When you see a number on the bathroom scale you don't like...

One evening a month or so ago, I decided to weigh myself.

This isn't an especially remarkable occurrence except for two things:

1. It would be the first time I had weighed myself in 2025. I hadn't done it at all this calendar year.
2. When I did get on the scale, the number that came back was one I had never seen before.

220 pounds.

Yikes.

Now, to be fair, it was late in the day after I had eaten, which isn't the ideal time to weigh yourself. And the weight I've gained over the last year or so is partially fat and partially muscle from strength training.

There's also the fact that no one would have looked at me and guessed I weighed a lifetime high of 220 pounds.

My face was fuller than it normally might be, and for the first time I ever remember, I had a bit of a belly. But I do carry weight well, and at most you probably would have said I weighed 195 or maybe 200.

No, 220 it was. I was a little stunned.

I knew I hadn't been eating well. And I knew, for the sake of my health, I needed to get back on track when it came to my diet. But I didn't anticipate that particular number on the scale.

Five days later, I found myself sitting in a Weight Watchers workshop for the first time in more than two years.

Weight Watchers has always been the most effective method of weight loss for me. Their point system works well for someone who is goal-oriented and likes clear direction.

I am what's known as a lifetime member of Weight Watchers in that I hit my physician-assigned goal of 185 pounds back in 2013 and maintained it for a period of six weeks.

Once you do that, you no longer have to pay Weight Watchers a fee. You just need to weigh in once a month within 2 pounds of that goal weight and everything remains free.

I did that for a while, and then I thought I could do it on my own without Weight Watchers.

But I couldn't, and of course I gained weight, so I went back to WW in 2016 and lost even more weight than before (getting down to a gaunt 166 pounds at one point...that wasn't good).

I experienced more ups and downs with my weight over the next several years, and now here we are.

I have been following the WW program, and of course I'm losing weight. I always lose weight when I do this.

My goal is to get back to that 185 number, which may be more difficult than it used to be given my age and the muscle I've gained. The latter is a good problem to have, but the fact is that muscle is heavy relative to fat, so getting the number on the scale to drop can be tricky when you're lifting.

The real question, of course, is whether I can maintain it over the long haul. That's the challenge, and it's going to require a change in thinking.

I can't obsess over the number on the scale every week. It has to be about developing daily habits that get to me to my goal.

My high school track coach, the great Al Benz, always taught us to concern ourselves more with the means than the ends. That is, worry about your form, technique and training, and the end result (times/distances) will take care of itself.

I was never very good at that. Before meets, I always worried over whether I would break 20 feet in the long jump or get into the low 11s in the 100-meter dash. I should instead have been thinking about the steps in my long jump approach or perfecting my start in the 100 meters.

In the same way, my focus now should be on a balanced, healthy daily food intake and getting plenty of water, rather than the exact amount of weight I'll have lost by the time my Monday morning weigh-in rolls around.

If I do the first part, long-term success (with some inevitable small bumps in the road) is guaranteed.

So this is as much a mind exercise as it is about meal planning and label reading. It's about long-term health and a more satisfying pattern of eating.

It's about finding ways to feel good that don't involve late-night carbohydrate loading.

So far, so good. I'm making progress, and it doesn't need to be fast.

Maybe this time I'll figure out how to keep on doing the things I've always known I should have been doing in the first place.

A life history as told through cheese

The AI Blog Post Image Generator created this boy. I like how he looks AND how it rendered the cheese. I make fun of the AIBPIG a lot, but let's give credit where it's due. Nice job this time around.

When I was growing up, the only cheese you could be sure we had in the house at any given time was Velveeta, and I'm more than willing to concede that Velveeta isn't even cheese. Wikipedia refers to it as a "cheese analogue," which is wrong on many levels.

Still, being a cheese-like substance, Velveeta counts for purposes of this discussion.

In my earliest years of cheese awareness, the only time I ate Velveeta was when my mom sliced it for me and included it in my lunch. I was too little to peel back the foil covering and lop off chunks for myself using a knife.

By the way, it was only when I married Terry that I became aware cheese slicers like this one (which I could have used for that Velveeta) existed:

Mom would buy other kinds of cheese from the Fazio's deli from time to time, but my memory of exactly what kinds and how often is spotty. I just know that this sliced Fazio's cheese was the first kind that was truly self-service for me, as it didn't take much effort to open the deli/cheese drawer in the refrigerator, take out the cheese, unwrap it, and grab some for myself.

I'll bet it was American cheese or something like that.

As I got older, I expressed a clear preference for three types of easily obtainable grocery store cheeses (in roughly this order of preference):

• Muenster
• Swiss
• Colby

Being the youngest child (and essentially an only child, with my older siblings having moved out), my food preferences had a huge effect on Mom's grocery shopping habits. I generally got whatever I asked for when it came to food. Thus, Muenster, Swiss and Colby were the cheeses of choice at 1807 Harding Drive.

I remember one New Year's Eve (I'm guessing it was either 1980-81 or 1981-82) when I developed a huge craving for Swiss cheese. Conveniently, we had a half pound of it sitting in the fridge just waiting for me.

So I ate the whole thing.

I downed that half-pound of cheese in something like 15 minutes. And being a young but growing boy, I felt just fine afterward. I'm sure I washed it down with Kool Aid or something similarly sugary.

Sometimes Mom would also buy those half-circle blocks of Colby wrapped in clear plastic. These were a pain compared with the deli-sliced square cheeses in that you had to use a knife to get yourself some, but it tasted so good.

As I got into high school and college, the cheese situation pretty well solidified around Muenster and Swiss. You could always count on finding those two varieties and a heapin' helpin' of Dutch Loaf lunch meat in the kitchen any time you wanted a sandwich.

After Terry and I married, I feel like my love of cheese waned somewhat, and I'm not sure why. She would buy my preferred cheeses when I asked, but for whatever reason I didn't care for them as much as I had as a preadolescent and a teenager.

It has gotten to the point nowadays that the only cheese I eat is Weight Watchers mozzarella sticks, which I like both for the taste and the fact they're only 2 WW points each. They're probably stripped of all nutrients, though, and while I enjoy the flavor, I'm sure they don't taste anywhere near as good as that New Year's Eve hunk o' Swiss so many years ago.

Still, there's no denying that cheese in general is relatively unhealthy, what with all the fat and calories it contains.

I know a lot of people would say, "Oh, just eat the cheese. You're not going to live forever anyway, and life is all about enjoyment."

And maybe they're right.

I even find myself hankering for a slice or two of highly processed, factory-produced, cheese-adjacent Velveeta every now and again.

Cheese nostalgia, it turns out, is a real thing.

What I'm willing and not willing to do to live a healthy lifestyle

I like to read books about longevity and health. Dr. Michael Roizen is my favorite author in the space, though there are many others – Drs. Joel Fuhrman and Neil Barnard come to mind – who are also go-to sources for this type of information.

Of course, there's a difference between reading about healthy living and, you know, actually following through on it. If you were to ask people who know me well, they would say I am generally a fairly healthy individual. But I'm more acutely aware of the areas in which I fall short than those in which I'm compliant with the latest recommendations around diet, exercise, stress management, etc.

And now in my early (rapidly approaching middle) 50s, I am largely at peace with it all.

At some point, you have to decide what you're willing to sacrifice in the name of better health and what less-than-healthy indulgences you want to maintain in your life. And connected with that, you have to be ready to accept the consequences of those less-than-healthy choices.

I don't mean to suggest that healthy = boring/difficult/burdensome, by the way. That's not necessarily the case.

But the fact is, many of us naturally prefer the bag of chips over the carrot sticks, and sitting on the couch over getting out and walking.

Over the past 15 years, I've had four what I would call "significant" weight losses of 20 or more pounds each. The biggest of those came in 2016, when I started around 217 and got down as low as 166, which in retrospect was way too low for me.

Yet, if you go by the BMI charts – and believe me, I'm well aware of the limitations of BMI as a measurement of overall health – 166 pounds for someone my height is within 10 pounds of being "overweight." So what's the answer?

As I type this, I'm approaching significant weight loss #5. I've dropped about 17 pounds since the first of September through my method of choice, Weight Watchers. It's a system that works well for me whenever I make up my mind to follow it.

I also benefit from the gender biology of weight loss, in which men generally have an easier time dropping pounds than women do. You ladies get screwed in a lot of ways, and this is one of them.

Last Saturday when I weighed in at the local Weight Watchers studio, the scale read 187.2. My official WW goal weight, as prescribed by my primary care doctor a decade ago, is 185. Once I get there, I'll switch to maintenance mode and try to stay around that number for...well, for the rest of my life.

Because you see, when you're someone who has had a number of successful weight losses, it also means you're someone who each time has put the pounds back on. I have never in my adult life been able to maintain a healthy weight for more than a year at a time. So my next big challenge is learning how to keep myself where I should be in terms of overall body mass.

I'm willing to make the mental and physical sacrifices necessary to do that. In fact, here is a complete list of the things I'm willing to do to live as a healthy person:

• Cardio: I power walk (usually just over 12 minutes/mile) five days a week, generally covering a total of 12 miles every seven days. I'm very consistent with this, and it's largely because I love getting out and moving.
• Eat leafy greens, beans, nuts, fruits and veggies: These are all staples of my daily diet, as they should be.
• Don't smoke: Not a problem. True story - I've never even tried it. Not even once. I have never inhaled smoke from anything and have no desire to try it.
• Keep my weight down: See above.

Those are admirable, but they do not cover all of the bases, health-wise. There are other habits we should be forming if we want to live longer, happier lives, at least from a physical standpoint. Here are the things I should be doing that I'm not:

• Strength training: The truth is, I hate lifting weights. I just despise it. I know I should be doing it, I know it has amazing benefits. Yet I can't seem to get myself to do it with any regularity. It's the one thing on my "bad" list that I hope to change. Maybe it will be my 2023 resolution.
• Meditation: I don't "feel" like I'm stressed, but the recommendation is that we should all be doing something to manage stress in our lives. Deep breathing is another popular technique. I don't make the time to do any of it.
• Getting enough sleep: I rarely sleep more than 7 hours, and most of the time it's more like 6 to 6 1/2 for me. I feel OK, though, or at least I think I feel OK, since there may be a higher level of "OK" of which I'm not even aware that I would experience if I just went to bed earlier. But as well as I sleep, I just don't love it as much as a lot of people do. I would rather be up and doing stuff. If there was a way to live without sleeping, I would jump on it. As it is, I should be getting more shuteye.
• Inserting even more healthy foods into my diet: I love fish, but I rarely eat it. Too much trouble buying and cooking it. I also don't do a good job with the "healthy gut" foods like yogurt, kimchi, etc., nor do I drink nearly enough water.
• Having a social life: I hang out mostly with Terry and my son Jack, the two people with whom I live. You're supposed to have a wider social circle than that, and men in particular tend not to be very good about building and maintaining friendships. I don't know, there doesn't seem to be enough time, though I know the reality is that I could make time if I really wanted.

I could go on, but the point is, I miss the mark on more items health-wise than I hit. That doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I'm doing what I can manage, and if that means a few years off the end of an otherwise healthy and happy life, so be it.

Or at least that's what I say now. Check back with me in another decade or two.

My fruit addiction is out of control

Soon after I started at Goodyear, I had an onboarding meeting with Laura, our Chief Communications Officer. She gave me great insight into the company, and we talked about our personal and professional backgrounds.

There was, in short, a lot of information exchanged.

But what Laura mainly took away from our conversation was that I eat a lot of apples. At least that's what she mentioned to my boss, Doug.

And I don't blame her. I eat four or five apples a day, and that's virtually every day of my life.

If that were the extent of my fruit consumption, it would be one thing. But it isn't. I also eat a minimum of three bananas every day, along with one or two servings each of whatever other fruit we have in the house...grapes, pears, berries, whatever.

All told, I have a minimum of nine and often as many as 11 pieces/servings of fruit every day. Not occasionally, but every day.

A lot of people who hear that immediately warn me about the ill effects of excessive fruit sugar. Yet my blood glucose levels and A1c are always comfortably within the normal range whenever I have blood work done.

This has been on my mind lately because I recently had a physical with a new health care provider and am enjoying the benefits of a roughly 25-pound weight loss.

I often mention here that I'm a Weight Watchers Lifetime member. The WW system, which is based on a daily allotment of points, has most fruits and vegetables at the zero-point level. That doesn't mean they're "free," in that you're supposed to keep your intake of them at a reasonable level.

My intake is pretty clearly somewhere beyond "reasonable." Yet it's exactly what has allowed me to maintain my weight where I want it to be. I never feel especially hungry because of all the fruit I push down my gullet.

I realize it's too much fruit by almost anyone's standards, but it works for me.

The only drawbacks are the expense and logistical hassles of constantly having to buy fresh fruit. Terry handles much of that work, God bless her, but I find myself making special banana and apple runs to the grocery store all the time.

It's a small price to pay.

I tried (and failed) to make the transition to black coffee

I have been a regular coffee drinker for only about a decade. This surprises some people, who assume that those who work in newspaper newsrooms (as I did in the 80s and 90s) are caffeine addicts from their very early 20s.

For whatever reason, the coffee switch didn't flip for Terry and me until we turned 40. Prior to that, neither of us drank coffee or wine. But from then on, we became fans of both...she likes wine more than me, but the fact is that I'll drink it now, which wasn't the case when I was a young adult.

From the very first days when I developed my coffee habit, I have always drunk it with cream. More specifically, plain half and half. No flavoring or anything, just good old, solid-white, milkfat-laden half and half.

This routine has worked for years, though it has its drawbacks:

• It involves taking a small container of half and half to my Goodyear office every day, since the company does not currently offer complimentary creamer to associates.
• It doesn't always work when purchasing coffee from, say, gas stations, many of which only provide that nasty powdered creamer, the existence of which I don't even acknowledge.
• Over the course of a day in which I drink 4-5 cups of coffee, the calories and saturated fat in half and half add up.

That third point is crucial. As a Weight Watchers lifetimer, I have to count one point for every cup of coffee in which I pour my half and half (which is to say, every cup of coffee I drink). Black coffee is zero points.

It doesn't seem like much, but those 4-5 points are valuable. If I could find a way to eliminate them from my daily food budget, it would make room for an additional healthy snack or two in my lunchbox.

So I tried. One day a couple of weeks ago, I went cold turkey on half and half. I started drinking all of my coffee black.

And when I say "all of my coffee," I mean exactly one cup of it.

During my drive to work that morning, Terry texted me promising to buy a container of half and half that day, as we had run out of it.

"Actually, don't bother," I responded to her once I got into the office. "I'm going to experiment with black coffee."

Two hours later, I texted her the following: "Screw this. Get me the half and half!"

I just don't like the taste of black coffee. I want to. It smells great. But when it comes to actually drinking it, I have to add the creamer.

Let it be known, though, that for those two hours, I was a brave soldier. I jumped right into the world of black coffee, and then I jumped right back out again.

And honestly, my life is better for it.

Overcoming negative self-talk in your life

We are dipping back into Jenn's Big Book of Wisdom for today's post, referring to my Weight Watchers leader Jenn. She does not get paid enough to serve as the fount of all knowledge in my life, but these days she fills that role anyway. God bless her.

At a recent Saturday morning meeting, Jenn talked about the the voice we often hear inside our heads that is self-critical and negative. It is counterproductive to everything each of us tries to achieve in our wellness journeys, yet we often yield to it.

It's the voice that tells you, for example, that there's no way you're going to lose the weight you need, and even if you do, it will be impossible to keep off.

It's the voice that tells you you're a bad parent and are screwing up your kids.

It's the voice that tells you you don't deserve the good things you have in your life.

It's the voice that lies, and its effects can be devastating.

I am very much a self-critical person, and I've always seen this as a positive trait. I figure that if you're constantly monitoring everything you're doing wrong and addressing it, you will inevitably be a better person.

And of course there's something to be said for continuous self-improvement. I'm not saying you shouldn't always strive to up your game in the areas of life that really count, because you should.

But there's a very fine line between constructive self-criticism and self-loathing, and sometimes we cross it without even knowing.

At the risk of sounding new age-y and maybe a bit more touchy feeling than I'm comfortable with, your main battle is probably not with living a healthy lifestyle or becoming a better spouse/parent/friend. Your main battle is likely to be loving yourself.

My guess is that some people have healthier attitudes in this regard than others, but it's something we should all keep in mind.

Don't get complacent, but understand that you're worth a lot more to way more people than you probably realize.

Virtually no one leads the charmed life you think they do

I've mentioned how I attend Weight Weights/WW meetings every Saturday morning. There are many reasons for doing this, and not all of them are weight- or health-related.

A key factor in my decision to drive out to Mentor for 8am meetings is my WW leader Jenn. She has an inspiring personal story, having lost an amazing amount of weight and keeping it off over time.

But what most attracts people to Jenn, I think, is how relatable she is. She still struggles every day to do the right things when it comes to her health. She knows what it's like to want to say, "Screw it, I'm eating the gallon of ice cream."

She also understands -- perhaps better than anyone I've ever met -- the mental and emotional aspects of healthy living and weight loss.

At a recent meeting, Jenn said something I thought was especially profound. Actually, I think she was quoting another WW leader named Liz, who I don't happen to know, but the sentiment is so Jenn that I'll always connect it to her.

This isn't verbatim, but what she said in essence was, "If everyone got together and put all their problems into a pile on the floor so that everyone else could see them, you would gladly take your own problems back, put them in your pocket, and walk out the door."

In other words, not only is there always someone with a greater struggle than you, it's also important to realize that there is no one who doesn't have struggles. No matter how people may seem to you, they have their problems, and you're probably better equipped to deal with your own than theirs.

This struck me hard. I always say I have nothing to complain about, but I complain anyway. Yet, there is truth in what Jenn said. I would rather have my own issues and problems than anyone else's. And in the overall scheme of things, those issues and problems are relatively light.

Much of it comes down to changing your mindset (as it always seems to). The things I whine about "having" to do really should be looked at as things I "get" to do.

I "get" to prioritize my health every day. I "get" to go to work, where I can grow personally and professionally and support my family. I "get" to maintain a house and yard in a world where some people will never have the chance to own either.

That's the mindset I want. I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer. I hope you are, too.

Here are four things I've learned from 26 on-and-off years of Weight Watchers

My apologies to the marketing folks at Weight Watchers, who have worked hard to rebrand the organization as "WW," presumably to take the emphasis away from weight and present a more holistic approach to health.

It's just that I had to say "Weight Watchers" in the headline because only people who are members know what "WW" means.

I am one of those members. I started "doing Weight Watchers," as people say, way back in 1995 after Terry had been following the plan for a while. She was shedding some post-Elissa baby weight. I was simply trying to get back to some semblance of the slim sprinter I had been less than a decade earlier.

And it worked. It always works, or at least it does for me whenever I make up my mind to be more conscientious about my diet and overall health.

It's just that, for long periods in the intervening quarter-century, I've thrown caution to the wind, eaten whatever I wanted, and gained weight accordingly. And then I've gone back to Weight Watchers and lost it. It's the classic yo-yo cycle.

As my sister Debbie and I have often discussed, our genes are such that we will always have to be mindful of our weight. We're not naturally skinny people, but that doesn't mean we can't be healthy people.

Nowadays I attend the 8 a.m. WW meeting in Mentor every Saturday, and not surprisingly, I'm steadily creeping back toward my goal weight. I dropped 15 pounds in the first two months and am already feeling much better, thank you.

For what it's worth, here are four lessons that WW has taught me, at least one of which might benefit you:

(1) Chill out: This has been the hardest thing for me to learn over the years. I used to live and die by that Saturday morning weigh-in. And now, for whatever reason (the wisdom of years?), I simply don't. Some weeks I lose, some weeks I gain, and some weeks I stay the same. If I do the right things, my weight will eventually take care of itself. I enjoy "calm Scott" much more than "scale-obsessed Scott."

(2) Control what you can control: You hear athletes say this all the time. You can only concern yourself with the things you can influence. There are many things you can't influence. You simply can't control them, but you can control how you plan for and react to them. For example, this is graduation party season. We are invited to several of them. Grad parties aren't traditionally havens of healthy eating, but if I budget a certain amount of WW points before we go, make good choices while I'm there, and eat slowly while enjoying my food, it's really no problem. I can control that outcome.

(3) There is value in community and accountability: I tried doing WW online during the pandemic and the results weren't great. I need that Saturday morning meeting not only to be accountable for my choices over the past week, but also to hear from others who have similar struggles. Putting the time in to go to meetings, even when I would rather stay home, always pays off.

(4) You are more than your health, but that health is still pretty darn important: There are people in your life who want you to be around a long, long time. Even if you don't do it for yourself, consider making healthy choices in gratitude to those who care for you. We all have an expiration date, but we also have within us the power to live a vibrant, energetic, full (and fulfilling) life in the days we've been allotted. Exercise that power.

I still love apples...lots and lots of apples

As we get older, our food preferences sometimes change.

In my case, the years have softened my dislike of the only two foods I used to say I wouldn't eat: sauerkraut and cantaloupe. Now I love sauerkraut (don't ask me what happened there), and I will happily eat cantaloupe, particularly if it's included in a fruit salad.

One thing that has not changed over time, however, is my passion for apples.

One does not usually connect the words "passion" and "apples," but there's really no other way to describe it. I love apples, and specifically, I love Gala apples.

I love Gala apples so much that I eat 3-4 of them every day. Every. Day. That is absolutely no exaggeration.

Nowadays, it's more often four per day than three. We go through bags and bags of them.

Interestingly, though, I'm not a fan of large apples. I like small to medium-sized Galas, to the point that I suppose 3-4 of them is equal to maybe 2-3 of the larger variety.

Either way, I still eat a lot of apples.

That's the only point I wanted to make here. Well, that plus the fact that I continuously bless the unnamed person who decided to make fruits and vegetables 0 points within the WW/Weight Watchers system. This saint of a man/woman makes me feel infinitely less guilty about my apple obsession.

Many of us are trying to get ourselves together, health-wise...again

I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago and then, a few days later, completely erased it and started over.

The original post was a whiny rant about how my weight has yo-yo'ed over the years and how I have a hard time creating lasting change when it comes to weight blah blah blah. It wasn't fun to write, nor would it have been fun for you to read.

Not that this will be particularly "fun" for you, either, but in the days after I wrote the first post, my wife started a 28-day transformation program bought for her by some of our kids as a Mother's Day present. She had to scramble to align with the timing of it, as it has a real-time online component and officially began the day after Mother's Day. But Terry did the requisite shopping and food prep in short order, and she has stuck with it well and is seeing great results.

This was inspiring to me, so I went back to the only method of weight loss that has ever truly worked for me, which is Weight Watchers.

"WW" is how they brand themselves nowadays, and I should mention that it works for me only when I do the in-person program (i.e., go to weekly meetings and weigh in, which creates a certain level of accountability...the online-only version doesn't really go well for me).

So I've been attending meetings and weighing in at my local WW "studio." And of course I'm losing weight, because all it is, really, is a well-designed system that makes you do what you already know you should be doing: Eat less food, eat healthy food, eat tasty food.

If you do that and move more, and you have weight to lose, you're going to drop pounds, guaranteed. We just all have different mental and emotional make-ups that necessitate different approaches to achieving that goal. They're different paths, but they all travel in the same direction and all lead to the same place.

Will I get back down to my goal weight? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I will. I started around 208 a couple of weeks ago and will aim to get back into the 185 range.

The question is, though, will it be permanent? That remains to be seen. But before you can answer that question, you have to start down the path. And that's what I'm doing.

Some thoughts on weight, health and BMI

Every once in a while, I come on here and talk a bit about my personal weight loss (and gain, and loss, and gain, and loss, etc.) journey, in the hopes that it will be somewhat interesting to you and that you'll at least read past the headline.

This is one of those days.

I went to my Weight Watchers meeting last Saturday and got back to within two pounds of my goal as a Lifetime Member, which means I don't have to pay to come to meetings and to access the E-Tools on my iPhone that allow me to look up the point values of various foods, track my eating and activity, etc. It's a nice little incentive to stay at or around your goal weight: Eat too much and you end up paying.

My weight losses have always been followed by weight gains. It's a reality that many, many people face, and that I may face for the rest of my life, I don't know. But looking back over just the last nine years, I've had significant weight losses at the following times and gained much or all of the weight back each time:

2008: Lost about 30 pounds, gained it all back by 2010

2011: Lost 15 pounds or so, gained it all back by 2012

2013: Lost something like 45 pounds, gained 25 of it back by early 2016

2016: Lost that 25 I had gained back PLUS 25 more. Yes, a 50-pound swing, though that took me down into the mid-160s by last fall and, honestly, as much as it pains me to say this, that was just too much.

2017: By the early part of this year, I had gained 25 of the pounds back again, and now I'm starting to lose it again.

I weighed in at 186.4 this morning (Saturday, April 1st), a figure that would surprise many people just looking at me. I don't look like I weigh 186 pounds, though I will say that much of it is in my legs. I've told you before that we Tennants carry a lot of weight in our thick English-German calf and thigh muscles.

Still, I really don't think I'm quite yet at a medically ideal weight. What that weight should be, though, constantly baffles me. It's not 165, but it's also not 185.

"Hey, Scott, here's a thought: How about splitting the difference and stopping at 175?"

Yes, yes, you're probably right. It's just that I have a hang-up about being in the "overweight" or "obese" section of the Body Mass Index (BMI) charts.

People attack the BMI scale all the time, claiming it's unrealistic. But I think that's because most people don't understand exactly what BMI is.

BMI is not a set of numbers designed to make you feel like a fat slob. As I understand it, it's simply a table based on straight actuarial data. It's telling you, in essence, "Look, you do what you want. We're just saying that people under this particular weight for your height tend to die early a lot less often than people who are over that weight. That's it. That's all we're saying. It may seem like an unrealistic number to you, but the stats are the stats."

Yes, I know that people who are especially muscular get thrown unfairly into the overweight/obese category on the BMI chart. I understand it's not perfect. I'm just saying its purpose is really only to show you how likely you are to suffer an early death based on your height and weight. There are, and always will be, exceptions.

Of course, there are many things that contribute to being "healthy," and maintaining a proper weight is just one of them. But it's an important one, to be sure. For my height (5-9 1/2), I don't enter the "normal" weight zone on the BMI chart unless I'm under 172 pounds. My 186 weigh-in this morning puts me at about 27.1 (under 25 is healthy/normal). A 27.1 BMI is classified as "overweight."

Do with that information what you will. We all have to make our own decisions. I'm just having a hard time balancing the medical "hey, you're in good shape" with the subjective "hey, you look too gaunt" from family and friends.

The more important question I should be asking myself is how I'm going to go about maintaining that true goal weight once I get there. And I'm looking into that now. A different maintenance philosophy and a whole lot of prayer seem to be the preferred strategy.

One key thing for me, as Terry told me countless times as I refused to listen, is that I need to show up at weekly Weight Watchers meetings. I just have to. They keep me accountable and motivated. When I stop going, I gain weight. It's a simple pattern, not hard to recognize, yet time and again I try to do it on my own. Dumb.

OK, I've written more than I should have on this. I wanted to talk about healthy eating apart from weight, but you know what? I'll do that in tomorrow's post. I really need to go grab an apple (and not a Twinkie) right now.

I don't want to harp on this losing weight thing, but if you're someone who needs to do it, here's one hugely important thing you should know

I feel like I've mined Weight Watchers, weight loss and general health topics for all they're worth when it comes to blog material over the last few years. And I honestly wasn't looking to write about it anymore, but something occurred to me that I think is important for people to know.

First off, please know the last thing I want to do is to discourage anyone. Weight loss and maintenance is NOT an impossible dream. You can absolutely do it, and I don't mean that in a fake inspirational way. You really can.

But there's a cold truth that has to be faced.

If you're going to put your body into pound-shedding mode, you of course have to eat less than you are now and likely move more than you do now.

You already knew that.

What you may not know, if you've never done the weight loss thing successfully, is what that means in practicality. It means you're going to want to eat something that you used to eat all the time, and you're going to have to say no.

Then you're going to have to do that again, probably an hour or two later.

Then you're going to have to do it again the next day. And the next. And the next.

For the rest of your life. Or until you give up and decide you didn't mind being overweight.

Because for most people, those are your only two choices.

Again, I'm not here to discourage you. You will be amazed at the capacity you have to make the correct food choices, and to do it again and again. I don't care who you are, you can do it.

But it takes a willingness to change your thinking, both about food and about yourself. And about the things that make you feel good and get you through the day.

It takes the ability to understand the worth of health, and of feeling and looking good, over the momentary pleasure of that chocolate cake. You can and should still have that cake on occasion, but in reasonable portions. And sometimes not eating the cake at all is easier than trying to confine yourself to a single small slice.

The point is, you will face a hard reality, and you will face it continuously. How you react to that reality and the choices you make in those moments will define whether or not your weight loss and weight maintenance will be successful.

If you acknowledge now the difficulty of doing the right thing, and you still make up your mind to say "It doesn't matter how tough it may seem, I'm going to lose the weight once and for all," you will be successful. I guarantee it.

It's a mental game, and one you can win.

So go do it. Seriously, go do it. I finally did, and it has changed the game for me in many ways. The same will happen to you, too.

I just thought you should know.

Not that my opinion counts for much, but consider this an endorsement for Weight Watchers if you're looking to get healthier

Did you, like an estimated 47 bajillion people around the world, make a new year's resolution to lose some weight? Then I'll give you some advice that's probably worth what you're paying for it.

There are lots of ways to drop weight, but they all come down to the simple formula of calories in/calories out. If you expend more calories than you take in, then you will, absolutely without doubt, lose weight. That's the basic mathematical and biological principle at play here.

Which sounds relatively easy, doesn't it? But you've probably found it to be far more challenging than a simple equation. Especially if you adhere to the Standard American Diet, a phrase that lends itself to one of the most appropriate acronyms of all time.

Weight has long been an issue for me. I've talked about it on this blog from time to time. I've certainly never been what you would call morbidly obese. Far from it. But I spent a good chunk of the 90s and 2000s carrying too much extra flesh, both in terms of how I wanted to look and from a strict BMI perspective.

At some point back in the mid-90s, Terry introduced me to Weight Watchers. I tried it a few times and it never failed to work. I always, always lost weight when I was "on plan," in WW parlance. The problem was sticking with it, which is course always the problem with weight loss. A shockingly – and perhaps dismayingly – small percentage of people who lose weight manage to keep it off for any appreciable length of time.

But that was never the fault of Weight Watchers. The blame for my regains lay solely with me. Weight Watchers is, for my money, not only the ideal way to lose weight, but also to keep it off.

Why? Well, for one thing, the Weight Watchers people take a holistic approach, meaning they care about the whole person. Yes, they'll help the number on the scale go down, but they also go to great lengths to ensure you're both healthy and happy: Food, Fitness and Fulfillment are the three Fs in the latest version of the Weight Watchers plan.

I should mention that Weight Watchers underwent a major overhaul over the last few months, changing up their plan drastically to ensure that members concentrate on what they call both scale and non-scale victories. The plan does seem to evolve once every five years or so, but in my mind, it's always for the better.

There are many things I like about Weight Watchers, but here are three that stand out:

• Nothing is "off limits." People will say to me, "Can you eat that with Weight Watchers?" And I'll say that, yes, I can eat absolutely anything I want on the WW plan. There are no "restricted" foods. But everything has a SmartPoint value, and you only have so many SmartPoints to expend in a given day (though you also have a weekly cushion you can dip into as needed). Therefore, while you're "allowed" to eat that huge slice of chocolate cake, you have to ask yourself, "Is this worth the points it's going to cost me?" Maybe it is, and that's fine. But it's a question you need to ask about anything you put in your mouth.
• Fruits and vegetables are "free." That is, they don't cost you any points, so you can load up on them (within reason, of course, but that "reason" gives you an awfully wide berth). I rarely feel hungry or deprived with Weight Watchers as a result of the freedom to eat these zero-point foods virtually to my heart's content.
• Absolutely no one is going to judge you if you struggle, regain weight, etc. I find Weight Watchers meetings to be true "judgment-free" zones. Your leader is there to help you, and that leader is always also a Weight Watchers member. They know exactly what you're going through.

Do you have to track/weigh/measure your foods? The way I do Weight Watchers, yes you do (there's a "Simply Filling" Weight Watchers track that has less of that type of work involved, but I've never really tried it and frankly don't think I'd be any good at it). But tracking and measuring is such a valuable exercise, and one to which you become accustomed very quickly, that it never seems like a burden.

Do you have to stay "on plan" the rest of your life? If you want to keep the weight off, then yeah, you do. But trust me, the benefits of feeling great, looking great, and knowing you've improved your health exponentially outweigh the fleeting joy you get from any sugar binge.

For what it's worth, I lost 43 pounds on Weight Watchers from December 2012 through the spring of 2013. I gained some of it back in 2014 but have been on plan since Fall 2015 and am feeling very comfortable at or under my goal weight of 185 pounds. And I track and measure every day. After a while, it gets much easier and instinctive, trust me.

Anyway, I'm not Oprah or anything, so it's not like I'm some sort of influencer. And the Weight Watchers people certainly aren't paying me to talk them up. I just love how being a WW member makes me feel, and it's something I wanted to pass along to the readers of this blog, about whom I care very much and for whose continued attention I am extremely grateful.

If you have additional questions about Weight Watchers that you'd like to ask privately, please don't hesitate to email me at scotttennant@oh.rr.com.

The challenge of Thanksgiving when you've just lost weight

So I've been regularly attending Weight Watchers meetings the last several Saturdays in an attempt to get back to (and stay around) my goal weight of 185 pounds.

After losing a great deal of body tonnage a couple of years ago and getting down as low as 172, then ballooning back up into the high 190s, I decided that 185 was probably a comfortable target for me.

Well, actually, Terry and I both decided it would be a good target for me. I value her opinion on matters like this, and she knows I can be wishy-washy when it comes to setting health goals. So she chimed in with a quick and firm "185" when I asked her back in September what number I should aim for on the scale.

So 185 it is, then. I finally reached that goal weight a couple of weeks ago. Yay for me.

Now that I'm back to it, I would of course like to stay there. Which isn't really that difficult most of the year but gets a bit harder over the holidays.

Those holidays, as I'm sure you're aware, include Thanksgiving. The idea of Thanksgiving is to show your gratitude for everything you have by eating unhealthy amounts of turkey and stuffing and putting yourself into a food coma. I'm not sure what the connection is there, but that's the way we Americans do it.

Yet I don't want to do it. Eat a lot, that is. I want to stay somewhere near my daily targeted allotment of Weight Watchers points. That's an awfully big challenge when a table full of calorie-laden goodies is staring you in the face and everyone is saying, "Hey, it's Thanksgiving! You don't have to eat so healthy every day. Splurge for once!"

For most people, that's sound logic. But not for me. I no longer splurge. I cannot splurge. I do not have sufficient self-control to indulge one day and shift easily back into calorie cutting the next.

If I give in and eat whatever I want tomorrow, I'll do it again on Friday. And again on Saturday. And probably Sunday. Then I'll just figure, well, I'm not cut out for this Weight Watchers thing so I think I'll just quit and HEY, PASS THE CAKE!

That's how I am. I know myself. And I also know that it's really not that difficult for me to limit my food intake, even when we're talking about Thanksgiving or just a trip to a nice restaurant. All I have to do it try a little and I'm fine.

Yet dinner spreads like the one I'll face tomorrow still scare me. I never want to compare my situation to that of an alcoholic, but it's the same principle: I cannot have just one big meal. There's no such thing as one big meal for me. I must constantly maintain a healthy diet if I want to maintain a healthy body.

So tomorrow I'll have a little turkey, a small scoop of mashed potatoes, some yams and a maybe a bit of stuffing. I'll eat it slowly and allow it to fill me up, and I'll be satisfied.

And Friday morning my pants will still fit and I'll feel great. I won't feel as if I denied myself and will look forward to my Saturday morning weigh-in at Weight Watchers.

A healthy life is a happy life, folks, at least for me.

The roller coaster ride that is your weight

A couple of years ago I lost 43 pounds on Weight Watchers. I was pretty happy about that.

Then, beginning around Christmas 2013, I started gaining it back. A pound here, a pound there. At first I was fine with it because I had gotten a little too gaunt, or at least that's what many people said.

But then I went past the upper limit of where I wanted to be. Then I went way past where I wanted to be.

And now I've regained more than half of what I lost, which is more frustrating than I can tell you.

I come from a family of solidly built Welsh-German people. We have big thigh and calf muscles, which is good if you're a runner/walker like me, but we also have have a tendency to be "stocky," to put it politely.

In December 2012 I weighed something like 215 pounds. Six months later I got as low as 172. I wanted to stabilize at 185.

But as I type this, I'm almost 200 pounds with clothes on.

Weight Watchers is a great program and I think it works wonders. But like any healthy eating plan, it comes with the little caveat that you actually have to keep doing it if you don't want the weight to come back.

I tend to eat healthy. I just eat too much.

So now I'm slowly trying to lose the weight again. I've already dropped a few pounds, and I'm hoping by the end of the year to be back at a comfortable, healthy number.

In the meantime, I have a whole closet full of men's medium-sized clothing that's too tight on me. Stuff I bought after my The Big Weight Loss of 2013 when I figured I would be the same size forever. I hope to fit back into most of it before the calendar turns to 2016.

Losing weight is actually relatively easy, especially for guys. Maintaining weight loss is a whole different ball game, and for me it requires a full mental, spiritual and physical commitment. I lost my focus over the last year-plus, and now I'm trying to get it back.

That's life, I guess. Sometimes you're good, sometimes you're bad. Some people say it's important to maintain that healthy number on the scale, others say you shouldn't obsess over it.

All I know is that when the number is low, I feel better all around. Nowadays I feel like my clothes are tight and I'm more tired than normal. All because I can't stop going to the refrigerator.

Or at least I couldn't do that for several months. Now I'm back under control...I think.

So it's back down the roller coast hill I go. Only this time, I plan on getting off once I get to the bottom.

10 things about me I can't believe my wife puts up with

1. I get cranky when I get stressed
I like to think I can handle a lot, but when I feel like my cup runneth over, I get irritable. She generally lets it slide, God bless her.

2. I can't fix anything
I know we've been over this before, but really, how much easier would her life be if her husband knew how to repair stuff? As it is, she either has to learn how to fix things herself, farm the job out to her dad, or simply go out and a buy new version of whatever has broken. Sorry, hon.

3. I am inordinately interested in grown men playing games
My sports fandom is something I keep relatively in control, but every once in awhile I think it must bother her. Like when I stay up late to watch the end of a game and cheer just loud enough to wake her up.

4. I am an all-or-nothing person
I'll go to Terry and say, "Geez, I'm having a hard time keeping up with my running schedule." And she, very sensibly, will ask something like, "Why don't you cut back to running only a few days a week?" And I, very insensibly, will reply (in caps), "NO! I MUST EITHER RUN 75,000 MILES EVERY WEEK OR I WON'T RUN AT ALL! THERE WILL BE NO IN-BETWEEN!"

5. I hate losing to her in anything
Especially Putt Putt. She's a very good miniature golfer, I am not. But I will try my darndest to beat her because I must not lose to a girl. Trust me, I annoy even myself with this one.

6. I insist on cleaning the kitchen before we go to bed
I'll come home and the kitchen will be a mess, and Terry will tell me not to worry because she'll clean it in the morning. And I know she will. But the thought of dirty dishes sitting in the sink overnight bothers me to no end. I don't know why, it just does. So almost inevitably, I will clean the kitchen myself (and come to think of it, I have to believe she knows this and uses it to her own advantage. She's sneaky.)

7. I work my game show experience into far too many conversations
Did I ever tell you that I was on two game shows? Not one, TWO. See, it all started when...

8. I refuse to believe I am any good at anything
"Self-deprecating" is one thing. That's kind of admirable. But "constantly believing you're the worst person in the world and saying so" has to grate on your significant other after awhile. Or at least I imagine it is.

9. I can be obsessive
This is closely related to #4, I suppose. Like the Weight Watchers thing. I lost a good deal of weight and continue to track my food every day using the Weight Watchers PointsPlus system. And if given the chance, I will talk to you about it. Forever. I track everything that goes into my mouth, and I don't eat nearly the quantity of desserts I used to. I'm a weight loss evangelist. And like anyone who has discovered a new way of life and wants to tell you about it, I am annoying.

10. I write about our personal lives in a public blog
Seriously, who does that?

You achieved your personal goal? Good. Here's what the rest of your life looks like...

You know how people are jaded about New Year's resolutions and they're almost always represented as promises to yourself you'll never actually keep?

I realize this really is the nature of New Year's resolutions most of the time.

But occasionally, people do achieve what they set out to do. Sometimes, that resolution made on Jan. 1st is reality by July 1st.

The question at that point is, now what?

I'm proud to say I'm living proof that a goal set during the holidays is actually attainable. And, I hope, sustainable.

As many know, I've lost more than 40 pounds since the beginning of December 2012. I've done it through Weight Watchers, a system I always say may not be for everyone (what system is for everyone?), but it's as darned close to universally successful as I've seen.

I started my weight loss journey on Dec. 1st, which I guess technically means it wasn't a "New Year's" resolution. But close enough for purposes of this discussion.

Since I hit my goal weight in late March, I've been tinkering with the number of points (read: calories) I should consume each day to maintain a healthy weight. I actually dropped as low as 13 pounds under my goal, but have since put some of the weight back on (intentionally) and now sit very comfortably in the 175- to 180-pound range.

As a bit of a tangent, I should note here that that still puts me, medically speaking, just into the "overweight" range in terms of body-mass index. As a not-quite-5-foot-10-inch male, I shouldn't be any more than 174 pounds, according to the actuarial charts. But even my doctor thinks the weight I should maintain is 185, so I think we can safely ignore the charts in some cases.

Anyway, now that I've settled pretty well at a weight I can maintain without too much in the way of strenuous effort, the question again is, now what?

How do you motivate yourself once you've hit the promised land and have moved on with the rest of your life?

Because let's face it: You can't obsess about your weight or whatever your personal goal may be indefinitely. You have too many other things going on that demand your time and attention.

So how do you maintain what you worked so hard to achieve?

In the case of the weight loss, and with Weight Watchers specifically, there comes a time when the "hey, you look great!" comments sort of fade away. Because the New You is really no longer the New You, but rather the "Actual You." People's expectations of your appearance adjust to accommodate that new body. And if they comment on your weight again, it's more likely it will be along the lines of, "Hey, have you put some of that weight back on?"

So living off of the praise and congratulations that come with noticeable weight loss isn't an option. Instead you have to learn to continually reward and motivate yourself.

Maintaining that healthy weight is still work, even if you're not focusing on it seven days a week. Hard work deserves recognition and praise. And since no one else is likely to do it anymore, you need to supply that recognition and praise yourself.

It's the same with any goal, really. Once you achieve it, and you work hard to maintain it, you still need to pat yourself on the back from time to time. Reward yourself in whatever way works for you, whether it's an extra (reasonably sized!) slice of cake or a new pair or pants or whatever floats your boat.

And don't forget to look continually at the big picture. Even if others aren't as impressed as they once were with what you've accomplished, you shouldn't feel bad about looking at yourself that way. You're awesome, so tell yourself that. What you achieved was significant, and you should treat it as significant.

If you quit smoking, don't forget how you used to feel (and smell). And take a moment to reflect on how you feel now. Quite a difference, isn't it? Celebrate that. Continually.

A lot of people who quit smoking eventually relapse. And even more people who lose weight put it back on (I've been one). Every day you maintain that healthier version of you is a victory. Don't forget that.

Also, keep something around that reminds you of what motivated you to change in the first place. It could be a picture of your messy office before you became organized. Or an old shirt that's now five sizes too large you never want to fit into again. Or something that reminds you of the way you used to handle tough situations before you learned how to deal with stress.

Whatever it is, the idea is to remember how far you've come since you decided to change for the better. Because the farther we come, the less likely we are to allow ourselves to go back.

Or at least that's what I hope. I honestly don't want to see "XL" on the tag of any article of clothing I wear ever again...

Flying without a license

I'm finding that I accidentally leave my zipper down all the time these days.

Not just, say, once every few months. But all the time.

I'll look in a mirror and everything will seem to be reasonably OK (as "reasonably OK" as my appearance gets at this point), except my fly will be down.

Why is this? What's happening to me?

Two theories:

(1) Mental decline (see yesterday's post about impending brain death)

(2) Weight loss

I've been doing the Weight Watchers thing for a little more than four months now, and the results have been excellent. I feel great.

One of the byproducts of significant weight loss is, of course, that your clothes no longer fit. I have an array of pants with waist sizes a good 2 to 4 inches larger than what they need to be.

That may not sound like much, but even a couple of inches can make you look like a NutriSystem "before" photo when it comes to pants.

So I have all of these big pants. I'll put on a pair and button them, and then immediately I'll go to a mirror to see if they look too big or baggy. I'll pull the waist out (again, like a "before" picture) and stand sideways while looking at myself at the mirror, thinking "I really need to go out and buy some new pants."

It takes me 20 to 30 seconds to go through this ritual, and by the time I finish it, I'm on to the next thing. Putting on my shirt or whatever. Well, actually, no. Pants are always last in my daily dressing routine. Do you do that? Put your clothes on in the same order every day? I do. And I always will. Don't judge me.

Anyway, I move on, and I forget that all I've done is snapped up the pants. I've not actually zipped them. So I walk around like a doofus, which while not an entirely unnatural state for me is still not a desirable one.

And then later, say when I have to go to the bathroom, I discover that I've been walking around with a security breach at Los Pantalones.

That's embarrassing.

By the way, I never realized there are so many ways to say "your zipper is down" until a few seconds ago. The list includes:

• You need to bring your tray table to the upright and locked position.
• XYZ (Examine Your Zipper).
• Mind the gap (for our British friends).
• Your barn door is open.
• You've got Windows on your laptop (a personal favorite).

How many people notice that my zipper is down and don't say anything? I'm hoping the answer is "none" and that I'm blowing this problem out of proportion. But there's a part of me that knows everyone notices and you're all laughing at me.

And I thought we were friends.

50 Shades of Java

Over the past two years, I've developed a deep addiction to caffeine in the form of coffee. And I haven't been reluctant to discuss it.

If anything, unemployment has deepened that addiction. I average five cups a day, which isn't that much compared with a lot of people but is still pretty hefty when the majority of the coffee comes from your Keurig machine.

I love my Keurig. I received it as a gift last Father's Day, and it has undergone high levels of use every day since. The problem, of course, is that getting coffee from individual K-Cups is not nearly as economically efficient as making a pot or two with a conventional coffee maker.

But I love the K-Cup coffee. I mean, I love it. That first cup every morning is heavenly. I'll brew it up and then just stare at it for a minute. The deep, rich, dark brown color. The way it fills out my soccer ball mug (I must drink my coffee from the soccer ball mug. I don't know why.) It's beautiful, and it turns an even nicer carmel-y color when I add in the half and half or Carnation creamer.

Then comes the smelling. Oh my, the smelling. That first whiff. My knees buckle a little. I'm not kidding. Sometimes the first smell is so awesome that I start to lose consciousness for a second. That can't be normal, can it? No, probably not. But I really, really like the way it smells.

(NOTE: At this point, you're probably worried about me. And I understand and appreciate your concern. But don't judge me. Just leave me and my hot beverage alone.)

The next step, as you might imagine, is the tasting. The thing with me in this department is that I have the least discriminating palette ever. I like all kinds of coffee. Do you understand? ALL. KINDS. OF. COFFEE. Light, dark, Brazilian, Colombian, bold, blonde, whatever. Doesn't matter. My only criterion is: Does it have coffee taste? Yes? Then that's good enough for me!

The Keurig manual advises you to try different kinds of K-Cups until you discover your own personal flavor. I've already discovered my personal flavor. It's "coffee." I'm like a cheap caffeine floozy.

I'll drink it black if I have to (my daughter Chloe drinks it that way a lot), but I prefer the creamer. Half and half offers the best flavor, but it also costs me one Weight Watchers point, whereas the low-fat Carnation is point-free. I drink enough coffee that those points accumulate quickly over the course of the day, so I'll split time equally between the two creamer agents.

I also plan out my coffee drinking. After I down the first cup, I wonder how soon before I can have a second cup without looking like a junkie. And then I'll realize that no one is watching me, so I'll brew up cup #2 to take with me to the computer to start the day's job hunting and/or freelance writing activities.

Cup #3 can sometimes wait until lunch, but it's usually closer to 11 a.m. It helps me bridge the gap until the mid-day meal, which is a function of coffee I've come to appreciate as I've lost weight. It really does a nice job of keeping you feeling full so that you don't get too hungry. Not getting hungry means I don't eat as much. Not eating as much means I lose weight. Losing weight means I'm more healthy. Hence, coffee = medicine. I don't think that's too much of a leap to make.

Cup #4 generally happens around 2 p.m., which is also when my wife has a scheduled coffee dose (though for her it's probably not quite her fourth of the day). This gives us a little time together to talk and review how the day is going. Thus, coffee is not only medicine, it is also a marital aid. (I seriously cannot believe I just used that phrase.)

Cup #5 happens a little before dinner. Again, it's a nice bridge before the last meal of the day, hunger-wise, but it also helps keep my attention on whatever work I'm doing. So in addition to medicine and, ahem, marital aid, coffee also supports my career. I'm telling you, it's like a miracle drink!

If there's going to be a cup #6, it is decaf and it happens somewhere in the 7 to 9 p.m. range. I always tell people that caffeine doesn't keep me awake at night, but I'm honestly not 100% convinced of that, so I hedge my bets a little by making #6 of the low-octane variety. Doesn't matter to me, really, since it still has the same great smell, taste, temperature, etc.

Sometime later, Terry and I will crawl into bed and I'll give a little sigh of contentment. Usually I'll look back proudly on whatever I was able to accomplish that day, and slowly I'll drift off to sleep for the proverbial long winter's nap.

And the best part is, it's only eight more hours until cup #1...

"The Biggest Loser" is the roadside accident of television

As I've mentioned before, I don't get the chance to watch a lot of TV. I have nothing philosophical against it, I just don't have the time.

Even during my two-plus months of unemployment, there have always been freelance articles to work on, kids activities to attend, household cleaning and chores to take care of, and (lately) blog posts to write. Not a lot of time to sit in front of the flat screen and chill out.

But there are certain things I make a point of watching. And "The Biggest Loser" is one of them.

I love "The Biggest Loser." So does most of my family. It's one of the few shows we'll DVR and watch together.

If you ask me why I love this program so much, I'll hesitate. Because I'm not really sure what it is that attracts me. I like seeing people transform their lives. I like the drama and the competition. And I can certainly relate to the weight loss aspect of it these days.

But if I'm being honest with myself, I will say the thing that mesmerizes me is the emotional aspect of the show. Yes, what the contestants are doing (attempting to lose mass amounts of weight in a relatively short period of time) is ostensibly a biological undertaking. They're constantly working out. They're changing their eating habits.

Yet there is always an underlying psycho-emotional story for everyone on the show. And the producers do their best to exploit that. It makes for good TV when the 25-year-old, 450-pound woman breaks down and starts talking about the thought patterns and habits that have gotten her to the point of diabetes, coronary artery disease, and a host of other health problems.

I always feel like I'm prying when they show these emotional swan dives on the air. Like it's something I'm not supposed to see and I should be looking away.

But I can't help it. I stare at the screen the same way I would stare at an accident in which body parts are strewn across an expressway. Part of you knows you don't want to get involved, but another part is incapable of disengaging.

We do that, I think, because it makes us feel better about ourselves. "I may be 20 pounds overweight, but at least I'm not like HIM," we'll think. But for me, it's also because I'm looking for a reason to root for these people, and I'm much more likely to wave the flag for someone who has legitimate emotional issues that manifest themselves in overeating. I want them to do well. I want them to get better. I want them to win.

There's another part of "The Biggest Loser" that makes me uncomfortable, and that's the amount of weight these contestants lose. It's one thing to drop double-digit pounds your first week or two on the ranch. It's another to keep losing that much weight nine or 10 weeks later.

Is that healthy? I know they're under medical supervision and that they devote their daily lives to exercise and diet. But it creates an incredibly unrealistic expectation among viewers who may not know the basics of healthy weight loss.

I hear it among people at my Weight Watchers meetings all the time. "Yeah," someone will say, "I only lost three pounds this week. It was kind of disappointing." WHAT?!? Disappointing? You should be thrilled at losing three pounds in a week. In fact, if anything, you should worry that you're losing the weight too quickly if you lose three pounds several weeks in a row.

I have to say, it has taken me years to learn this, but a half-pound or one-pound weight loss per week is ideal. Both emotionally and physically. The hardest thing for me about losing weight is not adjusting my approach to food, but rather adjusting my expectations of the results. Slow and steady is far, far, FAR more likely to result in sustained, long-term weight loss than rapidly dropping the pounds.

Which, again, I think is a lesson not being taught to "Biggest Loser" fans who may not have done the homework themselves or who are rookies in the weight loss game. No, ma'am, you are NOT going to drop 11 pounds this coming week like Gina, the middle-aged contestant who has already lost 83 pounds in the previous two months. Nor SHOULD you.

But still, I watch. And I will continue watching. As with any reality show, you quickly identify your favorites and start pulling for them. I want all of them to do well.

I just wish I didn't care so much about the fact that their mothers fed them unhealthy food their whole lives or that the four miscarriages caused them to go on eating binges. It's interesting information, but I can't help but think it's none of my business.