Cutting Back; or, No More Grits, Thank You

I have managed to drop 11 pounds since December, and I'll tell you a big reason why: Cutting back on rich desserts, grease-soaked fast food and sodas. And it's also meant eating some of my favorite Southern dishes in moderation.

That goes totally against my nature. I grew up on fine Southern cooking – my mother, her mother, church dinners – and I often helped myself to seconds and thirds (and sometimes fourths). When it comes to cornbread or sweet potato casserole or grits or chocolate meringue pie, how could I not? An empty plate seemed an insult.

With my lovely wife being from St. Louis, she doesn't specialize in Southern cooking, which is OK (though she does make a mean sweet potato casserole, with nuts mixed in and a marshmallow topping … mmm … oh, sorry). She makes good food, and I've had to discipline myself to decline that extra helping, or lay off the brownies.

This is not easy for me. Southerners have a passion for food, which is why we're the fattest state in the country. I guess we all could stand to have a little less of a good thing. Much as I miss those second helpings of flank steak – actually, I did have seconds the other night; naughty boy! – I don't miss my fast-vanishing gut.

Today's non-Redneck Moment: I had shredded wheat cereal and Vitamin Water for breakfast. I admit, I'm addicted to the latter.