Well, it’s not been the easiest month for the old diet. In addition to lots of birthday dinners and Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl, I am also very weak-willed and sometimes find myself sabotaging the whole effort, seemingly on purpose.
Has this every happened to you? You’re holding the bag of potato chips. You know you should put it down, that you had too many when you had the first one, but somewhere deep inside you say, “I don’t care. I’m eating some chips.”
Congratulations — you’re human. And I’m human, too. After a total weight loss of 15 pounds, I backslid and gained back two or three. And it wasn’t just the eating that got me there. I definitely slowed down my workouts, too.
But a funny thing happened on my way back to morbid obesity: I stopped. It’s as much psychological as it is physical. I felt bad about not working out. I felt bad about not watching what I ate. So I reversed field again and started back on the right track.
For a diet to really work, it can’t just be a diet. You have to want it for lots of reasons. I have health concerns and I have vanity and I have this project for work and all of them revolve around making me healthier. But life isn’t just about weight loss or building muscle — there’s lots of eating and hanging out with friends and relaxing, too. Eliminate those things and no matter how healthy you get, you won’t be happy.
So, I’m back on track and I’m willing to bet this train will run through a few slices of pizza and handfuls of potato chips and tall glasses of cold beer, though I hope there are more long expanses of vegetables and water and lean fish in between.
