For the New Year, Slowly Sliding Down the Mountain

I have spent over a month, about a week before Thanksgiving to be more or less exact, eating too many large meals of lots of the good things that are bad and not exercising much, like not at all.  I also had to admit I did it pretty much on purpose.

It was the holidays and food is part of the fun.  I wanted to overeat and goof off. I did and I think I did it pretty well.  For the record, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Now it's time to get back on the training train again.  I got up at my accustomed 5:00 am, tested my fasting blood glucose, weighed in and got back on the bike.  All in all, it could have been much worse and it all felt pretty good to get back on my routine.  Breakfast was again my usual oatmeal and fruit.  Lunch was some leftovers of the proper proportions (quarter protein, quarter starch, half vegetables.  Dinner will be a bowl of easy to make veggie chili.  No snacks and I may even have a small slice of the Charming Mrs. SWMBO's very tasty cherry cheesecake.  Or not.

To be honest, I am tired of eating too much and in particular too many rich foods. I have had my fill and I feel better already just getting back into the routine. Also, the damage was not too bad.

The Numbers for Today

•  Fasting Blood Glucose:  119 mg/dl.  More than a bit high, but that's mostly from the late night pizza and beer.  
• Weight:  192 lbs.  I thought it was going to be worse.  I am up about three or four pounds and that is pretty typical for the holidays. 
• Exercise:  45 minutes on the bike.  It was cold this morning and I had every temptation to stay in the warm bed.  I got up and put on the cold weather exercise togs the Charming Mrs. SWMBO gave me for Christmas and I stayed very comfortable.  This year is also warmer than the last two years and that will make it easier to get up and get out for a ride.  
• Mood:  7.5.  Overall pretty darn good.  The damage was less than I thought.  

Menu for the Day

• Breakfast:  Oatmeal with craisins and soy milk, banana and a Texas ruby red Rio Star grapefruit, choke full of naringenin to burn fat and lower blood pressure and full of vitamin C for cure about everything.  It also tastes good, which is why I eat it. 
• Lunch:  Black-eyed peas, brown rice, ham and cole slaw.  Here in the South we have a tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's day for luck and cabbage for wealth.  So far, I haven't noticed any fortune from consuming either, but hedging my bets can't hurt and it does taste good.  This will be the third day in a row eating this combination.  In 2012, I think I am going to need all of the help I can get. 
• Dinner:  Southwest Four Bean Veggie Chili and a salad. I also had a slice of the cheesecake.  Gotta wean myself off of the bad stuff, no cold turkey.

Major Thought for the Day and the Year

This from Ta-Nehisi Coates, an editor at the Atlantic. He did not go on a diet; he just changed the way he ate, tweaked it a bit, really.  Eight years later, he had " lost roughly a quarter of myself."  No miracle diet plan , no dramatic weight loss, no surgery, no yo-yoing up and down, just a long slow slide down the obesity mountain, as he calls it.  The changes were slow developing, but the changes just became part of his life.  They settled in.

As the old cliche says, slow and steady wins the race.  Yes he would have liked to dropped the weight faster -- man, I understand that, but key thing is that he kept at it. He did it the right way and the weight is staying off.  Weight loss is not so much a diet plan as change in behavior and sometimes it just takes a while to work it all out.