I'm rather proud of the weight I've lost so far, but I do realize that I have about 45 lbs. left to go...so for the love of God, don't offer me chocolate!

WILLA'S FOOD RAMBLE
by Willa, ATF Staff Writer

This article will be mostly me thinking out loud, so bear with me here. I am facing a predicament that I haven't really had to face before. Since January of 2000 I have been steadily losing weight. Up until about 3 weeks ago, I was doing my own thang (getting the lowest fat/calorie products in the types of foods I eat) and I lost about 55 lbs. doing that. But then I hit a plateau (yes, this is going somewhere...I told you to bear with me!). So three weeks ago I started doing my own modified version of the Weight Watchers 123 Program (and have already lost more weight on it). To sum up the program, I'm given a certain number of points per day. Each food is given a points value based on its nutritional information and you can only eat whatever number of points you're allowed per day.

Now I'm faced with a problem with all this points counting. How on earth do I eat at faire?

Yes, I could bring along my own food (fruit, bread, cheese, etc..), but we literally have no more room in the car once we pack in garb, washline, roses, kids and ourselves. Literally. You've never seen JP's car if you doubt me on this. Plus, it's just a pain in the butt to drag it all along. To tell you the truth, I rarely ever eat at faire. I never have time. But that's just as unhealthy, right? And right now I'm all about health.

I drink about 96 oz. of water per day. If I want to drink that while at faire I will have to bring my own water along, because I am NOT about to pay $8 per day for stinkin' water! (That is figuring that each bottle of water is about 24 oz. and I'd need 4 bottles at $2 apiece.) That would be most of my tips right there!

So let's move on to food, because the fact that they charge you so much for water is a sore spot with me...

Your average turkey leg is about 150 calories, which is about 4 points for me once you figure in the fact that it has 6 grams of fat in it. That's not too bad, actually. Too bad I can no longer stand turkey legs, eh? So another favourite is beef stew in a bread bowl. Mmmm...mouth watering just thinking about this. But then I'm struck with the realization that one cup of this stuff is 6 points. Most servings at faire are at least two cups, which would be 12 points. That's about half the points I'm allowed in a day total. Add in the bread bowl (guestimating it to be about the same at 4 pieces of bread) at 8 points and I'm basically shot for the day. That better be a really filling bowl of stew. Those yummy potato curls that they sell (that are also very greasy and not good for stomachs on hot days to begin with) are about 6 points. Add the cheese topping and that's another 3 or 4 points. Blech...

Of course, I didn't go over the gyros (12 points) or all of the yummy baked goods (I don't even want to know) and the hot dogs (5 points when the bun is added in) or the hamburgers (7 points with bun added in) or any of those other foods that we shove down our gullets at festival.

What really makes me sad is that wine (the sweet kind I love) is 1 point per ounce. Considering that my mug holds about 32 oz, that's just depressing.

So what should I do? I guess I'm going to have to find some extra room for my food. No wonder the renaissance women where so corpulent! Sheesh...

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