This week, my six food groups consisted of:

- midnight snacks;

- ballpark weinies and meat on the grill; 

- potatoes and pasta (not together, but they both have carbs);

- sandwiches (preferably chicken salad);

- delicious restaurant fare;

- and Jell-O.

Mmmmm! Good eating this week. I'm not sure that it'll help my weight much, but a heavier me might pack more punch on the softball field. Who knows? 

I heard this on the radio last week: "There's a reason you're fat -- you want to be."

One night into my 40-day diet of delicious recipes, I couldn’t be happier with the way things are working so far.

Well, today is the first official day of my 40-day Stevens diet, during which I plan to eat 40 recipes by columnist Stephanie Stevens that have run in the pages of the Jordan Independent.

Scott County Public Health recently ran a children's poster contest focused on maintaining a healthy weight. 

I ate breakfast today. This isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, I know, but it marks a big change for me.

I usually eat about one meal a day, and it ends up being much too large a meal. My family and I decided to start a "Biggest Loser" competition – where the person who loses the most weight in 2007 is the big winner. (You can read about a Shakopee resident who was part of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" reality show in the Jan. 4 edition of the Shakopee Valley News). The competition started in January, and my goal is to drop about 50 pounds by the end of the year. I intend to win whatever it is my sister and I come up with as our top prize. I also intend to win some of the monthly gift certificate prizes.

Last week, I decided it was time to be proactive with my oncoming illness, instead of reacting the same way as years before – suffering through several weeks of a torturous head cold while waiting for my germy aggressors to just pack it in. This year I drank tea.