2009

164 Tweets, 983 Posts, 17 Publications

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December 31, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 31

Food Qty Calories Dumpling, fried, 1 dumpling 2 680 Pork, Sweet and Sour, 1 serving 1000 Rice, Fried, 1 oz.

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December 30, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 30

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Peas, 1 oz.

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December 29, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Dec 29

The wind kicked me around a bit, reddening my nose and freezing my lips, sometimes prying open my mouth and filling my cheeks, like an Aeolus in reverse . Especially over the Wmsbg bridge, where I moved up the slope at a crawl.

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December 29, 2009 - Breakfast

Dec 29

I'm back to close to the weight I was before Christmas but there's a dispiriting puffiness around me, like there are subcutaneous spongers in my neck. Regardless: I'm going to wear a $5 shirt today.

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December 28, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 28

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 large 110 Chips, soy 140 Meatball sub on roll 647 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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December 27, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Dec 27

I went to take pictures of graves for a piece I'm writing and I got lost in Brownsville, which is a very bad neighborhood. The Army sends medics there to train, says Wikipedia.

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December 27, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 27

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Peas, 1 oz. 6 72 Sausage, chicken, 1 link 2 260 Vegetables, frozen, mixed, 1oz.

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December 26, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 26

Jetblue chips and a pre-packed pork sandwich. Food Qty Calories 100-calorie unit of flavor 3.

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December 26, 2009 - Breakfast

Dec 26

I gave up on this project right before Christmas and I am writing this on the 27th, trying to recover what happened. We were on our way back to NYC on this day.

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December 25, 2009 - Snack

Dec 25

My lowest moment of the last several months; [Wife] is asleep. After a moment of contemplation I grab a Austrian chocolate-backed gingerbread cookie--the one I got with my stocking.

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December 24, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 24

The feast of seven fishes and Scotch and red wine. I do remember throwing up into the red carpet; had to sleep on the bathroom floor.

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December 23, 2009 - Snack

Dec 23

Food Qty Calories 100-calorie unit of flavor 4 400 Chips, Popped Corn Tortilla, Medora, 1 oz.

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December 23, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 23

Food Qty Calories 100-calorie unit of flavor 2 200 Cobb Salad, 1 c. 2 360 Ice cream, vanilla, 1/2 c.

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December 21, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 21

Food Qty Calories Cheese, American, 1 slice 2 120 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Healthful roll 2 200 Turkey, 1 oz.

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December 19, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 19

Food Qty Calories 100-calorie unit of flavor 100 Beans, Kidney beans, 1 oz 2 46 Cheese, Mild Cheddar, 1 stick 70 Chicken, 1 oz. 6 354 Rice, 1 c.

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December 19, 2009 - Breakfast

Dec 19

Yesterday was a shitty food day, without exercise, although I did smooth over some work stresses and problems, and at around 11PM launched a new insanely complicated gift-subscription form hosted by the subscription firm in Iowa. As you know this was always my dream when I was a little boy.

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December 18, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 18

Food Qty Calories Bread, bun 100 Burger, Turkey, 1 pattie 150 Caramel corn, Pirate's Booty, 1 bag 360 Chips, Sun, 2 3/8 oz. 330 Mayonnaise (lite), 15 ml.

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December 18, 2009 - Breakfast

Dec 18

Yesterday my friend J-- asked if I wanted, as part of this project, to go deeper into physical culture. Maybe some martial arts, or join a CrossFit gym, etc.

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December 17, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 17

Food Qty Calories Candy, small chocolate 3 90 Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Sausage, chicken with apple, 1 link 2 320 Vegetables, Organic Foursome, 2/3 c.

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December 17, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 17

Food Qty Calories Miso soup, 1 cup 85 Salad with a small amount of dressing, 1 oz. 50 Sashimi, 6 pc.

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December 17, 2009 - Breakfast

Dec 17

So yesterday I didn't exercise. And now that I have reintroduced steady work into my life I find myself absolutely out of my mind.

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December 16, 2009 - Snack

Dec 16

Food Qty Calories Cereal, fibrous, 2/3 cup 1. 5 120 Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Milk, no fat, 1 c.

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December 16, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 16

At the office Christmas party I avoided the drinks and had two dumplings, some mini-crabcakes, etc. I'd put it at 650 cal.

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December 16, 2009 - Breakfast

Dec 16

Down to 292, meaning I am migrating in the proper direction once more. My gut has deep dimples on either side, I noticed last night.

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December 15, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 15

Food Qty Calories Beans, green, 1 oz. 8 72 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Wasa, Rye, 1 cracker 2 60 Mustard, 1 tbsp.

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December 14, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 14

People have been very encouraging about my weight loss. Here's a photo in side profile.

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December 14, 2009 - Snack

Dec 14

After deciding that I will do everything I can to keep my focus this week, and working out with diligence in the morning, making my physical efforts a meditation, I was at work exactly three minutes before flipping out, raising my voice, and deciding that the best thing for me is to become a bicycle delivery boy.

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December 14, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Dec 14

Riding around the park in freezing rain and not stretching afterward, as I did yesterday, can lead to soreness. This I learned as I went to the park this morning, came up the hill, and just stopped, whoomph.

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December 13, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 13

Food Qty Calories Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 2 120 Cracker, Wasa, Rye, 1 cracker 2 60 Peas, 1 oz. 8 96 Sausage, chicken, 1 link 3 390 Vegetables, Organic Foursome, 2/3 c.

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December 12, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 12

Food Qty Calories Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Sausage, chicken, 1 link 2 260 Vegetables, Organic Foursome, 2/3 c.

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December 12, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 12

I ate pepper steak while I waited for a new wheel to be placed on my bicycle to replace the one I spent three hours truing Thursday night. I decided to calculate how much I pay per mile to ride.

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December 11, 2009 - Breakfast

Dec 11

I spent most of last night truing a bike wheel. It took me a few hours to understand which spokes to tighten to achieve which effect.

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December 10, 2009 - Snack

Dec 10

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Mild Cheddar, 1 stick 70 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Tangerine, 1 medium 0.

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December 10, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 10

Food Qty Calories Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 0. 4 46 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 45 Peas, 1 oz.

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December 10, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 10

Successful interaction with the buffet steam-table. Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 large 110 Chips, Terra, 1 bag 150 Macaroni and Cheese, 1 oz.

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December 9, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 9

Food Qty Calories Beans, green, 1 oz. 12 108 Chicken, thigh, 1 thigh 2 220 Yam, 1/2 c.

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December 9, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 9

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 large 110 Meatball sub on roll 647 Pirate's Booty Thar Be Good Shiver Me Timbers Aged White Cheddar YES PUFFED Rice and Corn! ALL NATURAL Good for You!

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December 9, 2009 - Breakfast

Dec 9

I had a dream last night, said a coworker. You were showing me something on the computer, and you were very thin.

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December 8, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 8

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Sausage, chicken, 1 link 2 260 Tangerine, 1 medium 0. 7 33 Vegetables, Organic Foursome, 2/3 c.

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December 8, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Dec 8

It's nice to have my wife home from Vegas. The other day someone linked to something I'd written about her in 2003.

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December 7, 2009 - Snack

Dec 7

"It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted.

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December 7, 2009 - Breakfast

Dec 7

Doing my shaky lifts this morning I cast around for a motivational metaphor. In my quest for non-reactivity am I a hand dipped in a river?

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December 6, 2009 - Snack

Dec 6

Having trouble filling the hole. Now I'm a ton over calories and need to chill.

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December 6, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 6

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Sausage, chicken, 1 link 2 260 Vegetables, frozen, mixed, 1oz.

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December 6, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 6

Food Qty Calories Bread, baguette, 6 in. 353 Chips, NY Snacks Party Mix, 1 3/4 oz.

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December 5, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 5

Food Qty Calories 100-calorie unit of flavor 100 Beer, Budweiser, 1 oz. 2 24 Burrito, 1 burrito 600 Chips, Popped Corn Tortilla, Medora, 1 oz.

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December 5, 2009 - Fitness

Dec 5

Nasty day out today so I jogged in place for an hour and lifted my dumbbells. About ten minutes into the jogging I decided, [Wife] being out of town, to remove my shirt and pants and look in the mirror.

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December 4, 2009 - Drinks

Dec 4

There's a piece of WeightWatchers lore that holds that one should, when at a party, step away from the table with the appetizers. This is hard in NYC, as the apartments are small, but I succeeded, until after midnight, at which point it gets hazy.

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December 3, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 3

Cafe Zaiya. Estimating--it was a sort of meat-ey thing atop some ramenish noodles, with a sort of pickle-y thing and a potato thing covered with a kind of brightly-colored dyed crunchy thing (but not fried).

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December 3, 2009 - Breakfast

Dec 3

I was stuck at work until 9PM hand-rebuilding a database, and so under the advisement of a coworker, who finds the show cheesy but touching, I brought up Hulu and watched The Biggest Loser for the first time last night as I entered commands, waited, entered commands, waited. I had been avoiding it; I've avoided all the weight-loss shows in the same way that a failed musical theater performer might not watch American Idol, or a failed chef might not watch Hell's Kitchen , or Ted Haggard might not watch Queer Eye .

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December 2, 2009 - Dinner

Dec 2

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 35 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Peas, 1 oz.

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December 2, 2009 - Snack

Dec 2

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 large 110 Candy, Reeses Miniature 36 Chips, Baked Lays, 1 bag 160 Chips, NY Snacks Party Mix, 1 3/4 oz.

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December 2, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 2

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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December 2, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Dec 2

In Wmsbg. they, meaning the DOT, are erasing bikelanes on Bedford to permit more cars and/or to save the eyes of Hasids from unwanted views of immodest leggy biking sluts.

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December 1, 2009 - Lunch

Dec 1

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Sandwich, panini, 1 big-assed panini 700 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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December 1, 2009 - Breakfast

Dec 1

I bought a pair of 25-lb weights last night. They were surprisingly difficult to get home in my bag--I was worried they'd rip the lining.

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November 30, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 30

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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November 30, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 30

"When I looked over I saw you eating pumpkin pie in the middle room away from the table I knew you were eating your feelings," said [Wife]. I'm back to where I was before Thanksgiving.

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November 29, 2009 - Dinner

Nov 29

Whenever someone loses a lot of weight in public they ask that person what advice the person has for the other fatties. And that person always says something along the lines of gastric bypass/listen to your body/cut out bread/develop cancer/eat only chicken/jogging/ride the white horse/veganism.

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November 29, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Nov 29

Four times around the park. On the second go on the hill a man came up beside me with a purple sweater tied around his middle.

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November 26, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 26

The Struggle between Plenty and Thankfulness Today when I framed two crows in the notch of the ash tree, I thought of order. Rain was in the forecast and presto, rain.

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November 25, 2009 - Snack

Nov 25

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 35 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 0.

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November 25, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 25

There is some anxiety as we head into the greatest feast day of the year, although I'm less worried than I will be about Christmas, when the cookiehose comes out and starts spraying its terrible flaming cookiefire. I'll eat a bit too much tomorrow, but I see no reason to spiral out of control.

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November 24, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 24

Sometimes on the bridges with their slow grade as I bicycle at my diminished speed I have conversations with myself regarding Lance Armstrong. I do not have conversations with an imagined Lance Armstrong, as that would be presumptuous.

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November 22, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 22

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Sardines, in water without salt, 1 tin 140 Turkey, 1 oz.

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November 21, 2009 - Dinner

Nov 21

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Mild Cheddar, 1 stick 70 Crackers, Rice, Asian Brand, 18 crackers 120 Peas, 1 oz. 8 96 Sauerkraut, 1 c.

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November 21, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 21

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Turkey, 1 oz. 2.

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November 21, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Nov 21

I got a flat on Bedford, so I found my way to the King's Highway Q station. Already late for a movie I found the turnstiles grated, the token clerk gone, and the only point of entry one of those full-body turnstiles.

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November 21, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 21

Sometimes you are on a sandy slope, slowly drawn into the snackhole, which is a Sarlacc. Finally I went all the way in and had a large tub of popcorn, stuffing it into my mouth like I was trying to stuff a plush toy.

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November 20, 2009 - Snack

Nov 20

Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing dozens of people in order to sell their fat and tissue for cosmetic uses in Europe. The gang allegedly targeted people on remote roads, luring them with fake job offers before killing them and extracting their fat.

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November 20, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 20

I have a friend who once starred on a TV show. When he meets people they say, "I thought you'd be taller.

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November 19, 2009 - Dinner

Nov 19

Food Qty Calories Beans, green, 1 oz. 8 72 Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 35 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Corn, 1 ear 64 Crackers, Rice, Asian Brand, 18 crackers 120 Mustard, 1 tbsp.

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November 19, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Nov 19

A premiere for the new Twilight film was taking place at Sunshine Cinemas on Houston. Drawn by an extraordinary burst of flashbulbs I rode by slowly and watched an impossibly thin leggy blond I didn't recognize pose for a group of screaming, rabid photographers ten feet away.

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November 19, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 19

My self-appointed volunteer editors on this blog--coworkers--have failed me. They told me only that I've become boring, sure, over and over, but I didn't listen because they bitch about everything--my hair, my face, my flabby man-chest and gut, my loose shirts, my sweater-vests, my messy office, my life choices, my ponderous, blathering prose style, my abuse of the serial comma and my un-funny self-referential grammar jokes.

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November 18, 2009 - Snack

Nov 18

Food Qty Calories Cereal, fibrous, 2/3 cup 3 240 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Milk, no fat, 1 c. 90 Turkey, 1 oz.

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November 18, 2009 - Dinner

Nov 18

Food Qty Calories Beans, green, 1 oz. 8 72 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 2 120 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Mustard, 1 tbsp.

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November 18, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 18

I think often of Rumi's "welcome and entertain them all/even if they be a crowd of sorrows. " There certainly are a crowd of sorrows always at the door.

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November 17, 2009 - Dinner

Nov 17

Meet and cheese plate, with little toast squares. Food Qty Calories 100-calorie unit of flavor 5.

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November 17, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 17

Was just on panel at the old $3 movie theater. Lots of people in the audience but all I saw was the bright lights and random faces.

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November 16, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 16

Since so much of this work is about what's "normal" it's hard to unshackle from half-received postmodernism and just think for myself. The language I use is informed by lazy readings of Foucault and Nietzsche and Barthes, all internalized at various stages when I wanted approval by academics (as when I was applying for grad school).

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November 15, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Nov 15

A warm night. For an hour and a half, up the side of Queens and down to the top of Manhattan, I watched this sunset.

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November 15, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 15

At one point I felt like putting a sign up on this site that read "I promise never to turn this into a book" so that readers could trust me, could know that this is for the experience, not for the eventual transaction. But that felt unfairly limiting; if I could write the best and craziest memoir ever about weight loss, totally abase and brutalize myself in the interest of the narrative, I should do that.

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November 14, 2009 - Dinner

Nov 14

Food Qty Calories 100-calorie unit of flavor 3 300 Beer, Coors Light 4 408 Sashimi, 6 pc. 132 Sherbet, 1 container 400 Sushi, 1 pc.

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November 14, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Nov 14

Twenty miles in the sometimes pouring rain, wearing jeans like a genius. Hit a slick railroad tie on 1st Ave in Brooklyn and went over sideways, taking most of the force on my right knee and right elbow, upsetting the nuclear family to my right.

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November 14, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 14

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 35 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Peas, 1 oz.

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November 13, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 13

Adding 100 cals because I had my sandwich on a bagel instead of whole wheat. Worth it.

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November 13, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 13

At work I found a book about the history of addiction movements and recovery. It's interesting to see how much the current discussion of compulsive behavior and addiction as disease has been constructed by society over the last seven decades.

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November 12, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 12

Went to the doctor's office for a checkup. I'm on Atenolol, Diovan, and Lipitor, all drugs for the old, but the fat are prematurely old.

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November 11, 2009 - Dinner

Nov 11

I emceed a reading tonight. The above image is the email I received from a coworker right before we left.

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November 11, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 11

Food Qty Calories 100-calorie unit of flavor 3 300 Banana, 1 large 110 Macaroni and Cheese, 1 oz. 3 69 Potato, baked, large 0.

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November 10, 2009 - Snack

Nov 10

Meals leading up to the buffet have been debated for ages. My recommendations are a large dinner the night before consisting mostly of light breads and vegetables to expand the stomach.

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November 10, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 10

"Man, you weigh an error amount. " This 15-year-old basically nails the entirety of being a fattie adolescent.

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November 10, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 10

Up early; coffee; cereal. I had morning half-dreams of riding a bike around London, but London has no obvious bikemaps for free on the web like NYC.

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November 9, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 9

The obese are not supposed to be vain but in my experience we are, at least I am, and extraordinarily so, and far more than the slends. Why be vain?

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November 8, 2009 - Snack

Nov 8

Food Qty Calories Cereal, fibrous, 2/3 cup 1. 5 120 Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Milk, no fat, 1 c.

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November 8, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 8

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 35 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 2 120 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 45 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Onion 46 Peas, 1 oz.

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November 7, 2009 - Snack

Nov 7

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 0.

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November 6, 2009 - Snack

Nov 6

I have a sort of steady wet-dog smell about me. Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 0.

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November 6, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 6

Food Qty Calories Miso soup, 1 cup 85 Salad with a small amount of dressing, 1 oz. 50 Sashimi, 6 pc.

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November 5, 2009 - Snack

Nov 5

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Mild Cheddar, 1 stick 70 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 2 120 Cracker, Wasa, Rye, 1 cracker 3 90 Sausage, chicken, 1 link 2 260 Vegetables, Harvest Hodgepodge, 3/4 c. 1.

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November 5, 2009 - Breakfast

Nov 5

I voted for Rev. Billy, disgusted with Bloomberg for his anti-democracy stance and Thompson for his anti-bike stance.

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November 4, 2009 - Snack

Nov 4

But not yet done, I was home, and needed something extra. Food Qty Calories Cereal, Flaxen, 3/4 c.

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November 4, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Nov 4

At which I rode my bicycle home, departing from Flatbush, six jiggers in. Food Qty Calories Bicycle ride, 1 hr.

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November 4, 2009 - Dinner

Nov 4

and then, disaster, in the form of whiskey. Food Qty Calories 100-calorie unit of flavor 2 200 Beer, 1 c.

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November 4, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 4

And proceeds beautifully, with a lunch packed by my wife and one sneaky mini-Snickers, packaged as "fun size," to enliven the proceedings.

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November 3, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Nov 3

Rode back over the Williamsburg Bridge with little to see; just lights and wandering people. Nearly doored twice in two days.

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November 3, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 3

Food Qty Calories Sandwich, Vietnamese, large (from the jewelry store; no mayonnaise) 750 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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November 2, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 2

Spent a few moments reading about weatherman Al Roker, after watching a video in which a drunken little person dressed as an ewok humps his leg. He lost about 100, the full dollar, with the gastric bypass, change brought on by his father's deathbed wish that he get his fat ass in gear.

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November 1, 2009 - Dinner

Nov 1

Light dinner of lamb with rice and vegetables. Food Qty Calories 1000-calorie unit of despair 0.

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November 1, 2009 - Lunch

Nov 1

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Peas, 1 oz.

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October 31, 2009 - Dinner

Oct 31

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 large 110 Pretzel, 1 oz. 3 324 Sandwich, chicken, grilled, 1 sandwich 1.

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October 31, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Oct 31

Up through Queensbridge--surprisingly easy ride; you go up 3rd to the Navy Yard, along the water to Newtown Creek, over that bridge; then a mile more you're on the 59th St. Bridge.

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October 31, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 31

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 1.

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October 30, 2009 - Dinner

Oct 30

Food Qty Calories Beer, Budweiser, 1 oz. 12 144 Egg roll, 1 roll 200 Ribs, BBQ, 1 oz.

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October 30, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 30

A former coworker in from out of town, so we went for Malaysian. Much guesswork in the calories.

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October 30, 2009 - Breakfast

Oct 30

I've decided I need a new computer, so I cleaned up an old one for trade-in. In doing so I found a ton of old email about which I'd forgotten--my life all the way back to 1996, from the end of college until now.

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October 29, 2009 - Snack

Oct 29

Food Qty Calories Cereal, fibrous, 2/3 cup 1. 5 120 Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Milk, no fat, 1 c.

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October 29, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 29

We introduce the 100-calorie unit of flavor here, which, like the 1,000 calorie unit of despair, is a good catch-all for miscellany (a dash of oregano, a wee sprinkling of parmesan, a quarter-ounce of Indian pickles in garlic oil). In this case we apply it to the hot green peppers from the Punjabi Deli.

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October 28, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 28

Food Qty Calories Carrot, 1 medium 2 50 Chicken, 1 oz. 8 472 Pasta (uncooked), 1 oz.

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October 27, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 27

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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October 27, 2009 - Snack

Oct 27

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Wasa, Rye, 1 cracker 2.

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October 27, 2009 - Breakfast

Oct 27

I've been thinking a great deal about yesterday's rats. The need for more and more; the compulsive aspect.

Weekly Review

Weekly Review: October 27, 2009

By Paul Ford Oct 26 Weekly Review

[Weekly Review] Weekly Review Adjust by Paul Ford , October 27, 2009 A kinkajou, 1886. Twin car bomb attacks just outside the Green Zone in Baghdad destroyed three government buildings, killed 155 people, and injured 520.

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October 26, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 26

"Junk food turns rats into addicts," Laura Sanders, Science News : To see how junk food affects the brain’s natural reward system — the network of nerve cells that release feel-good chemicals — Johnson started at the grocery store. He loaded up on typical Western fare, including Ho Hos, sausage, pound cake, bacon and cheesecake.

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October 26, 2009 - Breakfast

Oct 26

Back in the saddle; spent the weekend in Maryland building a greenhouse. Cleaned up now, and going to work.

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October 25, 2009 - Dinner

Oct 25

At my nephew's college cafeteria, in a building called Chesapeake. The students are informed of good choices, calories, and salt component at every juncture; nonetheless a man has to have some yellow college sheetcake or what sort of man would he be?

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October 24, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 24

Food Qty Calories 1000-calorie unit of despair 0. 3 333 Bacon, 1 slice 2 92 Bread, bun 2 200 Vegetables, frozen, mixed, 1oz.

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October 23, 2009 - Dinner

Oct 23

Into the wild. Food Qty Calories Bacon, 1 slice 2 92 Beer, Coors Light 2 204 Cheese, Mild Cheddar, 1 stick 70 Ice Cream, Sandwich, Skinny Cow 2 280 Mushrooms, 1 oz.

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October 23, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 23

Some cookies in the back. I had one and spit it out for its synthobad; had half of three and a nibble of banana bread; threw the other halves away.

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October 22, 2009 - Dinner

Oct 22

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, Rye, 1 cracker 3 90 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 2 20 Peas, 1 oz.

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October 22, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 22

Food Qty Calories Onigiri, cod roe, 1 2 240 Sashimi, 6 pc. 132 Seaweed salad, 1 oz.

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October 22, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Oct 22

Yesterday at work I was asked if I wanted to help build a website for a personal trainer named Panther, in exchange for personal training for myself. I said that wasn't for me.

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October 21, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 21

Connie: "Your four readers are tired are tired of hearing about your bike rides. " R--: "And the dazzling glory of the ethereal morning upon the water.

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October 19, 2009 - Breakfast

Oct 19

She walked the path from kitchen to dorm. Someone had raked the week's leaves into tall, equidistant piles.

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October 18, 2009 - Snack

Oct 18

Food Qty Calories Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 3 180 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 45 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 3 60 Popsicle, organic, 1 pop 35 Sausage, chicken with apple, 1 link 2 320 Vegetables, Harvest Hodgepodge, 3/4 c.

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October 16, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 16

Food Qty Calories Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 2 40 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Peas, 1 oz.

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October 15, 2009 - Dinner

Oct 15

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, whole wheat 2 100 Hamburger, 1 pattie 279 Healthful roll 100 Onion 0.

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October 14, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 14

Went to the ophthalmologist; she dilated me and poked my eyeball with a stick. "Do you mind if K-- also pokes your eyeball with a stick?

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October 13, 2009 - Dinner

Oct 13

Food Qty Calories Beer, Amstel Light, 1 bottle 3 285 Bourbon, 1 oz. 3 192 Bread, baguette, 6 in.

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October 13, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 13

Food Qty Calories Apple, 1 small 55 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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October 13, 2009 - Breakfast

Oct 13

Woken up with my night terrors again, crying out the Kaiser's name. Decided to just wake up and get to work.

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October 12, 2009 - Snack

Oct 12

Dinner a little while off (not complaining) and many, many calories remain so cereal. [Wife] at my request gave away the sugar cluster bombs to our downstairs neighbor.

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October 12, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 12

Food Qty Calories Apple, 1 small 55 Banana, 1 medium 90 Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 1.

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October 10, 2009 - Snack

Oct 10

I'm basically watching a movie about a guy who can't stop the snack train. Food Qty Calories Candy, Reeses Miniature 2 72 Popcorn, 1 oz.

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October 10, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Oct 10

Up and over the Queensboro Bridge with a massive, blasting wind coming at me like elfhammers. Then down 1st Ave.

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October 10, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 10

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 35 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 2 40 Peas, 1 oz.

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October 10, 2009 - Breakfast

Oct 10

Graffiti on the bathroom wall of Think Coffee, Bleeker and Bowery: [Hand 1] Am I part of the cure or am I part the disease? [Hand 2] Coldplay?

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October 9, 2009 - Breakfast

Oct 9

Talking with A-- today he told me his ideal weight is below his current 205, and he is taller than I am. What is my goal weight, he asked?

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October 8, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 8

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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October 8, 2009 - Breakfast

Oct 8

Weight on its way down again. While it's annoying, as always, to learn, re-learn, and re-learn, it's good that I can evaluate past results and adjust behavior to meet appropriate goals.

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October 7, 2009 - Dinner

Oct 7

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 35 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 4 80 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Peas, 1 oz.

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October 7, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 7

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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October 7, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Oct 7

On the way in I considered a project in which I would take a picture of the same thing every day for a set amount of time--a wall, a puddle, a parking space--thus investigating the nature of time and urban life with my characteristic pomposity. Then realized I've been going to work every weekday for nearly five years and what do I have to show for those commutes in their various aspects?

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October 6, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 6

I had ramen with ground pork; I'm going to go with the calories for Udon here as it seems a safe bet. Food Qty Calories Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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October 6, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Oct 6

It usually takes 40 minutes, but I did it in 25 in order to make a meeting. There is no faster way to get to Manhattan midday; I passed a thousand cars.

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October 5, 2009 - Snack

Oct 5

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, whole wheat 2 100 Popsicle, organic, 1 pop 2 70 Turkey, 1 oz.

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October 5, 2009 - Dinner

Oct 5

Food Qty Calories Chicken, thigh, 1 thigh 2 220 Feta, Bulgarian sheep's-milk, 1 oz. 75 Milk, no fat, 1 c.

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October 5, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 5

Went to the East Village Cheese Shop and purchased too much food. Courting disaster.

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October 4, 2009 - Dinner

Oct 4

Food Qty Calories Cereal, Weetabix, with Fiber Crackles, 5/4 c. 170 Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, whole wheat 2 100 Milk, no fat, 1 c.

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October 4, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 4

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 4 80 Sardines, in water without salt, 1 tin 140 Sausage, chicken, 1 link 2 260 Vegetables, Trader Joe Brittany Blend, 3/4 c.

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October 4, 2009 - Breakfast

Oct 4

Jean Shepherd interviews the Beatles: PLAYBOY: "Can you eat safely in restaurants? " GEORGE: "Sure we can.

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October 2, 2009 - Dinner

Oct 2

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cheese, Mild Cheddar, 1 stick 70 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 3 60 Ice Cream, Weight Watchers Toffee 120 Peas, 1 oz.

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October 2, 2009 - Lunch

Oct 2

Food Qty Calories Chips, Baked Lays, 1 bag 160 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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October 2, 2009 - Breakfast

Oct 2

This is another death I have imagined. [Wife] and I have conceived a child and I am taking the child, still very young, to the park.

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September 30, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 30

Here is another death I have imagined. One day there is a knock at the door and two young men, strong-looking, uniformed, are there.

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September 29, 2009 - Snack

Sep 29

Food Qty Calories Cereal, Weetabix, with Fiber Crackles, 5/4 c. 170 Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 3 60 Milk, no fat, 1 c.

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September 27, 2009 - Snack

Sep 27

The packaging, while referring endlessly to piratical booty, glosses over sodomy, focusing instead on the fact that what is contained within is air-popped corn sprayed by a synthetic flavor hose. Food Qty Calories Chips, All!

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September 27, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Sep 27

Past the Marcy Projects, past bizzy Bedford, up to Wmbg Bridge and over. The other day on Atlantic near the bank building I was waiting to cross and a young man came up to me.

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September 27, 2009 - Lunch

Sep 27

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 3 60 Sausage, chicken with apple, 1 link 2 320 Turkey, 1 oz. 29 Vegetables, Harvest Hodgepodge, 3/4 c.

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September 26, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 26

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 6 120 Ice Cream, Weight Watchers Toffee 120 Peas, 1 oz.

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September 25, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 25

Food Qty Calories Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 3 60 Ice Cream, Weight Watchers Toffee 120 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Peas, 1 oz.

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September 25, 2009 - Snack

Sep 25

Brush your teeth before going out for a drink I'm fine you're not fine you smell like a cannery. Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 35 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cherimoya 0.

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September 25, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 25

I need to be on my bicycle for a while now. Food Qty Calories Cereal, Nature's Path Organic Heritage, 3/4 c.

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September 24, 2009 - Snack

Sep 24

Decaf, because I'm hardcore. Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 large 110 Coffee, black, 1 oz.

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September 24, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 24

Every time before performing, esp. such personal material to a collection of utter strangers, I succumb to a mini-panic attack.

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September 23, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 23

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 3 60 Peas, 1 oz.

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September 23, 2009 - Lunch

Sep 23

Another reading tonight but as I got off my bike and pulled my freshly ironed shirt from the cereal box I used to transport it I realized I did not bring an undershirt, a situation that unto itself, humidity be damned, is enough to reduce me to nervous sweating, and the humidity at 89 percent did the rest. So I purchased some new T-shirts, short on me but tuckable, and got lunch.

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September 23, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 23

Sometimes I don't want kindness or inspiration. I just want to understand the situation so that I can make a decision.

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September 21, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 21

Food Qty Calories Artichoke hearts, 3/4 c. 25 Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Chicken, thigh, 1 thigh 2 220 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 3 60 Honey, 1 tbsp.

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September 21, 2009 - Lunch

Sep 21

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, chicken, grilled, 1 sandwich 560 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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September 21, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Sep 21

Sometimes when I bicycle I forget to look as far ahead as I possibly can. I should be looking into the distance, taking in the potholes and the pedestrians alike.

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September 21, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 21

Brooklyn, when you bike it, looks like old pictures of Manhattan. Dark under the elevated, crowded, people eating on the sidewalk.

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September 20, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 20

Wildly hungry for the last hour-and-a-half of the bike ride, I decided I wanted some junk; I had a junk-shaped hole inside me. Pizza and Doritos at all costs.

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September 20, 2009 - Snack

Sep 20

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Turkey, 1 oz.

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September 20, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 20

One of the side-effects of my losing weight has been an increase in mathematical curiosity. Or rather an increase in my willingness to act upon that curiosity.

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September 19, 2009 - Lunch

Sep 19

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Wasa, Light, 1 cracker 6 120 Popsicle, 1 sicle 80 Sardines, in water without salt, 1 tin 140 Sausage, chicken with apple, 1 link 2 320 Vegetables, Harvest Hodgepodge, 3/4 c.

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September 19, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 19

Yesterday was too many snacks and not enough food. Sadly the best thing in the bodega, when it's late, is often the low-cal chips; everything ( everything ) else is filled with salt, or sugar, or just poisonous.

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September 18, 2009 - Snack

Sep 18

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Chips, soy 140 Pirate's Booty Sea Salt & Vinegar (THAR BE GOOD; SHIVER ME TIMBERS! ) YES PUFFED Rice and Corn!

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September 18, 2009 - Lunch

Sep 18

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 35 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Cracker, Wasa, Rye, 1 cracker 30 Popsicle, organic, 1 pop 35 Sausage, chicken with apple, 1 link 2 320 Vegetables, Harvest Hodgepodge, 3/4 c. 2.

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September 17, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 17

I have been searching out obesity-related patents, or fatents, to see what people have come up with. It's weird how much can be patented; gene sequences and lap bands and stomach tubes and breath monitors.

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September 16, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 16

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, Rye, 1 cracker 2 60 Peas, 1 oz.

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September 15, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 15

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, Rye, 1 cracker 2 60 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 2 20 Peas, 1 oz.

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September 15, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Sep 15

Weekday-afternoon rides--I worked from home in the morning--always scare me; the rush hours belong to people on the grind, but at noonday the streets are filled with anglers, sliders, and weavers. And me.

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September 15, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 15

In the morning I weighed myself; then I read about computer programming for my own amusement; and I replied, politely, to the night's accumulation of work emails from the hostile subscribers who, aged or mentally infirm, are incapable of scaling mount login. "VERY frustrated," they write, hardly aware that they are twenty seconds of form letter from understanding.

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September 14, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 14

I need to enlarge the scope of my diet. Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, Rye, 1 cracker 2 60 Mustard, 1 tbsp.

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September 14, 2009 - Lunch

Sep 14

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 large 110 Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Sunkist, 1 oz.

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September 14, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 14

Pressure up; weight perfectly stagnant--result of Saturday's excess. If I were a simple machine, I should have lost some weight by now, as I ate right and exercised.

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September 12, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Sep 12

Bought a new front tire. Something has changed in the rubber of the current tire and it has started to attract gravel, like a ship attracts barnacles.

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September 11, 2009 - Snack

Sep 11

Food Qty Calories Chips, popped not fried, 1 bag 100 Pirate's Booty Thar Be Good Shiver Me Timbers Aged White Cheddar YES PUFFED Rice and Corn! ALL NATURAL Good for You!

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September 11, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 11

In a week I will stand up and read excerpts from this website to an unsuspecting audience; a week later I will do it again. My body and my art are about to combine in a new way.

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September 10, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 10

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cheese, Mild Cheddar, 1 stick 70 Cracker, Wasa, Rye, 1 cracker 2 60 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Popsicle, 1 sicle 80 Sausage, chicken with apple, 1 link 2 320 Vegetables, Trader Joe Brittany Blend, 3/4 c.

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September 9, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 9

"You do look like your picture," said [Wife]. "C--'s a bitch," I said.

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September 9, 2009 - Lunch

Sep 9

Coworker C: You couldn't use that headshot on Nerve personals. It makes you look too thin.

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September 8, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 8

This used to be the appetizer; then I'd have an entree. Just now I got out of the showed and got a good look at the spare tire.

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September 8, 2009 - Lunch

Sep 8

Food Qty Calories Apple, 1 large 110 Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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September 8, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 8

I'm doing two readings this month, so last night I read through this blog, not quite in its entirety, to see if I could extract a ten-minute piece from it. I can, it turns out--and it will be fun and, hopefully, traumatic for all involved if I stand heavily before an audience and read from my snax diary--but dear God, bits are hacky.

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September 7, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 7

Food Qty Calories Baked beans, 1/2 c. 131 Beer, Amstel Light, 1 bottle 2 190 Brownie, 1 low-calorie 0.

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September 7, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Sep 7

Up to the park and around once, up the cruel hill, at which point I was tired. P 0 : Well that will just about do that right there.

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September 7, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 7

Yesterday after my bicycle ride I wanted an egg roll but decided I shouldn't have one. Congratulating myself on my virtue, I ate three popsicles and a bowl of cereal.

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September 6, 2009 - Lunch

Sep 6

Food Qty Calories Carrot, 1 medium 25 Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Onion 0.

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September 6, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 6

I was talking with [Wife] about cunning people. Unpleasant people who don't particularly want others to get along.

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September 5, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Sep 5

Up to Prospect Park and around, then back, then to Red Hook for something to do, where I dropped and broke my camera; so to P--'s, who offered me a boilermaker and then another, where I had a glass of orange juice, then to J&R in Manhattan for a new camera over the evil Brooklyn Bridge, where I found that the broken camera has become a sort of bare-budget tilt-shift, with an extremely narrow focus (having lost its lens), and then back over the Manhattan bridge to avoid the madness and delusions of crowds, and home. Food Qty Calories Bicycle ride, 1 hr.

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September 4, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 4

What I wanted, and what I have not had for two months, is a slice of pizza. So I went to a place that always had good slices and had: a slice; garlic knots; a pepperoni roll.

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September 4, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 4

I need to get out of this block. It's the most important thing I can do, is push off the projects I love and take the couple of days necessary to dispatch things that don't particularly matter before hell rains down upon me.

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September 3, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Sep 3

Took the Williamsburg bridge for a change; wanted to see if the steepness was a challenge. Not much, but I was passed more often than on the Manhattan bridge.

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September 3, 2009 - Lunch

Sep 3

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Chips, soy 140 Fruit salad--grapefruit, blueberry, strawberry, 1 oz. 10 90 Sandwich, ham, light mayo 600 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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September 2, 2009 - Snack

Sep 2

Food Qty Calories Cereal, Nature's Path Organic Heritage, 3/4 c. 2 240 Cheese, Mild Cheddar, 1 stick 70 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 45 Milk, no fat, 1 c.

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September 2, 2009 - Snack

Sep 2

Chili almonds: "Unique, Indulgent, Pure, Capitalized. " Food Qty Calories Chocolate-covered chili almond, 1.

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September 2, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Sep 2

There are moments when all the progress is belied by a single glimpse in the mirror and I see myself as strangers and enemies see me: slumped and graying. Food Qty Calories Bicycle ride, 1 hr.

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September 1, 2009 - Dinner

Sep 1

Food Qty Calories Sausage, chicken, 1 link 2 260 Vegetables, Harvest Hodgepodge, 3/4 c. 1.

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September 1, 2009 - Snack

Sep 1

At the faculty meeting there were snacks everywhere but I had only the barest number, a glass of wine, and called it a day. Food Qty Calories Almonds, 28 nuts 0.

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September 1, 2009 - Breakfast

Sep 1

So yesterday I rode my bike to and fro work and stuck to my plan. And today I'm down a half-pound.

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August 31, 2009 - Snack

Aug 31

Food Qty Calories Cereal, fibrous, 2/3 cup 2 160 Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Milk, no fat, 1 c.

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August 31, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 31

Food Qty Calories Chicken, thigh, 1 thigh 2 220 Healthful roll 100 Popsicle, green, 1 sicle 80 Vegetables, Harvest Hodgepodge, 3/4 c. 2.

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August 31, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 31

All I want to do is learn math. Food Qty Calories Pirate's Booty Sea Salt & Vinegar (THAR BE GOOD; SHIVER ME TIMBERS!

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August 30, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 30

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Peas, 1 oz.

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August 29, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 29

To the Michael Jackson Dance Party in Prospect Park, to check out the scene. A mix of incredibly attractive and incredibly toothless people, all dancing.

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August 29, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 29

Food Qty Calories Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Coffee, black, 1 oz. 8 0 Egg Whites, 1/4 cup 2 60 Healthful roll 100 Sausage, Vegetarian, 1 pattie 2 160 Total 380 Weight: 329.

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August 28, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 28

I figured I should drop and give myself some pushups this morning. Three pushups later it is still raining.

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August 27, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 27

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Mild Cheddar, 1 stick 70 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 0.

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August 27, 2009 - Snack

Aug 27

At the professional society meeting there were four kinds of beer, ginger snaps, pretzels, pretzels stuffed with peanut butter, biscotti, goldfish crackers, grapes, two kinds of cheese, tiny sandwiches, tomatoes, peppermint patties, hummus, celery, and carrots. I had celery, carrots, two pretzels, two diet coke, and a smidge of cheese.

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August 27, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 27

Bicycling in Manhattan is pothole cobblestone screaming lunatic bitch-flipping twisty-cab death. Food Qty Calories Bicycle ride, 1 hr.

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August 27, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 27

Getting out of the way in the narrow aisle I pressed backwards and a man passed without touching. A few inches making all the difference.

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August 27, 2009 - Snack

Aug 27

At a coffeeshop on 20th St. Where I have been stood up for a half-hour, giving me time to wait and watch.

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August 27, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 27

Instead of to work to 20th, amongst the Manhattan bikers, who are far more likely to have enormous heads of gray hair unhelmeted and to be riding atop folding bikes made of papier-mâché. Food Qty Calories Bicycle ride, 1 hr.

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August 26, 2009 - Snack

Aug 26

Yeah I didn't need that but it was in the icebox and so cold. I left you the plums.

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August 26, 2009 - Snack

Aug 26

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Mild Cheddar, 1 stick 70 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 0.

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August 26, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 26

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Chips, soy 140 Kaiser roll 167 Lettuce, 1 c. 0.

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August 26, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 26

Had I been a slender, happy youth (instead of one for whom erotic experience was transacted mostly by scented note), I doubt I would have become a writer. I would have become something much more sensible.

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August 25, 2009 - Snack

Aug 25

Food Qty Calories Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 0.

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August 25, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 25

Intern lunch at work, so an awful lot of Malaysian food. I'm going to wing it; feels like it was between 850 and 950 cals.

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August 25, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 25

Yesterday on the way home, going the wrong way down a one-way street, I came to one of those white-and-blue half-buses that transport the infirm. "Para-transit" on the side, something like that.

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August 24, 2009 - Snack

Aug 24

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Mild Cheddar, 1 stick 2 140 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Strawberries, 1 oz.

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August 24, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 24

Food Qty Calories Beef, 4 oz. 200 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Milk, no fat, 1 c.

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August 24, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 24

The past is filled with poor people. They listened to the radio as they canned.

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August 24, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 24

This is an unpleasant morning. Yesterday's Vietnamese meal must have been at least 60 percent MSG.

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August 23, 2009 - Snack

Aug 23

Food Qty Calories Cereal, Weatabix, Organic, 2 biscuits 120 Cranberries, dried and sweetened, 1 oz. 90 Yogurt, low-fat, 1 c.

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August 23, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 23

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, 1 disc 2 100 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 45 Healthful roll 100 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Peas, 1 oz.

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August 23, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 23

"Sometimes," said my wife, "I look at that website This Is Why You're Fat when I need to remind myself of what's right and wrong. " "That website shouldn't be pictures of food," I said.

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August 22, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 22

Up to the movie theater to see the new atrocity perpetrated by Quentin Tarantino, who manages to wind you up, in four languages, for nearly three hours, in order to remind you that he never to trust him in the first place. Food Qty Calories Bicycle ride, 1 hr.

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August 22, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 22

I'm thinking less dairy today is what I'm thinking. Food Qty Calories Cereal, Nature's Path Organic Heritage, 3/4 c.

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August 21, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 21

"Watch watch watch watch watch watch," I say to the woman walking in the bike lane. "Watch watch watch watch watch watch," I say to the car doing a U-turn without looking first.

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August 21, 2009 - Snack

Aug 21

Once again I find myself eating food simply to note it. R-- has poured exactly 80 ml.

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August 21, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 21

BLTs are infinitely satisfying in the moment but leave me ravenous three or four hours later. Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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August 21, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 21

The other day we were in the grocery store making good choices. And I saw, on a bottom shelf near the vegetables, several boxes of "Snack Muffins.

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Panel/Unicode table for you

By Paul Ford Aug 20

So I’ve been out of it for a little while longer than I’d hoped. And I’m back here, like the world’s worst ex-boyfriend, to ask for a small favor.

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August 20, 2009 - Snack

Aug 20

Food Qty Calories Apple rings, 10 rings 120 Cranberries, dried and sweetened, 1 oz. 90 Walnuts, 1/4 c.

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August 20, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 20

I have purchased a new kind of sausage. This makes me think of: A New Kind of Sausage , by Stephen Wolfram.

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August 20, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 20

Going up the steady hill of the bridge is hardly a chore any longer. But NYC itself is a chore-- solid with vehicles, as if cars are atoms in a gas and the heat has forced them to expand to fill the streets, bouncing wildly off of curbs, honking, drivers yelling.

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August 20, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 20

Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 medium 90 Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, chicken, grilled, lite mayo 450 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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August 20, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 20

I just committed to a reading on September 18, to read some recent material. Which means, I guess, this website.

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August 20, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 20

Yesterday there was an incident. I was done for the day and tallied and I decided I needed another popsicle.

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August 19, 2009 - Snack

Aug 19

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Chicken, 1 oz. 59 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 3 135 Grapes, Champagne, 1 oz.

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August 19, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 19

Food Qty Calories Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Chicken, 1 oz. 6 354 Healthful roll 100 Peas, 1 oz.

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August 19, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 19

"Merry Christmas, Bob" : "Let's be honest here. We do it because of people like you, Bob.

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August 19, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 19

I talk a lot with [Wife] about staying true to the plan. "I wonder what would knock me off," I said last night.

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August 18, 2009 - Snack

Aug 18

Food Qty Calories Cheese, Laughing Cow, Light, 1 triangle 2 70 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Grapes, Champagne, 1 oz. 4 80 Strawberries, 1 oz.

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August 18, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 18

Food Qty Calories Chips, soy 140 Pickle, 1 medium 0. 5 6 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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August 18, 2009 - Snack

Aug 18

"You have to eat this so you can put it up. " This is the tastiest moong dal (like cheese rice krispies) I've ever had, probably because it contains added MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR INFANTS.

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August 18, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 18

AND herein lies the genius of JC Penney: It has made a point of providing clothing for people of all sizes (a strategy, company officials have said, to snatch business from nearby Macy’s). To this end, it has the most obese mannequins I have ever seen.

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August 17, 2009 - Snack

Aug 17

Food Qty Calories Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Salsa, 1 tbsp.

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August 17, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 17

Food Qty Calories Burger, Turkey, 1 pattie 150 Carrot, 1 medium 0. 5 13 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Peas, 1 oz.

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August 17, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 17

Food Qty Calories Sandwich, Subway® grilled synthomeat, 6" 2 780 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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August 17, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 17

Someone passed me on the way up-- I know the type, a man carrying about forty or fifty extra. Struggling, not steady.

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August 17, 2009 - Fitness

Aug 17

Cracking the seal on this new can of suck. The intended morning regimen is: 100 crunches 50 leg-lifts 20 push-ups 50 squats I could, in theory, start there.

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August 17, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 17

Your leg looks weird in the reflection, said my wife. Regardless, I said, that rather obvious photograph from Governor's Island is the story of my rather obvious life.

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August 16, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 16

I should note here that this experiment, edging into its sixth week, is working. I have lost at least 15 lbs.

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August 15, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 15

Food Qty Calories Mango, 1 oz. 5 90 Sausage, chicken, 1 link 130 Soup, Progresso, "Light," 1 can 0.

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August 15, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 15

Drinks and lunch with a friend. A Mexican place where I frequently ate in the past.

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August 15, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 15

They closed Park Avenue to cars. I left home at 7:30, went up to Central Park, then turned around and down to Governor's Island ferry; then over; then rode in the vastness of Governor's Island; then back; then over the Brooklyn Bridge; then to my friend's for a few drinks; then home to nap.

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August 15, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 15

Up early; off for a bike ride, and to take pictures. "Study Says Obesity Can Be Contagious," Gina Kolata, The New York Times : Obesity can spread from person to person, much like a virus, researchers are reporting today.

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August 14, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 14

Food Qty Calories Blueberries, 1 oz. 3 48 Cereal, Nature's Path Organic Heritage, 3/4 c.

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August 14, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 14

I came upon this on a bike ride by Green-Wood Cemetery, on an obscured and empty street--a mailing package and the empty box for a penis enlarger. I imagine the man in a minivan who, having picked up the package (or perhaps it was delivered to him at work), has waited until darkness; he pulls over in the empty darkness, skims the instructions, and is then begins madly pumping, furtively looking out the window every few seconds, foot on the gas pedal in case the cops appear in the distance.

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August 13, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 13

Food Qty Calories Carrot, 1 medium 2 50 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 2 120 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Peas, 1 oz.

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August 13, 2009 - Snack

Aug 13

Food Qty Calories Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Dried apple rings, 10 rings 120 Grapes, Champagne, 1 oz. 4 80 Walnuts, 1/4 c.

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August 13, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 13

"Follow Up Friday: Biking in the Bus Lane? " comment by Tony the Taxi Driver on the Brian Lehrer Show : Hey this is Tony the taxi driver from Carnasie and although this message will probably not be read (I'm too late on commenting and this may not be the proper spot since I'm neither a bus nor a biker).

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August 12, 2009 - Snack

Aug 12

Food Qty Calories Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Cracker, Trader Joes, 17 crackers 130 Grapes, Champagne, 1 oz.

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August 12, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 12

Food Qty Calories Beans, Kidney beans, 1 oz 4 92 Plantain 5 175 Shrimp, 1 oz. 6 168 Tortillas, corn, 2 tortilla 100 Walnuts, 1/4 c.

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August 12, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 12

What I do now is eat a sandwich, which is not an ideal solution, given all the fluffy bread and greasy meats in the world. I have also some fake chips, which stimulates the snack receptors of the brain.

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August 11, 2009 - Snack

Aug 11

A friend at the office handed me a box with a cupcake within. "Happy birthday," said the box.

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August 11, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 11

With a very nutrition-minded friend at a cafe in Soho; an athlete and scientist. He shares my birthday.

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August 11, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 11

Experimenting with a new route--takes me by the Navy Yard instead of through Fulton Mall. A few dodgy spots but less hectic than the Heights.

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August 10, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 10

Not enough calories in the first, so a second dinner. Don't want to wake up at 1AM ravenous.

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August 10, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 10

Food Qty Calories Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 2 120 Cracker, Wasa, 1 cracker 2 90 Mustard, 1 tbsp.

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August 10, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 10

Food Qty Calories Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, turkey on whole wheat with lite mayonnaise 500 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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August 10, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 10

Because last night I had drenched the bottom bracket in lubricant it did not creak much this morning; between the cleaning and greasing and the cup of coffee I permitted myself, the bridge melted away behind me. Still I knew that something was tired within the bicycle and I took it in to the shop at 10AM as the shop opened.

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August 10, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 10

"Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin," John Cloud, Time : "In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless," says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn't as important in helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or on shows like The Biggest Loser— or, for that matter, from magazines like this one.

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August 9, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 9

Since last night the bike creaks so loud people turn and stare. Like I'm riding a giant popcorn maker.

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August 9, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 9

Food Qty Calories Carrot, 1 medium 2 50 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Healthful roll 100 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Peas, 1 oz.

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August 9, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 9

In thinking these things through I keep coming back to little stories that might illustrate the themes that concern me. Lately I've thought about a man with a small farm in Brooklyn, in what used to be Prospect Park.

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August 8, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 8

Coming off the Manhattan Bridge in the unlit darkness. Even though I have the green three cars dart out.

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August 8, 2009 - Snack

Aug 8

Food Qty Calories Cereal, Nature's Path Organic Heritage, 3/4 c. 120 Cereal, fibrous, 2/3 cup 0.

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August 8, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 8

It starts to change up now--I'm more aware of limits and excesses. Last night I would have skipped the pie, could I replay it again, and pushed away more of the chicken.

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August 7, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 7

Probably need to make the BLT a once-a-week thing. A wedding tonight--reviewing the menu, preparing, thinking through options.

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August 6, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 6

Food Qty Calories Apple, 1 large 110 Chips, soy 140 Sandwich, BLT (light mayo), 1 sandwich 550 Soda, Diet Coke, 1 oz.

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August 5, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 5

Food Qty Calories Beans, green, 1 oz. 2 18 Chicken, BBQ pulled 7 469 Cornbread, 3 oz.

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August 5, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 5

As folk realize I am serious in this endeavor they start to spin narratives of my projected thinness--even though the real process, initial loss aside, will be too slow to see. Not quite geologic, not epochal, but certainly invisible day-to-day.

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August 4, 2009 - Snack

Aug 4

"Make the Most of Your Metabolism," Colette Bouchez, WebMD : "If two people both weigh 250 pounds, and one got there by dieting down from 350 and the other one was always at 250, the one who got there by cutting calories is going to have a slower metabolism," says Yanagisawa. "That means they will require fewer calories to maintain their weight than the person who never went beyond 250 pounds.

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August 4, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 4

Whole Foods always a mystery for lunch--too many options, many of them bad. Steam trays laden with sweets; lots of "healthful"--but still killers.

Weekly Review

Weekly Review: August 4, 2009

By Paul Ford Aug 3 Weekly Review

[Weekly Review] Weekly Review Adjust by Paul Ford , August 4, 2009 Congress defied President Barack Obama and adjourned for the summer without passing a health-care-reform bill. The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved its own version of the bill 31-28 (with five Democrats and all 23 Republicans voting against it); its bill is one of five already produced or soon to be produced by the House and Senate.

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August 3, 2009 - Dinner

Aug 3

Food Qty Calories Healthful roll 100 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 10 Sausage, chicken, 1 link 2 260 Vegetables, frozen, mixed, 1oz.

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August 2, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 2

Food Qty Calories Egg, large 2 180 Healthful roll 100 Mayonnaise, light, 1 tbsp. 0.

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August 2, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 2

I will admit to a certain entirely unscientific disappointment that my weight is identical today to what it was yesterday, despite 30 miles of bicycle riding. Food Qty Calories Blueberries, 1 oz.

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August 1, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Aug 1

Picked up the bike from work, rode to the George Washington Bridge and found the pedestrian entrance, climbed the bridge's steep wanderway, and found that it was an utter failure--exceedingly narrow, families with strollers, bikeholes whizzing by it; another one of NYC's complete civic disasters. Turned around; biked home.

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August 1, 2009 - Lunch

Aug 1

Food Qty Calories Bread, bun 2 200 Cheese, mozzarella, light, 1 string 60 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 2 20 Onion, 1 oz.

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August 1, 2009 - Breakfast

Aug 1

Someone's doctor told them, and that person told my wife, and my wife told me, that too much fiber cereal is bad in a day--it seems like it would be a fine snack, but if you've already had enough fiber and add more it messes with the body's ability to process food and leads to weight gain. I thought I'd pass that on to the world, as it's one of my goals here to write down what I learn about food.

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July 31, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 31

From the "fattie notes" file I keep on my phone, collecting ideas about this project: No use in worrying about what might have been. What if I'd been thin my entire life?

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July 31, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 31

I have decided on daily weigh-ins, first thing in the morning, followed by a measurement of blood pressure. If I'm going to count every calorie, learn about healthy food, and understand my body, I need to collect as much data as possible.

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July 30, 2009 - Snack

Jul 30

The scale came. It arrived at work and I brought it down in the freight elevator and crammed it into the trunk of a cab, held in with a bungee cord, bouncing along.

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July 30, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 30

I went to a bar in the village for a friend's 40th birthday. One of the bartenders was a big, busty woman in plaid shorts and a shirt with suspenders.

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July 30, 2009 - Brunch

Jul 30

Skipped breakfast--couldn't deal with it. Clothes loose today; pants hiked up above my navel so they don't come down.

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July 30, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Jul 30

Under the bridge a woman in a very loose dress leaned over to adjust something on her bicycle and her breasts were out and right there for the seeing, just like that. Hooray!

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July 29, 2009 - Snack

Jul 29

I end the day unsatisfied. The key to today would be not to have the potato chips.

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July 29, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 29

Food Qty Calories Ice Cream, Sandwich, Skinny Cow 140 Mustard, 1 tbsp. 2 20 Peas, 1 oz.

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July 29, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Jul 29

There was styrofoam all over the streets of Chinatown. It rained a little at first, then fiercely.

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July 29, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 29

I hate the little cafe near work, the one with the miniature glass bottles of soda and faux-rustic, pre-dented cabinetry. There is no order; no place to stand; no one there who cares about anything but the arrangement of sandwiches.

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July 29, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Jul 29

"Particulates" is one of my favorite words; I find the phrase "particulate grime" soothing. Which is fortunate given the weather.

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July 29, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 29

My dreams were a weird mix of Kraftwerk, Al Jolson, and work. I'm starting to feel that I can work on other things besides myself.

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July 28, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 28

Chipotle, where you line up and they pile the food onto your plate. I have never been to a Chipotle before.

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July 28, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 28

It's peculiar for a box of cereal to last as long as it has. Finishing it (all but an ounce today, which I left in the box instead of topping off the bowl), it feels like I have said a pleasant goodbye to a fine and fibrous friend.

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July 27, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 27

I wanted to get the lime pop home and up to my room, then undress it from its plastic foil wrapper and put it in my mouth. I know that seems obviously metaphoric but it is not.

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July 27, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 27

A black and white cookie represents the duality of self; the yin and yang of goo. It's essentially a flattened cupcake pretending to cookiehood.

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July 27, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 27

After the setback on Friday I recovered well. I didn't get most of my planned work done--interesting to have written it down, so that I can see how unrealistic my goals were.

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July 26, 2009 - Snack

Jul 26

Food Qty Calories Cereal, fibrous, 2/3 cup 1. 1 90 Cranberries, dried and sweetened, 1 oz.

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July 26, 2009 - Dessert

Jul 26

These belong to [Wife], but I'm allowed one. I want the green popsicles out of the house until I am sure I can handle them.

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July 26, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 26

No disaster yet. Food Qty Calories Carrot, 1 medium 4 100 Celery, 1 oz.

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July 26, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 26

I had 1,400 calories saved up for a fun evening and blew past them in five minutes. Fork at the ready.

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July 25, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 25

Food Qty Calories Beer, Bud Light, 12 oz. 4 440 Cookie, fortune, 1 cookie 30 Egg roll, 1 roll 200 Spare rib tips, 1 oz.

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July 25, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 25

Bike is in; working on experimental code. Food Qty Calories Carrot, 1 medium 2 50 Celery, 1 oz.

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July 25, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 25

Today will be about regaining focus, slowly turning the lens until everything aligns. A small experiment programming, then bike to repair shop while taking pictures for this site.

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July 24, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Jul 24

R-- emailed: I like to eat a few salt-and-vinegar potato chips after dessert. The crunchy and salty following upon the sweet and mushy: very nice.

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July 24, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 24

"The Word of Mouth KFC challenge," Tim Hayward, The Guardian : I'm not going to lie to you. If your paper gives you moral carte blanche to wolf it down in the name of research, and when it's hot and fresh from the bucket, KFC is gorgeous.

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July 24, 2009 - Snack

Jul 24

Note via email, from H--: I wonder about that woman and "lifestyle changes. " We both know people who've made them.

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July 23, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 23

It's getting easier to keep myself away from the edge of the whirlpool. Ice cream.

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July 23, 2009 - Snack

Jul 23

I went to a meetup and had two lite beers. And there were biscotti individually wrapped, covered in chocolate.

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July 23, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 23

"I fucking hate fat people," said C--, size 0. "They've ruined everything at the Gap.

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July 22, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 22

I am lately more aware of my surroundings. I noticed today that the average well-proportioned, gym-toned American male on the subway listens to shitty music on his iPod.

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July 22, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 22

From the doctor's I arrived at work. There things are challenging; my job, nominally editorial and creative in nature, often--more often, really--involves picking apart the complicated and thorny aspects of computer code created by an enormous, indifferent company in Iowa that manages subscriptions.

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July 22, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 22

I'm off to the doctor's-- not my doctor's-- for an intimate and humiliating procedure, and I'm in the mood to screw this up. This is a bagel-and-a-muffin morning; I could use the 1,300 calories to get the day going right, smooth the seas before embarking on the R train on my way to the the intimate and humiliating procedure.

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July 21, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 21

I wish it wasn't raining because then I would eat my bicycle. Food Qty Calories Chips, All!

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July 21, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 21

Much guessing at lunch. The web is usually forthcoming, but has no answers when it comes to tandoori chicken and cooked basmati rice; nor, I suppose, would the surly men behind the counter at the delicatessen be able to provide me with helpful calorie count (and a hug).

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July 21, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 21

Here’s the big secret, which I have absolutely no scientific evidence to support but would nevertheless bet every cent I have, both my dogs, and my firstborn on: at least 95% of people who insist that “lifestyle changes” work (and who are not in the business of selling weight-loss products) are less than five years out from the beginning of a “lifestyle change. ” Better known, as they will see by the end of five years, as a “diet.

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July 20, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 20

Back to the sandwich shop , where I made the finest choice, the tuna (not salad) sandwich. A pile of fish on a roll with some greens.

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July 20, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Jul 20

Some bad news in the morning. "Be careful," said my wife, imagining my bike smashing into a box truck.

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July 20, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 20

I feel like I should have something to say about Frank Bruni's memoir as excerpted in the Times . But I don't.

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July 19, 2009 - Snack

Jul 19

Sunday night scaries; I'm pushing them away with Kraftwerk. The annual ranking of obesity rates in U.

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July 19, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 19

Ice Cream Flavors, a play : Wife: "Kotex Cheet-O Ice" Me: "Toffee Brisket. " Wife: That sounds kind of good.

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July 19, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 19

I do admit to, last night, holding the final bowl of gelatin at my side so that it might be less visible as I sneaked it in from the kitchen to my perch at the computer. Which caused [Wife] to raise an exception: "That's too much," she said.

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July 19, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 19

I am working on the "month" view for this web application. I should be working on other things, but I figure I've given up enough health to work and it's okay for the flow to be reversed.

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July 18, 2009 - Snack

Jul 18

[Wife] did not approve of that much Jell-O. Food Qty Calories Sugar-free Jell-O®, 1 oz.

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July 18, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 18

I know the reasons not to eat four sausages in a day. Some are moral and some are logical.

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July 18, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Jul 18

Round the park with A--; the hill a chore with four days off. But it was African culture day and they had jerk chicken for sale.

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July 18, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 18

Back on the narrow today. The key is not to eat out, or if I do to be very vigilant, just get something to help with hunger and come home, where I have all the calories I want.

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July 17, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Jul 17

No rear wheel yet--the distributor fouled it--but they gave me the bike back until it's resolved. Food Qty Calories Bicycle ride, 1 hr.

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July 17, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 17

Thinking about sweetness I wanted something sweet. Thus there was a small skirmish at Han's Deli as CookieForce 5, an elite division of the Snack Army, leapt upon me as one and began to pound my skin me with their tiny chocolate fists.

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July 17, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 17

Steamtray omelette sold in slices--dangerous, but quantifiable. Accountability is as important as actual nutritive value.

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July 17, 2009 - Non-event

Jul 17

I can't do another day of the hot grain porridge. But I also can't do a bagel.

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July 16, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 16

"Maybe I could have one of the ice creams. " "Do your calories.

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July 16, 2009 - Snack

Jul 16

[Wife] came by office, counted out ten lychee (lychee lychee lychee lychee lychee lychee lychee lychee lychee lychee), merried on her way.

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July 16, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 16

Upon exposure to the bright outdoors I was temporarily blinded & NYC became very confusing, lots of moving blinking things immediately before me. Happens every few weeks; takes an hour to subside.

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July 15, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 15

My domestic state makes this effort possible--[Wife] unemployed, and no jobs in NYC; she joins Weight Watcher's, counts her points, works on her own life, and feeds me as well. All fine, making the best of a botch.

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July 15, 2009 - Snack

Jul 15

There was much negotiation with myself, many calories counted and uncounted. It's strange to be under observation all the time, even if the observation is by myself of myself.

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July 15, 2009 - Non-event

Jul 15

I did not eat Pocky. The proffered Men's Pocky package says that a typical serving is 1/3 of the package, and that the package contains 2 servings.

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July 15, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 15

R-- enters as I drop a Pirate's Booty cheddar puff onto the floor. "Oh Paul," he says.

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July 15, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 15

A new kind of grain for the morning--one that maintains its grainness when microwaved instead of turning into a Dickensian slurry. The cooking takes a few minutes longer, but still it is an age of miracles.

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July 14, 2009 - Snack

Jul 14

Just this very mild freakout. Not bike-riding has led to a sort of discomfort, and very curious urges.

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July 14, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 14

I considered going over to Rice but the vegetarian meatballs would be expensive and that's a restaurant for girls. What I wanted was a 12-inch chicken parmigiana hero; I wanted to ride the red horse.

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July 14, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 14

Sending out the Weekly Review, eating the oatmeal, bp 132/81. Food Qty Calories Oatmeal, 1 c.

Weekly Review

Weekly Review: July 14, 2009

By Paul Ford Jul 13 Weekly Review

[Weekly Review] Weekly Review Adjust by Paul Ford , July 14, 2009 CIA director Leon Panetta admitted that the agency, initially under orders from then-Vice President Dick Cheney, kept secret from Congress the existence of a special counterterrorism program for eight years. Panetta also said that the program–intended to deploy small teams to assassinate Al Qaeda leaders–was canceled last month.

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July 13, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 13

I've noticed I bike faster when hungry. Likely because I want to get to the food.

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July 13, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 13

One week down, 3,200 weeks to go. Checked the mirror; still a barrel-shaped giant.

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July 13, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 13

After the relative shock of last week, during which I kept the boats afloat and managed crises but little else, I will now attempt to work through the work on my plate without the comfort of lots of starch. This will be harder than it might sound to the uninitiated.

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July 12, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 12

Again @ Ginza. Two ideas for later discussion--one, that personal fatness is perfectly analogous to the larger American fatness, in the way that energy is brought in and wasted.

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July 12, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 12

At that Thai place on the second floor on 7th Ave. , where I've been going for a decade, always run down and fairly empty, likely surviving on takeout.

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July 12, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 12

As I've been doing this four or five significant multi-day projects have stalled out. Let's see how I handle the coming crisis without reverting to mood-managing snacks.

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July 11, 2009 - Snack

Jul 11

That thing on the side of the butter package where it shows you how much is in a tablespoon is cruel, very cruel. There is no way to make that amount of butter count for any amount of pleasure.

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July 11, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 11

[Wife] wanted to know why I'm putting on my shoes. "I learned how many calories are in a slice of pizza, " I said, "from the Internet.

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July 11, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 11

Stopped for a pita sandwich with lamb kebab, and inventorized it, writing down the ingredients in my phone--too greasemeat but sane, and I let the very oily Tzatziki drip off until it formed a surprisingly wide pool upon the plate. Better into the garbage.

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July 11, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Jul 11

Dixon's says: we're out of rear wheels that work with disc brakes, come back Tuesday. Disregarding the wobble A--'s advice works a charm up the Prospect Park hill--over and over, mama-se, mama-sa, ma-ma-coo-sa .

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July 11, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 11

I am by my presence rather hard on bikes and my bicycle, like its owner, has a wobbly rear. Which means I should take it--almost definitely a bent spoke--to Dixon's.

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July 10, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 10

After yesterday's salad, R---- offered me a salad made fresh from the Union Sq. farmer's market.

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July 10, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 10

Prepared by patient [Wife]. Last night at midnight, the hour of terrible discoveries, I found an email problem with the workserver and in attempting to fix it created a network problem.

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July 9, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 9

Here you can see the problem. I had this moment biking the bridge when I thought, "I'd better order kung pao chicken because it's fewer calories than General Tso's.

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July 9, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 9

Went to Cafe Angelique, then over to Hans' Evil Deli. Thinking I'll get a salad!

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July 9, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Jul 9

The pipe under the Manhattan Bridge is still dumping out thousands of gallons of water. Everything puts me in mind of apple turnovers.

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July 9, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 9

Oatmeal makes sense, because of all the animals in Animal Farm I empathize most closely with Clover the horse. Clover said: "I will work harder," and plowed ahead, until it was more profitable to put him out to the glue factory.

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July 8, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 8

Home to wife-prepared meal. Food Qty Calories Lychee, 1 fruit 20 120 Merlot, 1 fl.

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July 8, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Jul 8

Gorgeous day with many busy biker bees all seeking access to the Manhattan Br. at the very same time.

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July 8, 2009 - Snack

Jul 8

Kindly R---- at work, hearing me talk about hunger, insists on chestnuts and hands me a package. I am in no shape to argue.

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July 8, 2009 - Bicycle ride

Jul 8

I saw the beginning of a fire on the Manhattan Bridge , but knew not what I saw. Food Qty Calories Bicycle ride, 1 hr.

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July 8, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 8

There is some inflation going on here compared to yesterday--a bit more oats, and a teaspoon of brown sugar. It's not unconscious, not some secret way of finding more calories.

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July 7, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 7

Off the cardiologist! Man in train is screaming; he gets my attention--looks positively sane, actually--and yells "You think you're so smart!

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July 7, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 7

All lightheaded and baffled, on my way to the cardiologist, I needed something, so I got a predigested bar thing and jammed it into my craw. Food Qty Calories Banana, 1 large 110 Bar, Clif, 1 240 Soda, Fresca, 12 oz.

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July 7, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 7

Anxiously chewing my oats; mailing out Weekly Review ; print dying; going to cardiologist at 2P. M.

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July 6, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 6

[Wife] grilled, mostly vegetables and some chicken. Feral kittens ran through the yard.

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July 6, 2009 - Snack

Jul 6

Sudden bright light in my eyes at work leading to fifteen minutes of disorientation. Sat on floor for ten minutes then could see again.

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July 6, 2009 - Non-event

Jul 6

Coworker C---- stomps in to see my screen, wants to know what I'm working on; I say "a personal project. " She memorizes the URL, runs to her office; returns.

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July 6, 2009 - Lunch

Jul 6

To Café Zaiya; a mistake. Became worried that I would miss something, and the sight of cinnamon rolls, moneyshotted all over with icing, triggered longing paired with a grieving.

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July 6, 2009 - Snack

Jul 6

One must ignore everything your parents say when it comes to losing weight. To listen to them is to imperil yourself.

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July 6, 2009 - Breakfast

Jul 6

Morning, Monday, after a middling sleep. Considering this newly undertaken path--at best a very lengthy chore that will never quite end.

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July 5, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 5

Late supper. I was ready to avoid but [Wife] insisted I not skip meals.

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July 5, 2009 - Dinner

Jul 5

Sushi @ Ginza; our default joint. The fellow from the bikeshop was there with his wife and little girl for hibachi.

Weekly Review

Weekly Review: June 2, 2009

By Paul Ford Jun 1 Weekly Review

[Weekly Review] Weekly Review Adjust by Paul Ford , June 2, 2009 President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor, a Bronx-born, divorced, childless, diabetic, Hispanic federal judge on the U. S Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, to replace Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court .

Weekly Review

Weekly Review: May 5, 2009

By Paul Ford May 4 Weekly Review

[Weekly Review] Weekly Review Adjust by Paul Ford , May 5, 2009 Swine flu , renamed under pork -lobby pressure to “influenza A (H1N1) virus, human,” and referred to as “ killer Mexican flu ” by anti-immigration activists, had infected 985 people, or 0. 0000145 percent of the world’s population.

Essays

Six-Word Reviews of 1,302 SXSW Mp3s

By Paul Ford Mar 17 Essays

Many bands appearing in Austin did not release mp3s directly to SXSW; only those bands that did so were reviewed. The data used to create this table is available in a Google Spreadsheet .

Weekly Review

Weekly Review: March 3, 2009

By Paul Ford Mar 2 Weekly Review

[Weekly Review] Weekly Review Adjust by Paul Ford , March 3, 2009 President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress, offering a broad outline of a massive spending plan paired with $2 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade. “Now is the time,” he said, “to jump-start job creation, restart lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education.

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Been a while

By Paul Ford Feb 15

I’ve been working on something over at the dayjob. (Although I’m writing this at 2:36 AM from the office, so not just dayjob.