On the doctor's scale Thursday I weighed (ahem!) pounds. That means I have lost 46 pounds since I started this new way of eating. New to me, I mean. You all probably know all about it.

Actually, not so new, any more, since I've been doing it for a little over a year now. My clothes are baggy; the Salvation Army is going to get a bunch of them at winter's end.

It all started in November 2006 when the doctor's office called to give me the cholesterol count and said, "No more carbs."

I had no idea what she was talking about, but she sounded serious, the kind of serious voice you hear when something awful is looming.

So I looked it up on the internet. Found a low carb diet that works for me (there's no such thing as no carbs, unless you want to live on raw meat and green leaves).

The odd part is that it has been easy. The "no, thank you" to cookies, cakes, rice, potatoes, and so forth has become automatic. I confess to wavering a bit when confronted by ice cream, but so far I have not yielded.

And the cholesterol level? Even with medication, it is as high as ever. All the 85- and 90-year olds in my maternal and paternal families lived and died with it (but not necessarily because of it). The ones who died young died in foreign wars or as the result of childbirth or emphysema.

I'm not so worried about my cholesterol as my doctor is, but it keeps him busy, having me get blood tests every three months and then fussing at me regarding the results. We are of an age, he and I. We'll see who outlives whom.

And..46 pounds! I'm bragging (and still losing).