Sunday Menu, #2

Note: All food cooked by my Aunt G except cornbread which was made by my grandmother.

Banana Pudding

Black-eyed Peas

Cornbread

Fried Chicken

Fried Corn

Fried Okra

Pound Cake

The banana pudding, corn and cornbread almost made me cave. I know, I know -- everything in moderation.

Last Sunday, my aunt baked tilapia. You can eat the fish, she said matter-of-factly. I didn't even ask what was used for flavoring. Flexibility is required now and then.

Before I knew it, my aunt had already warmed up the food. I wasn't even hungry but I sat down before two pieces of tilapia, a huge baked potato, two strawberries (nice touch) and a sizable salad.

I almost declined to eat the second piece of tilapia but the fillets were small. I put the strawberries back and picked a few tomatoes and bell pepper strips out of the salad. My aunt said that she almost gave me a third piece of tilapia but she knew that I wouldn't eat it.

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

Month-End Review, February

I went to the gym at 9:35 this morning and the house was full. Even the yogis were in action. There were some waiting for machines but the waiters did not want the available AMT so I hopped on.

As I was working out, I heard this youngster, who was sitting on the floor, give the go ahead to this woman who looked liked she was in her 70's; she had her plaid shirt tucked into her jeans and was holding on to her black purse.

"You can go ahead and get on; I'll probably be on the treadmill much longer than you."

Plaid shirt put her hands on her hips and said "What makes you think so?"

Well, at least the youngster tried to be chivalrous and several of us worked our abs by laughing.

As I was about 47 minutes into my workout, sweat was rolling down the sides of my face (what a feeling) and I got back-to-back 50 Cent on the MP3 to push me over the top.

Go, go, go, go
Go, go, go shorty...

If I can't do it, homie, it can't be done...

After working out, I went to Dierbergs to score some Dannon All Natural Peach Yogurt. In a disturbing trend, another one of my favorite foods has disappeared; I have not been able to find Dannon AN Peach in awhile.

Someone was getting arrested very early in the day on Dierbergs' parking lot. I don't know why the cop had to verbally flex:

GET OUT OF THE CAR!

To me, it looked like she was standing on the outside of the car. And why wouldn't she get out surrounded by three cop cars? Maybe she heard about the Oakland, CA incident...

Dierbergs did not have my beloved peach but since I'm in flexible mode, I purchased the Dannon All Natural Strawberry.


I kept trucking down the road to Sappington's Farmer's Market and got some blueberries ($1.25), strawberries ($2.50) and a pineapple ($2.50).

It's month-end review time. An X on the calendar represents a day of exercise. I was like Hal from Malcolm in the Middle and took off exclusively on Fridays. Here are the numbers:

AMT, 2x's

Arc Trainer, Once

Forest Park 6.2 Mile Trail, Once

Swimming, 11x's

Treadmill, 8x's

Yoga, Once

On more than one occasion, I did some minor weight training and rope jumping to supplement my workouts but no matter how you look at the numbers (61,000 + calories consumed; 11,000 + calories burned), the scale was magical and unmoving.