Tangelos

During the holiday season, bad weather, menu temptations, and time-consuming family events combined to bust my normal routine of diet and exercise. As a result, my weight started creeping toward the dreaded 180 pound mark, and on March 3rd I finally reached it. I needed to get serious about calories again, and start watching what I ate and when I ate it. One change was adding more fruit to my plan, and this month I developed an appetite for tangelos, which I believe are a hybrid between a tangerine and a grapefruit. The best thing about a tangelo is that it has enough pulp to provide dietary fiber but unlike an orange, has no seeds.


Some tangelos are easy to peel with my fingers and some aren't; some are fairly sweet while others verge on sour. Basically, individual tangelos fall into one of four categories: (A) sweet and easily peeled, (B) sour and easily peeled, (C) sweet and hard to peel, and (D) sour and hard to peel. I think of Group D tangelos as the Tea Party members of the citrus world --- a waste of time and a pain in the ass.


Tangelos are a little pricey, so I want to choose them wisely --- but like people, you can't look at one and easily predict what you're getting. Some picture-perfect tangelos I've eaten were Tea Partiers, and some with minor blemishes were Category A all the way.


It's taken a few weeks but my weight is under 174 pounds again, and I think 172 or less is possible if I stay focused. Tangelos weren't totally responsible for the weight loss, but they damned sure didn't hurt.