From The Ashes ...

How approprite - as I watch the last 20 minutes of The Blob

It's 4am. The bar is closed and I'm headed for bed shortly. When I wake up tomorrow I will begin a brand new diet/ way of eating. It's based (more or less) on the South Beach Diet which is based (more or less) on the Atkins Diet. The details are as follows: No bread No rice No pasta No fruit No rice No juice No carrots No potato (skins, french fries, chips, baked). Also no cookies cake candy and ice cream but that's no problem I don't eat stuff like that anyway. The only modifications I've made in advance are I'm ignoring the no alcohol proviso - what am I, a savage? But in a nod to the diet I've given up the cranberry mixer, which in the case of my bar is actually a cranberry flavored sugar laden non- nutritional syrup. Club soda with lime instead. This alone may make a huge difference. And I'm not giving up coffee. I switched from 2% skim to fat-free milk. I already don't use sugar.

All of this because I decided two things. 15 years of working in bars and restaurants and my diet is for shit. I frequently wake up at noon (like today) and end up puttering around the house, blogging (hello) and running errands before work. I get to the bar by 4:30 and unpack my first meal around 5pm (!). My body is already in starvation mode by then. I usually manage another meal by around 10pm and that's it. A far cry from the three meals and two snacks my current diet recommends. Pasta, bread and white rice are also de rigeur in my diet. The upshot .......BACKFAT. And a little SIDEFAT. And a little PUDGE up front. Now mind you, I go to the gym on a regular basis so I've seen some guys 10 yrs. younger than me who are seriously fat. I'm not running around saying I'm fat. I have some fat. And I have a crappy diet. I'm hoping if I stick to this for a couple weeks I will accomplish two things: I will shave off the middle age middle of the body quit smoking five pound paunch I've developed. And I'll jump start my appetite/diet to a way more healthy three sqaures a day with a couple of healthy snacks. Eventually, I'll put back the pasta, fruit and (non-fat) yogurt. Now I took a set of before pictures today with my li'l belly all relaxed and poochy. Also a side and back picture. And just for the record, the pictures make me feel a tad better. I'm much more critical live. In the pictures what I'm trying to fix is still there just not as bad. But assuming this is a success in a few weeks I will take some new pix and publish the before and after shots. I'll try and blog my daily meals for at least the next two weeks to clock my progress. Stay tuned, chitlens.