• Foodandfiction.com

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     What do I do when I'm not poking through websites as Webcrawler Janette Blackwell? For one thing, I write. I've written a mystery called Montana Spring and a storytelling cookbook -- Steamin' Down the Tracks With Viola Hockenberry -- based on my Montana farm childhood. And right this minute I'm writing something for the Internet.

     When I'm not writing, I'm often catering. Usually catering to the most important person in the universe: Tivoli, our pussycat. Tivoli believes the center pole of the universe runs through the middle of her food dish -- making me the second most important person in the universe. She is of course the most important.

     If truth be told, the center pole of the universe is not far from my plate, or my husband Bill's plate, at dinnertime. Which makes our activities during the past year extremely important. To us, that is. We spent the past year faithfully attending Weight Watchers, because we no longer weighed what we weighed in the photo of us posted here. We were, not to put too fine a point on it, fat.

     Weight Watchers aims at changing the eating habits that put on that weight. One week Bill sacrificed mightily and lost seven pounds. He reported to Weight Watchers ready to be congratulated. Instead, our leader Millie asked, "Do you want to eat that way for the rest of your life?"

     No way.

     "Then don't do it now. Don't do anything you wouldn't be willing to do for the rest of your life."

     Well, it took a year for Bill to lose 45 pounds and for me to lose 21, because we had certain foods we weren't willing to give up for the rest of our lives. We had to juggle our diets around so as to keep those foods while still losing weight. Bill's favorites are (1) steak, (2) spaghetti and meatballs, and (3) bacon and eggs. We often have spaghetti and meatballs on Friday nights. And on the weekends Bill fixes himself a grilled steak and bacon and eggs for breakfast. He fixes them himself, because he gets up between four and five on a weekend morning. And I, to put it succinctly, do not.

     So I think Bill is to be congratulated for losing 45 pounds and KEEPING IT OFF. While still having spaghetti and meatballs and steak and bacon and eggs (but only once a week). It's called changing your eating habits. It's also called a victory of mind over matter.

     Janette