I want to know just how much nutrition can affect my performance without actually having to subscribe to a rigid diet.

Let me stop here and say that as I type this post, I am periodically reaching over to the barrel filled with 4 pounds of gourmet (not the Sport Beans) Jelly Belly jelly beans invitingly neighboring my keyboard to pull out a half handful and deposit the beans individually into my mouth, savoring each one -- except those lousy buttered popcorns. And I might add that for lunch today, like most days of the week, my lunch consisted of the $1.50 Costco Hot Dog, a Coke, and the available free samples offered near the freezer section.

That said, I have attended numerous nutrition seminars facilitated by nutrionists. I've got a pretty good idea what makes a balanced meal. And granted, my breakfasts are generally of the nutritious ilk (smoothies w/protein, fruit w/cottage cheese or yogurt, etc.), but my dinners -- particularly those following a workout -- are gluttonous enough to make hog blush. I can repeatedly disobey every voice screaming at me that the last set of stairs is not worth it all season long, but to win the "don't stuff yourself" battle just once is a minor miracle. Food is just too good.

I guess food discipline is harder than exercise for me because despite my gluttonous irresponsibility, I'm not overweight. And I don't know what advantage I have to gain from laying off that second or third can of Mountain Dew. And since I have in the past gone on 5 or 6 week health binges, eating very healthfully, but I've failed to observe any increased performance, I'm further convinced of the futility of diet.

So being that food is so good and that depriving myself of it appears not to have a noticeable affect on my performance, I guess I've resigned myself to my Hot Dog and Jelly Bean paradise.