The goal of your editor's new diet/life style is to eat only brown rice - without doing too much damage to his ever-so-sparse social life, i.e. while continuing to enjoy an occasional cigar and Guinness. There are two parts to this:

A, Discretionary eating: Will-power permitting, no solid food other than brown rice (including occasional restaurant fried rice), olive oil, garlic salt, and occasional apricots, blueberries, greens and fish (preferably salmon) should grace your lips. If at a restaurant and acceptable food is not on the menu, eat a salad.

B. Non-Discretionary eating: If a prepared meal is served at a function you are attending, or when you are a guest at someone's home, eat what is put in front of you. Keep the EESQ diet rules in mind here. If you have not lost enough to be at your ideal weight, and can politely do so, pass on desert and starches.

C. The foregoing could probably be put into circle (bullseye) format, with brown rice in the center, salad/vegetables in the next circle, fish in the third, meat in the fourth and so on, the goal being to hit the bullseye.

Of course, it is important that you check with your doctor before undertaking any new diet. Now, here are the results of your editor's attempts at this lifestyle: (day-before cheating is noted at side):

(WEIGHT, FASTING BLOODSUGAR) - 2009

6-30 (249, 141)

6-29 (249, 139)

6-28 (250, 133)

6-27 (249, 144)

6-26 (249, 137)

6-23 (252, 140) bread, meat, disgusted with self

6-22 (251, 136)

6-21 (250, 137) pancakes, eggs, meat

6-19 (250, 157)

6-17 (251, 142) won ton soup

6-16 (251, 145) 2 ice cream bars

6-15 (250, 146) grapes

6-14 (248, 138)

6-12 (248, 136)

6-11 (250, 140)

6-10 (250, 146)

6-9 (249, 138)

6-8 (251, 157)

6-7 (250, 157)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research suggests that excess belly fat combined with high stress levels may boost the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in black women, a group disproportionately affected by the disease.

"Much attention has been given to the role of obesity in the development of type 2 diabetes, but stress may be as important in this at-risk population," said Dr. Anastasia Georgiades, of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.

The complications from diabetes suffered by Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller have prompted a flurry of calls from people worried about similar complications.

On Jan. 23, Larry Miller's legs were amputated six inches below the knee because of diabetes-caused infection in his feet. Since then, people have been calling doctors with concerns about their own condition.

And those conditions take toll on the heart, study says...

A too-fast heartbeat in early adulthood is a warning sign for increased risk of cardiovascular problems decades later on, a Japanese study suggests.

The study of 614 residents of a rural farming community in southwestern Japan found that a heart rate greater than 80 beats a minute during a first examination in 1979 predicted the development of obesity and diabetes, which contribute to heart problems.