So what's the deal with diets these days? I was power walking on the elliptical-hiking-stair-climber machine tonight (second time this week, nearly a world record for myself) and was thinking about dieting and the recent Atkins diet craze. Someone else mentioned the Atkins diet to me earlier in an email (to be exact: "As long as you don't start discussing your Atkins diet..."). Let me set the record straight: I don't diet. I think the Atkins/South Beach diets are full of it, although I admit I have seen results from it. But it really can't be healthy limiting your diet to a small portion of what's available on today's menus. I mean, look at me! I'm six feet tall, a strapping 155 pounds, and I eat more carbs than anything else (mmm...pasta). Surely it doesn't have to do with the metabolism that I inherited....

Rather than dieting, I think the following things make my life healthier (yes, I am an authoritative source for this type of information):
-- Exercise: About six months ago, I realized in how bad shape I am. I had to jump out of a cab and SPRINT to a Broadway show in order to get there in time to take full advantage of the front-row seats that we won through a ticket-booth lottery drawing. At the first half intermission, I could hardly stand up because my legs were pulsating with pain due to the exercise I forced them into. The next week, I went out shopping for running shoes and was determined to begin preparing my legs for the next time I was late to a show. Six months and a few hundred dollars in gym fees later, I'm starting to work out, though only twice this week. This is something I should do more of, but at least I'm trying.
-- Cutting fast food from my diet: Not only is it nasty and not supporting local economies and individual entrepreneurship, but it comes from the worst sources (Read Fast-Food Nation). Kind of like the Papa John's pizza I ate for lunch today....
-- Cutting soda from my diet: I don't have much a sweet tooth for soda, and the sugar is terrible for your body. But the Sprite I had at lunch today sure did taste good.
-- Limit the amount of food I eat on a daily basis: First of all, I think that breakfast is huge. If I eat a nice big breakfast (like a massive bowl of oatmeal), I can tell that my metabolism is in full force because by lunchtime, I'm starving, even if all I do is stare at a monitor and move my fingers for a few hours. I try to have a big lunch and limit my dinner to something small, although more often than not it's the other way around. But starting tomorrow, it's in full force....

So maybe I'm not so healthy afterall. Okay, I admit it, I'm a hypocrite.

Gym cardio details:
-- Calories burned: 520 (FWIW)
-- Miles: 4.5