how to eat like a bird

exceeding expectations

This article was the most emailed article on the NY Times Web site for a while, even amidst all the Sturm und Drang of the neverending campaign and oh, prostitutes. It proposes that the number of push-ups you can do is an easy way to evaluate your overall fitness.

A 40-year-old woman should be able to do 16, and a man of same age, 27 push-ups. I am 33, and it turns out I can do three, which was a great and unexpected boon for me. I was for sure thinking I could do no more than one, shaky arms and all. But I pulled off three full-length ones. So, yeah for me! Don't judge me complacent though. I'll try working on it, as it's good to catch yourself when you fall at age 85--or really, at any age.

spring awakening

It’s the first day of spring. I wouldn’t know these things, were it not for Google. But even I cannot ignore the absurd amount of beautiful light when I take leave of work. It’s time to stop hibernating. And as a matter of practical course, I cannot stand my clothes any tighter. What have I been doing, you say, to warrant said apparel to be so restrictive?

Well, to keep it pithy, I partake of a daily diet consisting frequently of nachos. I’ve also fallen back into the habit of drinking Coke at work (alas!), and I’ve been assiduously trying to get a tenth sandwich free at Cosi, based on my mainstay order of a Buffalo Blue sandwich with extra blue cheese spread. That’s right, extra. I like it slathered on both sides of the bread, please, and I could actually do with less chicken. I choose the free kettle chips over baby carrots, of course. 

My excuses for the poor diet (and full-on inertia) are many. But I shan’t bore you. I’ll only say that I feel like a bear. Not like the emaciated kind that comes out of its cave, famished and lean, but more like the kind with access to take-out and cable TV--the kind that snacks to political podcasts and frankly, doesn’t sleep very well at all. So it’s time to turn over a new leaf. Even I get tired of nachos (although there are so many kinds with many different variations). Tomorrow, we’ll see how many push-ups I can do. And if anyone is still out there, what have you been eating that you probably shouldn’t be (every other day)?