The Mayo Clinic Diet

As I am fast approaching the big 3 and 0, I have decided to dedicate my last few weeks of relative youth on this planet to a completely selfish cause. I am going to try to lose weight. They say this gets harder with age and clearly my impending uncle-dom will not help matters. I was inspired by the Mayo Clinic Diet. One of their ideas is to adopt 5 good habits and abandon 5 bad habits. Full disclosure... I have not read this book. I have only read its reviews online. Hopefully if none of you fellow human beings pick it up from my local public library before I do, I can change that last line. : )

One of my thoughts is to blog about it, so that my progress will be available for anyone to peruse and track. That may put some shame into play so that I don't chicken out of a 2 week goal. Starting to sound like a lot of fun, huh? ; )

Hopefully one in three posts will describe a good habit I am adopting at least for the next 2-3 weeks. Habit 1: Go natural. This habit is inspired by Michael Pollan's writing about food. One of Mr Pollan's rules is to not eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn't be able to recognize. Well so in short all your new-fangled victuals are out... no Splenda, no processed foods, so no Lean Cuisine, no burgers, no chips, no French fries, no sugar. In short if you need to snack, you're stuck to fruits, vegetables or nuts. I am going to make a couple of exceptions here. Fat-free milk is allowed, even though all 4 of my great-grandmothers would call it water. Restaurant food is allowed so long as I stick to the principle and eat minimally processed stuff... ie salad, grilled fish or vegetables, although my forebears clearly would be displeased at my non-vegetarian tendencies.

Another note... I am not very overweight. The last time I weighed myself I was about 168 pounds. I'll be happy if I can achieve 160 pounds. I'd like to reduce whatever central obesity my Indian genes predispose me to.

Dinner today: Spinach, carrots, almonds and walnuts with lemon juice as dressing.