The Biggest Loser on NBC is truly motivating! Check out their Before and After gallery

Exercise: biking to and from work, 30 minutes on the elliptical, 15 minutes on the treadmill, and three sets each incline bench press, shoulder press, chest curls, shoulder lift, biceps, and triceps.

Progress: Today I weighed myself and since last week, I have gone from 160 lbs. to 158 lbs.!

Breakfast: Special K with strawberries, banana, Silk Vanilla lite.

Snack: elf cookie

Lunch: Ethiopian food leftovers, an apricot yogurt.

Snack: Costco chocolate chip cookie

Dinner: bites here and there of the black beans and rice I was making.

Today I finally did something that has been nagging at me for a while. There are these two minivans parked outside my house, each with a homeless man living inside. Jose only speaks Spanish, not English. He waits on the corner with other men looking to pick up work. Steven is waiting for welfare for his cancer. He sometimes gets sympathy mechanic jobs from the Jaguar repair shop next to my house. I've known that they live on my street since I moved here in December, but it wasn't until I started biking that their situation really started getting to me. Maybe it's because I can feel how cold it is, or maybe it's because I can't avoid them by hiding in my own car as I pass them by.

Anyway, I've really wanted to help them for a while, but I don't know what to do. I know that in Los Angeles, the homeless shelters and work centers are swamped because this bad economy hits the poor first and worst. So tonight after I came home from work I knocked on Steven's window and asked if he would like some dinner. I made him black beans, rice, and included jar salsa and grated cheddar cheese. It felt good and natural to cook for him, and soberingly, something that I should have started earlier.

Maybe I'll see them once and a while and ask if they would like some dinner, but I want to help in a more substantive way. Does anyone have any ideas?