By the Book

At a minimum, I need to drop 10 to 15 pounds -- again.

Two and a half years ago, my weight had bottomed out at a nearly magical 199, before stabilizing around 210 pounds.Today the scale at my office building told me I've reached the 225-pound mark. I can't ignore the reality of having gained back half of the weight I had lost since my epiphany moment on Thanksgiving '04.

So there it is: I've admitted there's a problem.

Now comes the hard part: doing something about it. I remember what lost the weight for me in the first place -- portion control and running regularly. I've slacked, and it's time to live by the book again. In addition to being more conscious of how much food I'm consuming, I'm going to take the extra step of abstaining from soda (including the diet stuff) during the workweek until further notice. This probably won't shave off too many calories, but at least it will be a tangible sign of a return to self-discipline.

My running is slowly coming back, helped along by the arrival of spring. (Winter blues in even our mild climate has convinced me that I should never be a Yankee again.) I had a nice four-miler along the Buffalo Bayou hike/bike trail last night. I spent much of that run thinking about the extra pounds are literally weighing my running down. The 30-minute 5K and 60-minute 10K were things I could just about take for granted; now they're dream runs once more. As I encountered a lot of cute bunnies along the trail on that Easter Monday, I was thankful that they seemed to be all out of Cadbury Creme Eggs or other fattening treats.

I find myself wishing that I was returning to Angie's Half Crazy this weekend, but this spring a 10K (and one somewhere around 1:15 at that) may have to be my distance benchmark.

Before taking off on my run, I briefly explored the new Kendall Neighborhood Library, which conveniently sits at the intersection of Eldridge Parkway and the aforementioned trail. I decided that after nearly a year-and-a-half of living in this Houston neighborhood, it was a good time to get myself an HPL library card. Oddities I found here:

• Half a dozen parking spaces have signs proclaiming that they are set aside for "fuel efficient vehicles." I'm OK with setting aside some spaces based on vehicle size, but in my opinion this is going too far.
• The circulation desk has a drive-up window -- fitting for America's driving capital.
• On the far wall of the teen section, there are two large TVs equipped with Nintendo Wii consoles. What are students studying these days, anyway?