Our motto?  Defeating Republicans through diet and exercise!

Earlier in the week I stumbled onto The Hacker's Diet which was developed by John Walker (one of the programmers of AutoCad.)  After being fat for most of his life, he decided to treat the problem of controlling his weight like any other problem to solve.  And he set out to debug himself.

I'm awed by his work.  The information is balanced by a lot of illustrations & a light voice.  Which is important because his background as a programmer is reflected in the level of detail and the technical nature of his analogies.  

He's generously given me permission to publish excerpts at Eat4Today each day to stimulate discussion of it and maybe inspire others to start following it along with us. (let's talk about it on the other side)

The big news is the new flier for next weeks Live edition of Eat4Today:

I've seen so many proposals for Health Care plans, so many good ideas and horrible ideas. And passionate discussions of the nitty-gritty details of what should be covered and how often and when we should stop covering certain things for some people. But I think we are jumping way ahead of ourselves when we talk about these details. There is one very simple question that we should be asking before we get into those issues:

Does everyone have a right to Affordable Health Care?

Since over 40 million of us don't have access to Affordable Health Care, it seems obvious that they don't have that right.

So I'm proposing that we draft an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States granting the right to affordable health care to everyone.

With this call to action, I'm asking for help drafting the amendment, naming it and finding sponsors to introduce it.

Cross-posted to Man Eegee, The Daily Kos and The Booman Tribune.

I am getting ready to try a new idea (new for me anyway) and take my blog live.

The focus of my blog, Eat4Today.com is food and eating issues, particularly as relating to self-help diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or other conditions where the doctor says you have to change everything you've been doing and I'll see you in 3 months.

Well.  It occurred to me that these sorts of issues affect loads of people who never go near the Internet, much less a blog!  And how could I bring my discussion to them?  

And I decided that I'd do a presentation at the public library.  I would put notices up around grocery stores and other public bulletin boards (like for the Dean Meetup all those years ago.)  And see who shows up.

Then -- I went to the Community Services Librarian at my library to see what she thought of the idea.  And she loved it.  She wants to do it as a regular thing at the library and she's going to handle publicity.

We've reserved the auditorium for 2 evenings a month through the end of the year.  Just to see how it goes.  So, it's an experiment, who knows how it will go.  But what an idea!

I think it's a good idea for any of us with a special interest or developing knowledge of an issue.  

Libraries are always looking for programming of interest to the community.  Can your interest be packaged in a way that would draw your neighbors to an evening discussion group?  Or something like a teach-in?

Almost all public libraries have meeting rooms that are available for anyone to use.  So, even if the library isn't interested in making it a formal program, you can reserve a room and promote it yourself.

I really think it's important for us to become as comfortable with public speaking and presentations as with writing comments and diaries.  Even if our audience is limited to just a couple of people, it will give us experience that is very valuable.

And as we go on, we can find ways to broaden that audience.  And soon, when the local newspaper & TV stations are looking for someone to interview on your topic, it will be you!  And you'll know how to say what you mean.

Are you interested?  Here's a link to a list of all the U.S. Public Libraries.  

Just 4 Today I'm going to drink my 2 liters of water (which I've been doing for over a week now).  

But, I'm also in the lucky position of being able to conduct an experiment.  I'm not going to be able to do any distance walking for two weeks. Which means that:

Just for today I will write down everything I eat and keep track of the calories in each.  Just for today I will measure & weigh every single thing.  And Just for today I will think ahead (about everything I eat) so I don't get in trouble later.

Because in the past this situation has been my downfall.

It's not only about food --  If there's something you've been meaning to do, maybe today would be a good day to do it.

Just 4 today, I'm going to drink my 2 liters of water (one in the morning and one in the afternoon).  And walk with my new friend at the parking garage for 1/2 hour.

It made a big difference to do that yesterday (up until the time I destroyed Eat4Today -- at that point, nothing mattered).

ALSO:

I am not eating between meals and I'm not taking seconds.  Just Today.  And I'm going to try this for a year to see what happens.

And I want to assure myself and my good friends that Eat4Today will be up again as soon as possible.