Man, she really likes scones.

Like it says up yonder, this is the personal blog of a hopefully-soon-to-be-Registered-Dietician. Meaning: I am a Master's student in nutrition education and will be sitting the exam for becoming a registered dietician as soon as possible. I have my Bachelor's degree in Family Psychos.. oops.. I mean Family Psych, but 2 years ago my life took a direction that lead me to.. well, the kitchen. And the grocery store, and the gym, and the internet, and the library.

I have a sick obsession with foods - both healthy and non-healthy. I lost 40 pounds a year and a half ago by simple dietary changes, exercising a lot more, educating myself on dietetics (not diets - those are, in a word, dumb!) I ran my first half-marathon last May in 2:11. Now, people - all of my previous 24 years on the earth until that point I was always the chubby kid clutching a bag of doritos. I still love doritos - damn their triangular neon orange loveliness (and scones too - but I'll get to that) But for the most part I try to practice what I preach and truly do enjoy my day-to-day healthy dietary intake. Preventative medicine people! You are what you eat - hate to break it to you. I used to be a neon triangle, except it wasn't so lovely.

With half - no, probably 75% of the world 'blogging' (oh I'll never get over the lameness of that word) I doubt I will acquire that many readers, but it would be just hot damn fantastic if I could help anyone with dropping some weight. So if you have questions for me, let em roll people - I will do my best.

Now that being said, this will be said: this blog will most likely include ramblings on continued weight loss efforts. I'm still comfortably down the 40, but this apple-shaped body of mine needs to be heading somewhere toward 55ish total pounds lost since the beginning of this business. But, I also do not intend to endlessly whine and give every detail of what I have eaten - that is what my boyfriend Ed and my food journal are for. (Plus, that whining thing? Quit that.)

If you read this little blog of mine, you will be witness to my thoughts & analysis on "new" "health" foods and diet trends. For example, in my head there is brewing a paragraph or 2 on a product called Better N' Peanut Butter. Now, I suspect that ona daily basis I eat too much of this delicious de-fatted, low-sodium, peanut-butter-like colloidal mass. But, as I haven't yet sat down and fully analyzed the situation, I will blissfully spread it on so many carrots that my body, being so chock full of Vitamin A, will turn the palms of my hands orangey-yellow. Mm hmm, see? Aren't you so excited to learn more? Even if you aren't, I would like to read it myself and decide if I need a BNPB 12-Step Program. (I can picture the episode of A&E's 'Intervention' now..)

I'm also very much into re-creating healthier recipes of foods. Sometimes I am quite successful, and in those cases I intend to post the recipes so that you may partake of the yumminess. Sometimes.. well.. things don't quite work out. In that case I will feed it to Ed, who will probably like it anyway. (When we first started dating, I tried to make chicken with some kind of tomato-alfredo sauce, which I burned quite thoroughly. Having no back-up plan, I poured the sauce on the chicken, covered it with some cheese and broiled it and tried look innocent when he came in. As we sat down at my table and delved in, I officially titled the dish 'Cigarette Chicken' and made myself a sandwich. He finished his plate and took the leftovers to work the next day. He is a good boyfriend.)

I am bound to go on random tangents, though I will try to contain myself. This category has/is/will include my guinea pigs' quirks and odd noises, justifying daily trips to Target, leggings: friend or foe, ..and as always, updates on my daily staredown through the shiny glass window at and flirtations with actually purchasing and eating the entirety of the (not-actually-but-abstractly) elusive cinnamon chip scone at Starbucks.

Scone: 510 calories, many a gram of saturated fat, delicious. Me: tired of effin around with these last 10-15 pounds, and butter-loaded scone-lover, not to mention cinnamon. Not to mention warm and flaky, albeit with a cup of Pike Place or whatever pretentiously delicious blend of coffee on which I have just spent too much money, (Though I do think that stopping at Starbucks on the way to work is a one of life's many small joys - knowing that I have a warm place to go and get something sweet in the morning before I actually get to work is a nice mental buffer when I get into the car in the morning).

Anyway, the scone. I've eaten it before - it's not this tantalizing mystery of a giant sweet pastry - I don't even have that much of a sweet tooth (remember the doritos?) I view the scone as something larger than it is. Not sizewise - it's pretty damn big. I mean, I could potentially work it into my daily caloric breakdown - or at least use a shoehorn and squeeze it and its drippings of fat into a place of a meal without destoying my day. (Plus a day, foodwise, is never fully 'destroyed' - nutrtion doesn't have to be as rigid as people think it needs to be. But I like a certain percentage of carbs:protein:fat, if I can manage it.) But it's the principle of the thing. Should I view the scone as a 'treat?' Is thinking about the scone this much before getting it and eating it giving the scone too much power? Hellooo? The scone is a lump of flour, butter, and sugar - it has no power. Has anyone seen the movie 'Defending Your Life' with Meryl Streep? It takes place in Heaven and they can eat as much of anything they want and never gain an ounce. Yes, you mentally call them bastards for a moment, but if we had that option now, would you still enjoy each meal as much?

Are 'treats' like scones the whole point? This blog will not be the Saga of the Scone - I may randomly have a scone sometime soon, but on the path to the 55 pounds, will I come to think of the treat differently? Should I just keep doing what I'm doing, with my carbs:protein:fat with an occasional treat in there? Yes I think so, both subjectively in terms of maintaining my sanity - denial of favorite foods does not work. (All work no treats makes Jack a dull boy) Plus objectively, as an education in nutrition tells me - the (very) generalized synopsis is: don't be an idiot and eat treats all day every day.

The real test will be how long it takes me to get to that 55 pounds lost, and what little valuable nuggets of information I gathered along the way. Care to join me?