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One of my colleagues peeped into my office and asked if I had changed anything about my diet. Not really I told her. I recently dropped veggie chips but that was about it.

This colleague is the one who gave me Skinny Bitch to read and, although she looks quite petite to me, she still wants to drop more weight. Later, when I saw her by the shredder, I told her that I was trying to stay on top of the water and that I exercise like a maniac. In turn, she told me that she hardly drinks water or exercises.

Forty ounces of water is a good day for me. I know that most experts recommend more but I'm satisfied if I can get down that much. My latest strategy is to eat oatmeal with a banana before I leave for work. Once at work, I drink at least 16 ounces of water before I touch my morning snacks which usually consist of Dannon All Natural yogurt and fruit (watermelon or apple or kiwi et al.). It used to be a labor to get down two cups of water but, now, it's become easier.

My cousin just hooked up with a personal trainer and he recommends that she drink 96 ounces of water a day. I told her that I'm sure that she'll lose weight that way because there won't be room for anything else in her stomach drinking that much water.

I think that I should have also told my colleague that I'm still not eating fried foods, I seldom eat out and I keep track of what I eat. In addition, if I have Annie Chun's Peanut Sesame Chow Mein Noodles And Sauce for dinner, I don't go near the peanut or almond butter in the same day.

And, by maniacal, I mean that I exercise six out of seven days and usually for an hour and I don't use my exercise session as a reason to overindulge -- even if I participate in a half-marathon.

Habits of Highly Effective Exercisers

My morning snacks were Dannon's All Natural Strawberry Yogurt and a fruit cocktail of blueberries, kiwi, cantaloupe, pineapple and strawberries.


After gathering my a.m. snacks, I laid out swimming gear
plus a Fit and Active Strawberry Light and Crispy Cereal Bar. I usually munch on something before working out, including jelly beans at times.

I have been very amused by SOYJOY's recent campaign pitting soybeans against jelly beans.

Only one snack will give you the sustained energy that you need.

Plain water has tasted unbelievably flat and uninteresting. I dug out the Perrier, which has probably been in my basement for about a year, hoping that it will help me increase my water consumption. I know why they tell you to drink more water when you're trying to lose weight. The extra steps that you take to and from the bathroom will greatly add to the amount of exercise that you rack up.

March Pomegranate

My aunt Girt offered me some fruit cocktail and I declined since I had made my own cocktail of blueberries, kiwi, pineapple and strawberries which was in my snack bag that I carry around. People are so used to me carrying my snack bag that it doesn't even amuse them anymore.

My aunt said watermelon would make this perfect.

Yeah, pomegranate would make mine perfect, I responded.

Before I knew it, I had a fourth of a pomegranate before my very eyes.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's SuperAunt!

How in the world did she pull that off?

My aunt had been storing the pomegranate for, at least, a month and it had maintained its freshness.

I was so freakin' touched that my aunt would share her last pomegranate with me.

Her offering reminded me of a poem in Henry Dumas' Knees of a Natural Man.

Saba: Joy

purchase two
eat one
and
give the other away

Walking Gingerly

My calves are crying courtesy of the Arc Trainer. When I was descending the stairs at work, I had to walk gingerly.

This morning my mind was so preoccupied that I poured oatmeal into the trash can instead of a bowl or maybe my receptacle confusion happened because my morning oatmeal has become such a production of mashed banana, cinnamon, almond milk and lemon or vanilla flavoring.

I also prepare my morning snacks around oatmeal time. Lately, it’s been a cocktail of kiwi and strawberry. I used to sprinkle sugar over strawberries but when they are mixed with kiwi, they’re not as tart.

I’m glad that I had swimming on the agenda today because my calves would not have tolerated much of anything else. I was sluggish and took time to float and do the elementary back crawl which my second swimming teacher referred to as a resting stroke. When I attempt the elementary back crawl, I feel as if I am just sculling water at times. Here's a woman doing the basic backstroke. I love that this video is in another language; it makes it more entertaining.



The variety of names that people have for swimming styles is interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_backstroke

The front crawler at work does not like the phrase front crawl because she feels that it implies inactivity; she prefers freestyle but if you look in references, it will define the freestyle as Merriam-Webster does:

1: a competition in which the contestant is given more latitude than in related events; especially: swimming competition in which the swimmer may use any stroke