Food for Thought

My current condition has turned my relationship with food upside down.

After spending a good part of my life devising strategies to lose weight, I'm now trying to follow my doctor's imperative to put on pounds.

Here's what I've done about that today so far. Shortly after waking up, I made myself a smoothie consisting of whole milk, orange juice, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple and yogurt. I drank the equivalent of two good-sized glasses of that concoction. No more skim milk and no more low-fat yogurt; now I consume the high octane stuff.

About two hours later, I had breakfast: two eggs over easy, leftover pork spare ribs from last night, and an English muffin.

Around 1:15, I had a "snack" consisting of peanuts, string cheese, and a protein bar.

All of this is a prelude to what I'm anticipating will be a pretty large dinner at our friends' house tonight. If things follow the course of the last few nights, I'll manage to down a scoop or two of orange sherbet before going to bed. It might even have a little whipped cream on top.

All this is much harder than it sounds. Instead of just waiting until I'm hungry to eat, I make a conscious effort to keep the calories coming even when nothing sounds very appealing. The result so far: I've gained about four pounds from my nadir of 169. My goal was about 180 and I had struggled for years to keep under 190. Many of you may remember that I haven't looked like I've missed too many meals in the last few years. I actually peaked at 213 fifteen years ago, before hip-replacement surgery allowed me to exercise regularly again.

All of this is in preparation for the onset of chemo and radiation therapy, which is almost sure to cost me a few more pounds off my six-foot frame. I tend to at least keep the whipped cream and orange sherbet flowing. I can't ever imagine not being hungry for that.