For those of you doing the math...

364 days

291.0 pounds

Like I said yesterday, it's easy to lose weight. I set a goal of 2 pounds per week and after a single day, I've lost 2.5. The trick, of course, is to see if those two and half pounds haven't returned with a bunch of their friends by next Monday.

Motivation level is high for this week

Next Sunday evening, I'm hosting a concert at a place near here called the Capitol One Bank Theatre. Last year it was called the North Fork Bank Theatre. It has gone by many names, but was originally known—and still known by locals—as The Westbury Music Fair.

Two legendary rock acts will appear next Sunday. The opening act is Hot Tuna, featuring Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy, former lead and bass guitarists for Jefferson Airplane. The headliner is Little Feat, who have been out on "the proud highway" for almost 40 years now, on and off. As a sideline to my regular business, I help handle some of their promotion and merchandising when they appear in our area

Paul Barrère, one of Little Feat's two lead guitarists, gave me a piece of advice about losing weight last summer. "Stop eating white food," he said. Not badPaul's always good at coming up with simple concepts. He saves his intensity for soaring slide guitar solos on his Fenders. Although 2.5 pounds or even 10 pounds won't really be noticeable, I'll feel good and hopefully that will translate into the right vibe for the night and fans will storm the merchandise table and help keep this great bunch of guys on the road.

In case you're not involved in the music business, these days, touring bands depend on those tables to supplement their income. Ticket sale reveues, high as prices may be, are in a pot where many hands will dip before the actual musicians get to touch what remains.

Today's action and menu

In keeping with my rules, after getting up early and doing my workout (I was actually able to do two fingertip pushups but still can't do an unassisted situp or a squat thrust), I had a delicious breakfast of canteloupe yogurt with blueberries and some Coolwhip. I took my medication (I have ulcerative colitis, another fun condition) with a small glass of cranberry juice and followed it with coffee.

For lunch, I had something I've grown to love. Now this is neither an advertisement nor an endorsement. Several months ago, our family went out to Michigan to visit my wife's brother and his family. A bunch of us had lunch in some chain restaurant and everyone was ordering burgers. Over the past year or so, after reading "The Food Revolution" by John Robbins, I began to get put off meat, chicken, pork and the like and think more about vegetables. While a greasy bacon, egg and swiss cheese sandwich is still one of my guilty pleasures, I've gotten more into salads and veggies and try to stay away from red meat as much as possible.

Anyway, I also like spicy foods and something went by on a tray that was not meat and quite spicy smelling and I asked the waitress what it was: a spicy black bean burger. So I tried it, and became an addict. Now comes the unpaid advertisement part: on our next trip to the grocery store after I got home, I found Morningstar Farms had spicy black bean burgers, four in a package for a little under $5.00. One week they had a great sale: any four Morningstar Farms products for $1.99 each. They haven't done that in a while, though.

So...my lunch: I nuke up one of these burgers. I also heat up a marinated artichoke heart. Then I put the burger back in with a little cheese on top (I may end up cutting that out depending on what the scale says tomorrow morning), and take out a very thin roll (in this case, they are called Arnold® Select Sandwich Thins) and put a slice of red onion on the bottom, the burger on that and spread out the artichoke heart on top. A little red condiment on top, sometimes even some relish, and it's a wonderful meal, very healthful and economical in the calorie department. I said I wasn't counting, but that whole deal comes in around 300 or so.

After that, I had a nice Pluott Plum (not sure I spelled that right), some chunks of watermelon and a couple of glasses of water. Now I'm good to go until later.

By the way, on the subject of onions, red onions actually have some nutritional value. Virtually all other kinds do not. Shallots are another wonderful thing to use in place of regular onions, but that's a whole other story.

Dinner...Tuesday night is "Boy's Night Out." I and a bunch of guys usually go out at 7:30pm for dinner and a drink, then shoot pool until around 10pm. Tonight, it was two slices of pizza, one with meatballs, one with sausage, and a bottle of water. It's usually a full-sugar root beer (medium), but I decided to pass on all the sugar.

The "mistake" in yesterday's post

Yesterday I said "I don't Twitter." I'm sure by now the thousands of people who are not reading this are thinking, "What a jerk. Doesn't he know it's "I don't Tweet?" Well, since you didn't ask, yes. I do know. But I also don't care. Life is too short. See you tomorrow.