Made a few changes in my lifestyle that I want to document just for my own purposes. Sort of a mid-year set of resolutions, perhaps?

First, eat smaller meals more often. The intended effect is to allow my stomach to shrink to eliminate large single meals. This won't be so hard since even with a big meal, I never tend to eat fast and I do enjoy daily mini-lunches. Also, this should stimulate my metabolism a bit more. It might also promote better sleeping, etc.

Second, eat better at those larger meals. This is a bigger change, since I tend to eat out a lot. This just involves eating at home more often. While this won't reduce my caloric intake too much, directly, it will change the types of things I eat, in a healthy way. For instance, switching french fries to vegetables as a side. And when I do eat out (which I won't eliminate fully), eat better, like a baked potato instead of fried potatoes.

Third, be conscious of my caloric intake. Eat healthy, but low-calorie mini-meals during the day, and make little concessions when necessary. For instance, avoid things like mayo, extra cheese, and soda. (Not that I drink even one soda a month, even. I tend to be a milk, latte, or water drinker.) I'm not going to track and tally calories and starve myself when I make a mistake, but simply be casually conscious of my choices.

All of this is not actually terribly hard. In looking back on my last few years, my caloric intake every day is really not too much above what I need normally. And other than eating out a lot for really my only meal of the day, I really did not consume many sweets or bad stuff (like non-diet soda pop being a big issue for many people). Maybe my biggest weakness is a large stomach on the days I do have an extra meal mid-day and don't limit myself.

All of this will lead to actually working out more, much like I used to in college, only with a little bit more cardio up front.

I do have reasons and goals for all this, but mostly it's just to live a bit healthier and happier. Mostly it is a goal to just lose some weight and move other weight around (fat into muscle). Doing this is not terribly hard, really. Rather than adhere to fancy diets and plans, the real key is simply to eat better (less calories is really the only key) and do actual heart-rate-increasing exercise while not sacrificing nutrition.

This has been my general habit for years: water, vendor machine snack, latte for lunch, vendor machine snack, large meal out.

This will be my newer habit: water, mini-lunch (i.e. an apple), latte or smoothie for lunch, mini-lunch (i.e. peanut butter sandwich), smaller meal at home.

This should smooth out the rough edges of my habits and adjust what needs adjusting most. This will give me more calories through the day but less at night, which should help my metabolism, stomach size, and correct my nutritional intake.

It's funny how you have a different self-image at various points in your life. You can't appreciate the good spots, truly, without feeling the bad ones, I think. For me, I probably was an excellent size in college but never really appreciated it until, 8 years later, I'm larger than I was then.