my dad would be a hindu. he has successfully found salvation (and has frequently lost weight) in just about all of them. he even says ‘any diet can work as long as you stick to it’. if that’s not Dharma, i don’t know what is.

in his time as a radio announcer, i even heard him espouse a diet called the ‘cabbage soup diet’. currently he’s on a diet which has as part of it’s apostle’s creed a penance of salt and water. lots of water. he’s been bugging me to try it. i remember coughing into the phone one day and he says… ‘you should try this salt water diet i’m on… it will get rid of that cough!’. perhaps there is something to this one though, because he claims it has cured him of his diabetes!

i bring this up because i’ve started back on my diet and exercise plan. i was on it a couple of years ago, and remembered how great i felt… and so i decided to give it a go again for the new year. no resolutions…i don’t believe in them… just wanting to feel better again.

getting back into the gym can be a bit grueling. i used to go to the YMCA where they had these windows looking outside that spanned the entire nautilus and aerobic room, and i could not help but laugh on my way in … it’s a bit like looking into a clear, plastic hamster cage. i hated going in the beginning. it hurt, i was tired… and seemed to have every reason not to go. but i stuck with it for long enough to remember that it got easier. the hardest part is going back after you’ve been away for a long time.

so i guess that if diets were religions… i’d be a wayward son?