Several people I know "in real life" have told me I should post about my penny plan here. It's changed my life. It's taken me from being a lazy slob to being productive.

The penny plan started out simple. I get 1 penny for every 5 minutes of work, I pay 1 penny for every 5 minutes of television or online time. However, that simple structure was turned into a plan that works for me and has succeeded in keeping me from falling into the eternal distraction abyss. My rules are:

Earning pennies: 6 pennies to begin the day, 12 if purpleglitter is home from work that day. 1 penny for every 5 minutes of cleaning, crafting, or other productive work. 1 penny for every 5 minutes of Telugu practice. 1 penny for every 10 minutes of book reading (magazines, no matter how dry, don't count). 1 penny for every 10 minutes of photography. 2 pennies for every 5 minutes working on a "priority project" assigned by purpleglitter. Using pennies: Every 5 minutes of computer time costs me 1 penny. Every 5 minutes of television time costs me 1 penny. If I'm using the computer to prep photos, I pay half If I'm with purpleglitter, I pay half If I have no pennies, I cannot do any of the activities that require them.

The penny plan, unlike project schedule or project three meals, has proven to be something I can stick to. I've been on it successfully for almost a month at this point and I still going strong. It has truly transformed me.

I've given up on this attempt of Project Three Meals, but plan to start it up again later in the week. Bad start timing.

Project Three Meals went completely off today. I got no healthy snack, got no exercise, and went on a junk food binge. Don't worry, I am not following that binge up with a purge, those days are very long gone and I'm not going back.

I did get in my three meals, though, if that matters. For breakfast I had egg and swiss on an everything bagel, for lunch I had linguine in a tomatoed alfredo sauce, for dinner I had pizza. Oh well, tomorrow's another day.

Success! For breakfast I had macaroni and cheese laced with broccoli bits, for lunch I had samosa chole chat; for dinner I had linguine in a tomatoed alfredo sauce; for my healthy snack I had 3 mandarins. I got plenty of exercise walking home from merryperseis's place. No junk food.

For breakfast I had angel hair pasta in a garlic butter sauce; for lunch I had mutter paneer on rice; for dinner I had pizza, and for my healthy snack I had three mandarins. However, I didn't get any exercise and ate quite a bit of the left over Halloween candy. We only got two groups of trick or treaters, so there was a lot left over. Tomorrow is another day, perhaps the day I make this attempt work.

For breakfast I had creamy parmesan noodles, for lunch I had eggs and hashbrowns, for my healthy snack I had a mandarin and a sugar-free popsicle. I got in well over an hour of exercise walking from my place to merryperseis's place and back.

I would have made, except that my dinner wasn't exactly reasonable. I went to Rudy's with purpleglitter, zarthon, and Jeff. I ended up eating chili con queso, a jalapeño poppers, and a bean & cheese burrito. The popper and burrito would have been fine &ndash but the chips and chili con queso were not only too much, it's hard not to categorize them as junk food.

Tomorrow, I'm going to start Project Three Meals up again. The same as it's always been: three reasonable meals and one healthy snack – no more, no less. 30 minutes of exercise a day, minimum. Absolutely no junk food. Sounds simple, should be simple, isn't.

This of course means I won't be raiding the after-halloween candy sales this year.

Project Five is pretty much a modified version of Project Three Meals. Like Project Three Meals, Project Five will have three health meals a day (no more no less), as well as the same minimum of 30 minutes of exercise a day and the same ban on junk food. The difference is Project Five has 2 healthy snacks instead of 1. I think a large part of the reason I've had problems with Project Three Meals is that I get hungry in the evening and end up binging. If I allow myself an evening snack, this is less likely to happen.

I start Project Five tomorrow.

For breakfast yesterday I had pizza; for lunch I had pakora kadhi on forbidden black rice; for dinner I had flat bread pizza with mushrooms at the Flat Bread Café in Bedford. I didn't have a healthy snack, nor did I get any exercise. However, I did have some banana bread with ice cream. So, there!

For breakfast I had pizza; for lunch I had dal tadka on forbidden black rice; for dinner I had lentil soup, marinated mushrooms, and asparagus; for my healthy snack I had pumpkin seeds. Still no success however. I got no exercise and late in the evening I cooked up some rotini in tomatoe sauce with parmesan, peppers, olives, and mushrooms for purpleglitter and had a plate of it myself (dinner for purpleglitter, essentially a large close-to-midnight snack for me).

I'm eating healthier. Even if I haven't "succeeded" in Project Three Meals yet, healthier is what really matters.

For breakfast yesterday, I had a fried egg sandwich with mozzarella and cheddar on a toasted focaccini roll; for lunch I had pizza; for dinner I had spaghetti in a tomatoe sauce with parmesan, mushrooms, olives, and peppers; for my healthy snack I had pumpkin seeds. Not to much different than the day before. However, I ate a several unhealthy snacks including chai cake and mustard won ton chips. I also only got in a 15 minute walk instead of the 30 minutes of exercise I need.

For breakfast yesterday, I had a fried egg sandwich with mozzarella and cheddar on a toasted focaccini roll; for lunch i had spaghetti in a tomatoe sauce with parmesan, mushrooms, olives, and peppers; for dinner I had pizza. For my healthy snack I had pumpkin seeds. I while eating the pumpkin seeds, I devoured some olive tapenade on mini toasts – which really brought it into a more mealsworth of food. Additionally, my walk was far short of the half hour mark for exercise.

Not bad, but not quite there.

purpleglitter and I are going to start Project Three Meals together today. I've attempted to do Project Three Meals with another person before – goldmourn, long distance. However, I eat a majority of my meals with purpleglitter and spend a lot of time with her. I think that the follow through will be improved with us working together, we've always made a great team.

Same rules as before:

Three reasonable meals a day and one healthy snack. No more, no less. No junk food. 30 minutes of exercise a day.

Not meeting the goals for one day is okay, just get back on the horse. This is about improving eating and exercise habits, not perfection. However, even though perfection isn't expected it can still be strived toward.

Yesterday for breakfast I had a packet of Good vermicelli, for lunch I had sushi, for dinner I had enchiladas verdes, for my healthy snack I had cantaloupe. I surrounding dinner I had chili con queso and fried ice cream, which is outside the project. I did get in my exercise though, in the form of a three hour walk in the morning and two 15 minute walks later in the day.

This has been my 15^th attempt at Project Three Meals, and I'm really starting to grow tired of it. Burnt out. I can't say that I won't try to start it up again, but there have been numerous suggestions by numerous people online and off about what might be wrong with the project concept. Perhaps I will tweak it, perhaps I'll modify it into another project, perhaps I just won't.

Where I am going is not so much determined by what my body eats, but instead by what my mind eats. I need to worry about the former less and the latter more.

Ugh. For breakfast I had masala ramen, for lunch I had two servings of bhindi masala on red cargo rice (one would have been a reasonable meal), for dinner I had a veggie burger. I had nothing that would be considered a healthy snack. Around 1am I stir fried up soy sauce marinated gluten, peanuts, and baby corn. I also had some cookies and got no exercise. Ah well, so be it. I'm still going to keep trying.

For breakfast yesterday I had a veggie burger with basil mozzarella cheese and barbecue sauce; for lunch I had pizza balls with basil mozzarella, faux ham, and faux turkey topped with parmesan cheese; for dinner I had spaghetti in pizza sauce with parmesan cheese; for my healthy snack I had cashews.

Food went well, but I only got half of my half hour of exercise in with a walk up to Arlington Center and back in last evening's thunderstorm. Getting in my exercise is going to be hard right now because I've been having lots of wobbly/dizzy/fally/seizurey/whatever-the-hell-who-knows-the-doctors-apparently-don't episodes, but I will not let that be an excuse. I will continue to try to make Project Three Meals work. I refuse to let this crap control my life.

For breakfast I had spaghetti in tomatoe sauce with peppers and parmesan cheese, for lunch I had paneer butter masala with rice, for dinner I had two slices of faux chipotle sausage pizza with basil mozzarella baked on a garlic and herb crust, and for my healthy snack I had pumpkin seeds.

I was sitting on my desk, spaced out, and before I could realizes what I was doing I had eaten a significant number of peanut chews. Having already foiled my day, I opted to have cookies later on when offered and I didn't get any exercise.

I know the reasoning "I already screwed up, what the hell?" isn't the best and that I should strive to get as close as I can regardless of how well the rest of the day went. But I had already screwed up, so what the hell. Great "logic', eh? I'll do better and I intend to win the wager.

Both goldmourn and I fell out of the last Project Three Meals, but we're going to have another try together. Like before, the goal is three reasonable meals a day and one healthy snack: no more, no less. No junk food and a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise is also required for a "successful" Project Three Meals day.

We're again making a wager as to who will have the highest total number of "successful" days, as the last wager was voided. This time the loser will read a book of the winner's choosing. I like that because the loser doesn't really lose, because they end up reading something they probably wouldn't have chosen to read thereby possibly expanding their circle of thought in an unexpected direction.

Today is the first day of the New Project Three Meals.

For breakfast yesterday I had cheesecake (not a reasonable meal), for lunch I had faux turkey sandwich with muenster, for dinner I had ziti arrabiata, and I had no healthy snack but I did get a chocolate dipped florentine cookie at Mike's Pastry in the North End as an unhealthy snack. I fulfilled my exercise quota walking around the North End, at least getting one aspect right.

Yesterday for breakfast I had masala ramen, for lunch I had pink beans in a coconut mustard sauce on naan, for dinner I had grilled portabella on a bun preceded by bread and macaroni and cheese balls, I didn't have a healthy snack. I had faux buttered popcorn at the movies with zarthon and purpleglitter and I didn't get any exercise.