Monday morning, I had an appointment with Dr. Matthew Roberson for my checkup.

It turns out I’m doing fine. My blood pressure was normal, despite missing taking my medicine for a few days. My arm seems to have healed, though I am still typing one-handed. I was not that great at typing in the first place, so it has not affected my speed.

The main problem was with my weight, which was up a few pounds from last appointment. That’s bad, because I had told my doctor I was going to try to lose a few pounds. But it was sunny, and frankly I was not eating well back then. Now we’ve recovered from the first snow storm of the year, and I’m finding myself eating anything that does not try to eat me first.

The pounds have come on, and frankly I need to stop them. My goal was to get down to a normal, healthy weight, and if I keep adding a few pounds when I’m supposed to be losing a few pounds, I will never accomplish that.

The doctor suggested I try to eat more vegetables, and I don’t think he was including French fries as a vegetable. The problem is I really don’t like vegetables, and I refuse to eat any of them. Sure, eating just meat makes me more like a bear than a human, but I will survive.

He suggested I try to exercise more. I don’t believe he considers walking into the kitchen as real exercise, although my hands are usually full when I leave the room.

He also suggested I eat more fruits, but be careful because some fruits have natural sweeteners that can cause calorie problems.

My exercise options are no longer limited now that the snow has melted. I can walk my driveway daily and add a quarter of a mile to my exercise plan. I can go to the local recreation fields and play basketball, if I don’t get too worried about somebody watching me and noticing how many shots I miss.

So I need to eat better. Everything seems to have an asterisk beside it. For example, I’m told that popcorn has no calories, but then they add, “as long as you don’t load it with butter topping.” In my opinion, popcorn is no good if it does not slide out of your hand.

But we need to lose the weight. We may start to enjoy living again, so I need to make arrangements to do it as long as possible.