I’ve been eating much, much better this week than, well, just about any week the past six months or so. Must be why I’m able to get by (and feel good) on six hours of sleep.

Truth is, I’m so busy right now that I need to figure out more life efficiencies and WRITE them down. Sounds stupid, but take food. There are some nights I need to eat out. Don’t have time to cook. Kitchen stuffs are dirty. No time.

However, I’ve mandated to myself healthful eating with NO exceptions except once every couple of weekends. I drove from work the other night and moseyed up Britton to May, May down to I-44 — and I saw nothing that wouldn’t have added about 900 calories to my waistline.

Drove home to Norman and saw Wendy’s. Duh. I can totally have chili.

I’m building a list of quick eat-out options. So that I don’t have to think.

Weekend notes: Looking forward to the World Cup. USA vs. England at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Also. Sooners face Virginia for a spot in the College World Series. It’s been 15 years since Oklahoma advanced that far. It’s time for a return to Omaha.

Also, I’m a competitor in a song competition being hosted by a site called Spintown. It is in four parts. A theme gets announced on Saturday, and then I have NINE days to write it, produce it, record it and turn it in. Judges judge it, not the public.

It’s pretty informal, I suspect. However, it’s a great exercise.

Now for a tune I’m chillin’ with tonight, a little Brian McKnight … Aww, yeah.

The Teddy bears are a bit weird. I didn’t make the video. Just diggin’ the tune and the KEY CHANGES. Sucker for a good key change.

Truth be told, I’ll likely have 3-4 more days off at least this summer before football season kicks off. The reason that football season is relevant is because I work in the media, and we cover a bit o’ sports.

Last week was about resting and rejuvenating, of course. However, I had a big to-do list. Here’s what I got done:

1. Bought a new TV. I was without one. In my line of work, I need a TV.

2. Bought a toaster oven. Reason why forthcoming.

3. Organized the house. (Thanks, Jen)

4. Got my home theater re-established. (Thanks, Frankenstein.)

5. Caught up on all Web correspondence.

6. Decluttered big time.

7. Watched some baseball.

8. Re-established a pretty serious workout routine.

9. Put together a list of food staples from which to establish my diet for the next three months. Notice I didn’t say A diet. I said MY diet. I read, researched, browsed, etc., and came up with a list of food staples that covers the foundation of macro-nutrients, which I *think* are comprised of carbs, fats and proteins.

Anyway, I’ll show off that list later. It’s a good list. Some of these foods required baking, ergo, the toaster oven.

10. Re-established ryanwelton.com. If you’re a member of the Tumblr community or are from Oklahoma, please follow!

Friday night dinner. Nothing fancy; I am definitely not proclaiming that I made something awesome. However, I did just get my toaster oven, and this is my first non-toast-oriented dish.

It’s just chicken breast + mushroom soup + mushrooms.

In all, it is about 680 calories, and for dinner, I had about half of it with a simple side salad and some mixed veggies. In all, about a 425-calorie dinner followed up by a bowl of Fiber One cereal and some Lactaid milk.

BTW, do I sound like an old man or what?

Oooh, side note: In my current obsession with all-things Jillian Michaels, I saw in a chat she did with the Washington Post that she advises against men consuming soy, presumably soy milk and soy protein powder. I had to check my milk; I drink Lactaid. Also, my protein powder is whey. I think I’m good.

I also calculated my BMR tonight, and it came out to 1997.53 for my starting weight of 211. BTW, 211 isn’t my highest weight. I’d say I have probably inched close to 220 at some point over the past 10 years. However, my recent low was about 198.

The problems there were numerous. I suspect I was working from an “energy deficit” as Jillian might have said. See, you take that 1997.53 BMR and multiply it by 1.375 (for a guy who exercises 1 to 3 times a week, which historically I have) to get my daily caloric intake.

That number is over 2740 calories a day. Working at a deficit of 500-cals a day, I can do up to 2240 theoretically. Last year when I dropped 11 pounds or so, I was eating 1500 to 1700 cals a day. Probably a bit too much of a calorie deficit. See, I dropped the pounds but didn’t have the energy day-to-day to workout.

Tangent city. I feel like I ate a ton today and only took in 2,005 calories.

The downside to this is sodium. Canned soups are terribly high in sodium, which gets stored in the body making one look all puffy. Going to start looking for the reduced sodium labels to see just how much lower they are.

Surprisingly good: Brown rice, canned peas, tuna, tbsp. of Miracle Whip.

Now, the problem: It was 735 calories, of which I ate probably 80 percent. However, if I can not “eat the whole thing,” which is always a goal — as in “Ryan, don’t eat the entire bucket of chicken” or “Ryan, they make ice cream in containers smaller than a gallon” — then we have something here.

The takeaway is thus: Only brown rice and whole wheat pasta for awhile. This will require creativity.

Like an dingbat, I hadn’t charged my Cybershot’s Lithium battery in awhile, so no snapshot of the bachelor-food masterpiece. Tried doing it with the Blackberry, but those things just aren’t made for anything but e-mail and light browsing.

I’ve heard and long suspected that if crackheads would just eat a healthful diet, they’d be able to at least appear functional.

OK, perhaps I’m exaggerating. And, I certainly don’t mean to take the joy out of food. Nor would I want to give anybody an excuse to develop a crack habit. However, for me, food is becoming more functional and less aesthetic as I get older.

I enjoy it just as much, but I’m having to work to find *new* things to like to meet functional as opposed to aesthetic needs. And, I have to tell you: I’ve lessened my calorie intake by nearly 1,000 calories per day, and I’m not suffering in the least.

Heck, because I’ve got my daily food routine down pretty well, netting a loss of 7 pounds as of Dec. 20, I don’t stress when I have a cheeseburger or a piece of cake. Note that the word “extra” never comes into play.

One treat per day. So, make it a good one.

Anyway, thought I’d share the foodstuffs I’ve found that are super lean and super tasty and FILLING. Filling is the key item here. I don’t do hungry.

1. The most important item I could recommend is Nature’s Own double-fiber wheat bread. It has 50 cals a slice and 5g of fiber each. And, it not only doesn’t taste like cardboard, it’s some of the best bread I’ve had.

2. The second thing is good breakfast cereal. I love FiberOne’s raisin bran, but I’ll eat Kashi’s GoLean honey flax almond cereal on the weekends. You cannot eat this stuff before going to work. It tears up your insides and makes you poop them all out, which is at one time healthful but also inconvenient.

Both cereals have two things in common: High fiber, high protein.

3. Grapefruit. I’m not a fruit guy, but with a couple packets of sugar, a half grapefruit in the morning is very enjoyable. But here’s why it’s important: There is something about grapefruit, in grapefruit that is, that keeps your body from craving munchies throughout the day. I don’t know what it is, but a colleague recommended working in some grapefruit to my diet for that purpose, and he was a billion percent right.

4. Durkee’s ‘Grill Creations’ St. Louis Style chicken and rib rub. This makes a plain chicken breast come to life. When I decided to alter my diet long-term, I started (and am still working) to find things that I’d love to eat. It has no calories, and I can eat chicken breast for dinner now three times a week.

5. Bush’s beans. Pinto, black, kidney. A little mustard, and you not only have a filling meal but also a tasty one.

That’s all I’ve got for now. The Kashi cereal is starting to work it’s magic, and I’m about to reenact the scene from Steel Magnolias where Tom Skeritt runs through the yard, into the house and straight for the facilities. Ciao.