I must confess, I'm overweight. I've got your arch-typical middle aged belly and double chin in training. To give you an idea, on a good day I'm 5'4" and weigh almost 200 lbs. My weight is also the source of health problems - I have high blood pressure and have developed sleep apnea - YAY!!! I take three meds for my BP and am about to get one of those CPAP machines. 'What a drag it is getting old, and fat!"

If you've taken a gander at any of my recipes, you'll notice that I've espoused the Food TV approach of "damn the calories, this tastes good!" There's been little to no health compass in my choice of recipes. And for that, I'd like to say "yes, these foods taste great, but unless you run five miles a day, you will gain weight consuming them."

Recently, I've started using an app that I mentioned in my last posting - Lose It!. This app is great for keeping track of what you eat and how much you exercise. I've been using it consistently over the last 17 days and already it's easier for me to put my socks on.

The key, though, is to use it consistently over a long period of time. I'm not going to reveal my long term plan but suffice it to say that it will be over a span of months, not one of those "eat this for 10 days and lose 50 pounds!" diets.

So here's the thing that I've discovered that's working for me in terms of staying on task - I've made a game out of it -

For example: I like pan popped popcorn a great deal, I have it as a snack a lot. Sometimes when I've had a bit too much food during the day, my popcorn's calories will interfere with what I was planning on having for dinner. So out comes the calculator, the web and the scale and I whittle away, swap out and come up with some surprisingly tasty results. AND I can have my popcorn! This has become a game for me, an enjoyable one at that!

Apparently, I'm not the only one who likes to make games out of life affirming pursuits. In fact, now that I've watched her video again, I suppose that what Jane McGonigal had to say probably stuck in my head and helped engender my calorie game. Her TED talk about her concussion and the game she played to help her out of her life threatening condition is very inspiring and here it is: "The game that can give you 10 extra years of life" Perhaps this will inspire you to come up with games that work on areas of your life where you'd like to grow or improve.

So, my friends, as of today I am still playing this game - making sure that I'm totally honest about what I enter into my Lose It app and have hopes that perhaps in the future I won't have to take all those meds, that I'll be able to put my socks on with abandon and not look like and elephant when I go to bed.

Cheers!

A Change of Course