually going to try to lose weight. I feel terribly cliche' doing this, but I can't really help that. I don't feel fat or anything, and I can still fit into clothes I bought 20 years ago (why I still have these clothes is another story). But considering I'm a little past my "Best If Used By" date, I think it just might be easier on my body if there was less of it. My parents, neither of whom has ever been particularly slim, are both in their 80's and all my grandparents lived into their 80's too, and my father is still very sharp and active at 82. So I've got a good shot at 30 more decent years if I take care of myself.

So how does one lose weight? If only there were books or web sites for that kind of thing. When I was younger I would just use the beer or munchies diet, which was I could drink beer or eat snack foods, but not together. That worked at the time but I drink a lot less now and I want to be able to have snacks with what I do drink. I think there has to be some combination of eating less and exercising more. I don't eat ridiculous meals, so I think controlling snacking and snacking on lower calorie things would be good. So I go to the supermarket to get the dreaded rice cakes and holy crap are there a lot of kinds of rice cakes. When did that happen? So many flavors, and there's not a rice flavored rice cake to be had. Okay, so Kettle Corn it is. We'll see if 10 of those is as satisfying as a cookie. I tend to doubt it.

Okay, what else is there? Fruit and vegetables I suppose, but I don't trust myself to actually eat them. Baked potato chips? Sacrilege! Lowfat ice cream? Why bother? Little teeny candies might be good, as would sugarless gum.

What do you think the ratio of nutritious to non-nutritious foods is in a modern supermarket? I defy anyone to go to the supermarket and even count how many types of non-nutritious foods you can buy. Between the candy and cookie aisle and the salty snack aisle, that'll keep you busy for a week. Then you have to decide if white bread is healthy, because there are over 100 kinds of bread at my local Acme (do we really need this? I think not). It's really sort of stunning if you stop to think about it.

As for exercise, I like to exercise. I have trouble sitting still for a long time, so moving around is fine. I used to like to run, but my body made it clear to me that it no longer approves. I love to cycle, but the idea of loading on frostbite prevention gear first makes it less attractive at this point. I will not join a gym. I have a couple of things at home- an elliptical and some weights, so I guess I can use them, but for today I just went for a brisk walk. That was actually very nice. I like to walk in the cold and I made a loop through my neighborhood that takes about a half hour. Not bad.

So I'll keep you posted, at least to the extent I can since we don't have a scale.