Rahl weighs in.

I began this effort officially last Sunday at 149.0lbs, which was thankfully down from my post-Thanksgiving high of 151.0lbs. Now, after three days of battling a tortuous stomach virus and faithfully staying under calories the remaining four days, I weighed in this morning at, drum roll please, 146.2lbs.

I got off easy on the weigh-in because I was sick, but unfortunately I only made it to the first of my three days' triathlon training. I plan to re-start that same week and do it this week instead, starting when the gym opens today at noon.

Made the most kick-ass garlic broccoli penne last night. It was spicier than I'd expected, but tasted completely delicious. I've been writing out my favorites of the new recipes I've tried on little notecards. Next time I'm on campus, I plan to buy a card file in which to keep my super-healthy, super-delicious recipe collection.

When my foot was broken last summer and I was trying to keep from gaining/lose a little bit of weight, I ate the same thing every dinner: two reheated frozen vegetables, a chicken breast, and a serving of pasta with sauce. No wonder I couldn't keep it up into the school year. That meal, repeated, is the palatial equivalent of watching C-Span for an hour every night. How boring. I've since read on the Internet that variety is the key to weight loss and overall good health. If one has new foods to try, one is less likely to binge; likewise, if one is constantly eating different things, one is pulling from a whole range of available nutrients.

I plan to try at least one new dinner recipe every week until I have a good twenty or thirty that I can pull from. I prefer to make vegan recipes, many of which I've found at VegWeb.com: they're generally less expensive than meals which include meat or dairy, and most of them are chock-full of delectable veggies in unusual and tasty combinations. And if there's anything I need to learn this semester, it is undoubtedly how to eat more vegetables. Default mode for me is simple carbs, pasta, bread, refined sugars. Now is my Barack Obama dietary semester. I am making the effort to change.