IT'S ALL ABOUT GADGETS

15 January 2003

The novelty of a new lifestyle is all the "busy work" you go through learning it. I was really in my element this past year--I had two sets of WeightWatchers books, a whole bunch of new WeightWatchers cookbooks, a couple of diabetic cookbooks, a bunch of machines at the club to learn, the bike and all its goodies, and the endless supply of "stuff" that you can waste money on for a bike.

There were bike trails to explore, and a point system to master, a new computer program to store it all, and The Pointers email group to get to know.

In short, losing weight in the first year was easy because I had a lot of distractions, new things to keep me constantly aware of what I was doing.

But it's a year later (a year and a couple of days later, to be precise) and the recipes have grown tired, the machines are old hat, biking is something I like, but it's not a novelty any more (and with Haggie flying all over to hell and gone preparing for her AIDS ride, I haven't had a good workout on the weekend in months), The Pointers just got to be too much--too, too many e-mails (I never thought I'd ever say that), so I put them on hold for awhile. Without Pointers, I stopped using my snazzy new computer program to record points and never quite got back to the old WeightWatchers paper one.

In short, this program needs revitalization.

I'm dedicated to it, make no mistake about that. But I think that this year has taught me that I do better when I have a crutch. Some electronic or paper or mechanical crutch that keeps me from slipping back into the old habits.  Just "eating" different things doesn't seem to be enough to keep the spark alive.

Over the weekend, I spent time with three Palm Pilot devotees.

Now, I've thought about Palm Pilots but thought about them only for purposes of keeping a busy calendar straight and, though I seem to always have more than I can handle on my plate, I didn't see the need to spend big bucks to get an electronic calendar.

Well, my dears, I've had my eyes opened. My word--it's a whole computer in your hand. 8 MB of memory (expandable to god knows how much). Computer games, maps, a word processor, a database, a spreadsheet, and a WeightWatchers calculator, just to start with the tip of the iceburg. You can even get books to read on your palm (though I can't see myself ever doing that--I enjoy the feel of paper pages too much).

I watched the fun that my friends were having comparing notes and beaming programs back and forth to each other.

I felt like I did before I got my first modem: I don't know what I'll do with it, but I want one.

We stopped at CompUSA on the way to the airport and I priced them. OK. Forget that. Too much money for something that I don't have a use for already--though maybe with a new electronic toy, I'd get back into journaling WeightWatchers points again. There is something about putting it all down and seeing it in black and white, or whatever colors you choose, that really helps you make good choices.

So after rejecting the expensive Palms at CompUSA and wondering if I should start dropping broad hints about my upcoming birthday, I checked eBay.

Turns out that eBay's half off site had exactly the same Palm as my friend's, supposedly "good as new" (let's hope that's true), and it was very definitely affordable--less than half what she paid for hers new.

So I ordered it. I figure that it has a 3 day battery life before it needs to be recharged and if I'm going to spend 33 hours in transit, it might be nice to have a toy to play with. Just think of it--33 hours of Free Cell. Plus, I can keep notes about our excursions when Peggy and I go away for more than a day, since I won't have a laptop to update the journal on a daily basis while I'm in Australia.

But mainly, it should make it easier to rejuvenate my interest in journaling WeightWatchers points if I can do it on the Palm, and if I have a handy dandy calculator to take with me into the grocery store to figure out the best things to buy.