Today was a 500 calorie day. I woke up anxious about it, but after my delicious breakfast of milky coffee and an orange, I felt good.

I had a late morning snack of dried seaweed. Turns out the margarita I had last night wasn’t sitting well this morning. The salty seaweed did the trick.

For lunch I had a salad and half an apple. This is what a 110-calorie salad looks like.

Contained in that mixing bowl are precisely the following items: 100 grams of romaine; 1 ounce of mushrooms; Half a grated carrot (1 oz); 1 oz of roasted chicken breast; a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar; the juice of half a lemon; and my hopes and dreams for a smaller, more healthy me.

Let me interrupt myself here to point out how disturbed I was a few weeks ago to discover that my flexibility had improved to a point where my belly fat is actually impeding me from sitting on my butt with my legs stretched out and bending over my legs as far as I’d like to. I plan to hold that image in mind in low and hungry moments.

Here’s what a 200-calorie dinner looks like.

That’s 2 ounces of flounder fried in a bit of olive oil and a couple hundred grams of roasted butternut squash. No butter or sugar. I made do with hot sauce.

It’s water now until tomorrow morning.

Bah.