For as long as I can remember I have struggled with having patience. Some of that struggle is self-induced and part of it is environmental. We live in a society where instant gratification is not just expected but demanded. No one these days wants to wait for anything. Whether it be traffic on the freeway or service at a fast food restaurant we expect results to occur immediately.

Being impatient is not something I have just come to realize I’ve known I have this personality defect for quite some time and I have wanted to immediately fix it but that never seems to work. Before beginning this diet I needed to reach some sort of agreement with my subconscious that I would not freak out if I didn’t get results quickly.

That is of course easy to say before you begin something. But all of my years living with myself I knew it was never going to be that easy. The Take Shape For Life diet seemed to understand me and my insane need for results. At the end of the first week I had lost ten pounds and it felt great!

The problem with a big number like that in the first week is that you come to expect that every week. After all, I am doing the exact same thing every day so why wouldn’t I expect the same results? That is where I started to fail.

There is absolutely no way for those kinds of weight losses to continue each and every week. For one, it is not healthy to lose weight too soon. My body is going through several changes and as a result weight may not come off as quickly but I could still be making progress. That all sounds good on paper but when I stepped on the scale after the second week and saw I had only lost three pounds I was not happy.

I kept reminding myself that I was still losing weight and was getting closer to my goal even though the number was not a huge one. I remained diligent and continued to work hard to make sure that I could rebound and have a larger weight loss number for week three. You can probably imagine how that played out.

After refocusing and adding exercise to the program I lost a measly 2.5 pounds the third week? How is that even possible to have the weekly total slow down while my level of effort speeds up. To say I didn’t take it well would be an understatement. I was beginning to question whether to even continue this diet. Given the rate of diminishing returns I would actually start gaining weight as this thing progressed.

For the first time since I began this journey I questioned whether or not I could be successful. This coupled with the constant reminder of what I was missing really took its toll on my psyche. But then I came to an epiphany of sorts.

I didn’t gain all of this weight in three short weeks. It took years and years of poor eating and lifestyle choices to get me to where I was before I began this diet. Why should the weight just fall off without hard work or time passing?

This has acted as kind of a mental awakening. I looked back over pictures of myself from 1998 through 2011 and saw the slight changes that came with adding a couple of pounds here and there. I was lulled into thinking that this was a result of getting older not because of something I did.

I seemed to be content with the knowledge that I put on five or six pounds a year and didn’t really seem that motivated to move the scale in the other direction. It was easy to sit in front of the computer snacking on a bowl of ice cream or a candy bar. I thought of this as a stress reliever after a long day of work. I exercised extreme patience when it came to putting the weight on, why should I not have that same level of patience taking the weight off?

I’ve had the opportunity to interview several Major League Baseball players over the past 14 seasons and there is always one cliché that you can guarantee to get during the question and answer sessions, “The baseball season is like a marathon; not a sprint”.

I wish I had a hot dog for every time I heard that phrase but then if I did, I’d be dealing with a lot more weight loss issues that what I currently am. That same cliché that I dreaded hearing is likewise applicable to about everything in our lives. This diet is like a marathon and I too need to take it one step at a time.

Even if I don’t lose another pound on this diet I should be content that I now are more aware of how I need to approach these life changes. Oh who am I kidding, if I get on the scales on Friday morning and find out I have only lost a pound or worse didn’t lose any weight this week I am going to be freaking mad. Alas, maybe I’m not as smart as I think I am and you can’t change a lifetime of mental habits regardless of how much you should.

One of the important aspects of the Take Shape For Life diet is the small meal replacements that you eat throughout the day. A typical day consists of five of these meal replacements and something called a “Lean & Green” meal, which is a protein and fresh vegetables that are portion controlled. The meal replacements are ordered through the program and they recommend getting a month’s worth to have food on hand and to save on shipping.

So far I have placed two orders each consisting of a month’s worth of food and I have only been on the diet for three weeks. Why do I have two month’s of food you ask? Well mostly because I was clueless when it came to what the food tasted like and which items would be convenient for me to eat daily.

In the first order I went very heavy on eggs and puddings according to what is left in the box. The eggs did not set well with me and I needed to place an order quickly in order to have replacements for the eggs. The pudding on the other hand I have no idea what I was thinking. Why I thought it would be a good idea to eat pudding twice a day for a month is beyond comprehension.

You would have thought that I would have learned from the first order and did a better job of managing the meals. No, it appears that I am incapable of learning bringing truth to the old adage that you really can’t teach old dogs new tricks. That’s not entirely true, the second order I didn’t get any eggs so I did learn a little.

The second order though seems extremely heavy on chicken noodle soup, chocolate chip cookies, and brownies for whatever reason. I’ve been on the diet long enough now that I have at least tasted most of the items and can tell which ones agree with me and which ones make me gag.

Over the weekend I began reviewing the contents of what is left of the two orders and trying to understand what my meal plan should be every day. I’ve decided that walking over to the box and randomly picking a package of food usually results in bizarre meal replacements. I can’t help but think that a day of chocolate chip pancakes, a chocolate crunch bar, a chocolate shake, a chocolate mint bar, and chocolate pudding is probably not the mental reinforcement that I need to begin making healthy choices.

One of my goals in this diet is not only to lose weight but also to begin to develop the skills necessary to choose the right foods in the right portions once I have completed the program to maintain the weight loss I am trying to achieve. I can promise you that after I am off this diet if I consume that much chocolate during the day it is not going to be a healthy day of eating.

I have never been one to conform to a lot of structure or rules so the idea of having pre-defined meals at specific times is not something I am comfortable with. Adding now the idea of menu planning and pre-deciding what I will eat in a given day is an entirely foreign concept. But I realized that is going to be necessary for my long-term health goals.

At first I considered just writing down what I ate as being enough structure but as you can see from the meals above that didn’t work out too well. No I needed to be more proactive in deciding what it is that I am going to eat.

Being a techno-geek I immediately began developing requirements for some software program where I could plug in a list of possible food combinations and it would spit out a list of what I should eat each day. After looking at the problem and analyzing the ideas for an application I had to admit I was trying to kill a mosquito with an elephant gun. I didn’t need to develop software to do this; it could be done with a simple spreadsheet.

I sat down with a blank spreadsheet and listed the dates along the left column of how long I think I will be on this diet to reach my optimum weight. Next across the columns I listed the five meal replacements along with the “Lean & Green” meal.

For each day and each mealtime I entered what I thought might sound good to eat. Shortly a pattern emerged of combinations that sounded good. I quickly repeated the patterns from week to week and soon my spreadsheet was built with a meal plan for the next two months.

Once I had the sheet filled out I went in and randomly tweaked some meal replacements to break up the pattern and give variety to my diet. I made sure that puddings and cookies were not together and that each day included breakfast and lunch items to get my body in the routine of eating those meals where I didn’t before.

When all the minor adjustments had been made I added a second spreadsheet where I listed each of the menu items from the first spreadsheet one per line. There were a total of 20 different food items I had selected from the Take Shape For Life catalog. With those items listed I did a few formulas, lookup tables, and threw in a pivot table just to impress the non-geeks in the audience. The result was how many of each type of food I needed for the remainder of my weight loss portion of the diet.

I then added a column for how many of each food item I needed to get through each upcoming week and month. This was compared against the inventory and resulted in two food orders that will be placed taking into account lead-time and shipping so that I won’t run out of food during a particular month.

The result is a meal plan where everything is laid out so that I can anticipate what I will be eating during a given day. I can pull those items from the box and those that need preparation time I can take that into consideration so that I will be able to manage the meal times as well as the meal contents.

Who would have thought that a spreadsheet might hold the key to obtaining my weight loss goals? I didn’t see that on any of the advertisements for Microsoft Office.

Despite the fact that as a family we rarely if ever even watch a football game, we are like countless thousands of others that will tune in to watch the Super Bowl. I have to admit, most of those watching are doing so to see the commercials rather than the game but it’s the fact that we’re tuned in at all.

Typically we will get together with family and friends and spend the day talking sports, watching television and of course eating. Plans begin weeks in advance of the big game to find the perfect finger food that will go with football.

There will be some traditional items such as seven-layer taco dip and assorted other chips and dips. Those will be augmented with deep fried mozzarella cheese sticks dipped in marinara sauce. Plates of breaded jalapeno peppers filled with cream cheese, and an occasional vegetable tray will follow that just so you don’t feel too guilty about what you are eating.

Of course none of these things matter when you are on a diet trying to lose weight. Every tray that comes out of the oven is another reminder of how I got myself into this weight problem in the first place.

After my positive experience at the fast food restaurant yesterday I was confident that I could overcome Super Bowl Sunday as well. I have to admit though the aromas that floated through the house were intoxicating.

I began to try and justify things in my mind. Just one jalapeno popper wouldn’t hurt would it? How bad would it be if I had a few chips or a spoonful of dip? And vegetables are supposed to be a healthy alternative right?

Clearly this was going to be more difficult than I had anticipated. I tried getting my mind off food by concentrating on the game but soon I was surrounded by others with heaping plates full of snacks that I shouldn’t have.

So rather than just sitting there being tempted I took the time to stand and walk or keep myself in constant movement. I tried to occupy my time and my mind with other things such as calculating the time before Spring Training started or looking for ways to focus on non-food items.

I also tried to fill up on water. If my stomach was filled with liquid I wouldn’t be as tempted to add food. I am not sure I have ever drank that much water and I am sure I will pay the price with increased bathroom breaks in the second half.

The goal was to stay focused on the path and not on the potential pitfalls or temptations that were all around me. Before long the desires of binge eating had surpassed and I was once again relaxed and just slightly proud of myself for not deviating.

In the 24 days since I started this diet I have lost just over 16 pounds and am approximately halfway to my goal. Like a long distance runner my focus is now just putting in the miles and staying on track knowing that although the finish line is still far out of sight that with each step I am getting closer to the end.

It’s not just about losing weight now; it is about getting healthier and reversing the health issues I have been having. Each one of those empty calories I passed by today may have just allowed me to live a little longer and watch my children grow and that’s worth every sacrifice I have had to make.

One of the lessons I have learned during the first week of this diet is that whenever you can control your environment dieting is easy. What I mean is if you can somehow monitor and manage the external forces that may hinder your adherence to your diet; you stand a much better chance of success.

So far I have been pretty good at managing my diet. For the most part I have been either at work or at home so I could control what temptations were around. I’m not saying I don’t have willpower but rather why throw yourself into the middle of temptation if you don’t really have to. Still I had to wonder whether I was sticking to this because other food was out of sight/out of mind or if I was truly starting to make a difference in the food decisions I was making. Well today I was going to find that out.

Being the father of five children we never have to worry about not having something to do. Whether it is band concerts, dance performances, soccer, baseball, or in today’s instance track we seem to always be on the go. That’s ok; it gives me an excuse to be outside and at the very least I get exercise walking from the parking lot to the field.

Today though would be a bigger challenge. Our daughter Tiffany is competing in a track meet in Tucson and asked if we would go and watch her compete. I eagerly accepted without thinking through that decision. It’s not that I didn’t want to see her compete but I suddenly realized that this would be the first road trip I have made while on my diet.

I would no longer be in the comfort of my own home where I had mentally locked out all bad food choices. Instead I would be driving in a car for four hours and be in a location where we would be required to eat at a restaurant.

We had to leave fairly early to begin our trip. In the past what that meant was a quick trip to McDonalds to pick up a breakfast before jumping on the freeway and driving to the field. I would normally have a Sausage Egg McMuffin with Hash Browns and a large Orange Juice. I have to admit, it was one of my guilty pleasures. I had developed a taste for this high calorie, high fat content breakfast which made it even worse when I would be sitting in a car for two hours with no physical activity other than yelling at the other drivers who somehow forgot to engage their brains when they took the car out of park.

Today I would start my day was three small pancakes with a small amount of sugar free syrup. No offense, but that isn’t anywhere nearly as tasty as an Egg McMuffin with Has Brown. Instead of concentrated orange juice I had 32-ounces of water. Not only is that not as flavorful but it wasn’t exactly the brightest idea I had before being in a car for two hours with no rest areas along the way.

Before leaving I grabbed two meal replacement energy bars and a small bag of low calorie pretzel bites. That coupled with three bottles of water would suffice until we returned home this evening.

Obviously the food I selected would only feed me, not the family. They on the other hand didn’t want to pack anything. Instead they were looking forward to a day of not having to worry about food other than trying to decide what to get off the menu.

When we arrived in Tucson we dropped Tiffany off to begin warming up then everyone else was hungry and wanted to eat. We made the mistake of letting 2 year-old Lily select where we would have lunch and ended up at McDonalds so she could play on the toys.

I found a booth as out of the way as possible and sat while everyone ordered and returned with food. There on the table in front of me was such past food treasures as Big Macs, Filet O’Fish, Popcorn Chicken, Angus Burgers, and heaping piles of steaming French fries. This of course was washed down with highly sugared drinks that were continuously refilled.

I sat in the corner trying not to look or smell all that was going on around me. Instead I had a glass of water and one of the two energy bars that I had brought on the trip. At first it was hard to endure but after a while I filled my mind with the progress I had made and reminded myself of the 16 pounds I had lost so far.

By the end of the meal I was content and while others lamented that they ate too much and began bagging food to take with them due to the enormous portion sizes I left not hungry nor frustrated but with a new resolve not only to stay on this diet but to be just as diligent after I was done to not go back to these bad habits that I once enjoyed and instead find healthier solutions when it came to eating out of town.

Today marks the beginning of the fourth week of my diet program. I was both looking forward to and dreading getting on the scale. Has all of my hard work and dedication paid off or has my body decided enough is enough and is revolting and not taking off the weight? These are the kinds of internal struggles I now find myself dealing with. At the beginning of my diet I weighed myself on January 13th to find that I had reached an all-time high of 210 pounds. I had vowed to myself never to get above 200 and here I was 10 pounds later cursing the bathroom scale like it was the machine’s fault.

I stepped on the scale with my eyes closed saying a silent prayer to the scale gods. “Oh holy being of springs and counter measures. May your justice be swift and may your dial be slow. I pray thee oh mighty bathroom deity cleanse me of the excess weight and I shall praise thy name from the highest toilet!”

Yeah I know, sometimes I can be really eloquent as the words flow through me like a supersized value meal from McDonalds. After a loud and thunderous “AMEN!” I opened my eyes and peered down at the dial hoping for great results. The scale screamed out at me, 194.5!

This would put my total weight loss to date at just over 15 pounds. I know I should be delighted and sing the fat-going-skinny anthem and yell “IN YOUR FACE HOHOS!” but instead I find myself more than a little frustrated and unhappy.

For the week I had lost between two and three pounds. According to the medical profession this is the sign of healthy weight loss. But after losing ten pounds the first week and three pounds the second week I am beginning to see a diminishing scale of success and that frustrates me.

I’ve diligently been following the program eating five small meal replacements that although are nutritionally balanced are less tasteful than the food I regularly had been eating before this program started. My “Lean and Green” meal each night too has changed from red meat 3 times a week to one buffalo burger in 3 weeks.

I’ve carefully measured everything that goes into my body to make sure that I am following not only the spirit of the program but I’m following it to the letter of the law. I’ve been consuming eight 16-ounce glasses of water daily and subsequently been burning calories by running back and forth to the bathroom to get rid of the eight 16-ounce glasses of water.

This week I’ve added exercise to the program taking brisk walks at night to incorporate aerobics into my daily routine. As a thank you, my body has decided that it should slow down the rate of weight loss. To say I am frustrated would be an understatement.

This program is supposed to help me to not only lose weight but to create an environment of healthy choices that will lead to long-term good health. A lifetime of bad choices in food selection and lack of exercise has put me where I began this journey.

I know I shouldn’t look at a 2.5 pound loss as a failure but I still cannot help but be self critical about what I can change to get the weight loss back to 3 pounds a week. Yeah I know, it is a lousy half-pound. It equates to about 250 calories a day. That’s a candy bar or a soda or a small bag of chips. It sounds so trivial that way but in a program where you don’t have candy bars, sodas, or chips those calories have to be accounted for somehow.

My obsessive side of my personality immediately began hatching ideas of what I could do to make up for those calories. The first inclination was to cut out 250 calories a day from eating. That’s what I would have done in the past, just skip a meal and problem was solved.

Unfortunately that is part of the reason I am where I am today. It wasn’t that I was necessarily eating the wrong things (well that was part of the problem) but rather when I would eat them. I would skip breakfast, have a snack of fruit in mid-morning, skip lunch and have some crackers, chips or soda in the afternoon then eat a huge dinner followed by a large dessert. I would then stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning in front of the computer with a bowl of late night sugared cereal then sleep for four hours and start again.

That is not exactly textbook behavior for good health. In that scenario it would be easy to find 250-calorie reduction but the self-defeating behavior would still continue. In my new regime where I am eating small “meals” 5 times a day with a healthy meal of protein and vegetables in an early dinner finding 250 excess calories is quite a bit harder and would likely defeat the program. The body would go into “feast or famine” mode and begin storing rather than burning fat.

Instead I turned my attention to exercise. After getting off the scale I immediately ran to Google and began a search for “Exercise to lose 1 pound a week”. Obviously I am not the first person to use this search term as it returned countless 1,000’s of results. I learned that to lose a pound a week you needed to burn 3,500 calories more than you eat in a week. This would equate to 500 calories a day.

I immediately began searching for 500-calorie exercises. I could run an 11-minute mile, bicycle for an hour, swim for 45 minutes and many others. The problem of course is the same that I have faced my entire life – time and motivation. Where in my day am I going to find an additional hour in my day to suddenly add this intense exercise?

I had already begun to walk each evening for 30 minutes now I somehow was trying to talk myself into finding another 60 minutes to tack on to the walk with a run in order to get me the calorie expenditure I needed. And exactly who was going to come pick me up after I ran away from home for an hour every night?

This of course added to my frustration. I wanted to fix things and I wanted immediate results given the work I was putting in. Although I was seeing progress I am suddenly not content with how quickly it was coming. This wasn’t a diet problem. It wasn’t an eating problem. This was a personality problem.

My biggest opponent and the one that is most critical to what I am doing is me. Like so many other aspects of my life I am the one who is driving myself crazy over a mere half pound. It is me who has introduced additional stress of trying to solve yet another of many problems in my life. It is me who has taken a positive and suddenly turned it into a negative. All of these things I am experiencing are a microcosm of bigger problems I need to deal with in my life.

I need to be humbled and be grateful for what I have not continually want more. I need to realize that while I am accountable for the things that occur in my life many of them are outside of my control and that I need to just be content in knowing that it is not the distance I traveled or the progress I’ve made but rather the experiences I have gained as a result of the journey.

So I may not make my weight goal to be at my optimum weight by Opening Day. It may take a few weeks longer but those extra weeks should be used to be grateful that I took this journey at all. Those extra few days may teach me a life lesson that will help me overcome adversity and build stronger defenses against stumbling and falling and that should be worth the effort.

Today marks the end of the third week of being on this diet. I am one week away from my four week mark (see even when I am not playing with a full stomach I am still able to do simple mathematical problems). I’ve now started to get into a routine of eating every 2.5-3 hours. I am getting used to the powdered food that make up the meal replacements for most of the day.

I’ve become accustomed to having a protein and green vegetables for dinner and ending my day with a calorie controlled snack. I’m building a pattern of good choices and have remained committed to this eating plan to remain on track. I’m not officially supposed to weigh-in until tomorrow but I snuck on the scale this morning to see I had dropped another 2.5 pounds bringing me under 195 in a long time.

Today is also Groundhog Day. It’s an interesting holiday where the world turns to a small furry rodent who comes out of hibernation to look around for his shadow. If he does not see his shadow it is to signify an early spring. If he does see his shadow that means there will be six more weeks of winter.

As you might imagine, Groundhog Day is a rather minor holiday especially for those who live in the Sunbelt states such as Arizona where today’s weather is to be sunny and a comfortable 70 degrees. If the groundhog is suggesting that we have six more weeks of this I am completely onboard with that. Go groundhog!

In 1993 Columbia Pictures released a Harold Ramis film called Groundhog Day. For those of you who might not have seen it, the story is about a self-centered weatherman who is sent to cover Groundhog Day. After having to endure a miserable day covering the “weather-forecasting rat” the weatherman finds himself in an endless loop of reliving that day over and over.

Groundhog Day the movie is a favorite around our house and each year we celebrate the holiday by watching the movie and eating our traditional dinner consisting of ground hog. It is important to note the space between “ground” and “hog”. A lesson I have never forgotten after hearing the comedy routine of Bob & Ray.

A year never goes by that I don’t secretly wonder, what if that happened to me, what if I was stuck repeating the same day over and over and over? What would I learn? Well for one thing I would not want this to happen while I was on a diet that’s for sure.

I found myself carefully considering what exactly I would be eating today. What if I woke up in the morning and found myself repeating the day before? Would I really want to start my day off with a plate of powdered eggs that make me gag with every spoonful? Not on your life!

At one point this morning I seriously considered breaking my diet and running down to Denny for a Grand Slam breakfast followed by lobster and steak for lunch and ending the day at PF Changs for Chinese food ending with a big slice of the Great Wall of Chocolate dessert. Oh sure eating that every day would likely kill you but if I were reliving the same day over and over that wouldn’t be such a bad thing either.

Instead, I didn’t break from my routine. I had powdered pancakes, a chocolate shake, chicken noodle soup, an energy bar, shrimp with a green salad and broccoli and ended with a brownie. It wasn’t quite the same but my theory is that if I keep reliving that day over and over then by tomorrow I will have reached my target weight.

When I was first considering going on this diet I was aghast to learn that it required homework. My initial reaction was akin to the reaction Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76’ers basketball team gave when he was benched for missing practice. We’re not talking about weight loss, we’re not talking about losing weight, we’re talking about homework! Not the way I’m eating, not the food, we’re talking about homework! Yeah I know it’s not just about what kinds of food you eat. I know it’s about making a change to my health habits but we’re still talking about homework!

After a bit of soul searching and reflection I understand why there’s homework. I know that I need to learn how to make better choices and the only way to do that is to become more educated about what goes into living a healthy life. So reluctantly I picked up the Habits of Health book and began reading. To be honest, it was a lot more interesting than I had expected.

I had anticipated the text to be riddled with reminders of how my poor health choices had resulted in where I am today. I expected to be chastised much like the dentist does when he learns that your whole life does not revolve around flossing 24-hours a day. Instead I found the text to be fascinating describing the aspects of human nature and the changes in society have all empowered us to lose control of our health.

The book itself is 377 pages long and while I would not classify it as a page turner like those from Tom Clancy and John Grisham it has held my interest. My intention was to read the book from cover to cover but during my weekly discussion with my health coach Amy she was asking if I had read Chapter 14 or Chapter 1 or Chapter 2. I began to wonder if there might be some secret reading schedule with specific chapters spelled out for certain weeks.

Sure enough, Amy explained that there was an order that would help me in my journey to becoming healthier. Ok, obviously my logical side would have to relinquish the fact that this book was not a progressive story but more of a reference where I would bounce from subject to subject instead of a linear progression.

So I picked up the book and begin reading the chapters in the order Amy suggested. I have to admit, I was very confused. It seemed like the message was disjointed. Chapter 14 began discussing using movement in your life to becoming more active. Just when you started to buy into the concept the chapter ended. According to my reading schedule I was not to go to the next chapter but to instead jump back to Chapter 1. I was just not getting it.

During our last weekly call I expressed my confusion around the reading. On the other end of the conversation there was a distinct pause. I was reading the wrong book! No, are you serious? Yeah sure enough, instead of the Habits of Health I was supposed to be in the “workbook” Living a Longer Healthier Life.

So basically I am back at square one. I now have the right book to work from and in reading the first assignment it is sending me to the Habits of Health in different chapters. So like Allen Iverson I understand the importance of listening to the coach and maybe, just maybe I should practice a little more if I want to be successful in the game.

Before starting this diet program I was given homework that included reading a chapter, cleaning out the kitchen and pantry, and taking a pre-test to assess how well or how poorly my decisions have been. The test was a disaster where I actually scored negative points.

The pantry and kitchen cleaning was likewise not good. I found junk food and candy stashed in the corners and you know you just can’t let that stuff go to waste so I “took care of it”. That may be the reason why I actually started the diet three pounds heavier than I expected.

Both of those experiences feel like they occurred a lifetime ago instead of just 19 days. I look back and it’s no wonder I felt horrible about the weight I had continuously gained since high school. Bad choices piled upon bad choices resulted in a lifestyle that was far from healthy.

For all I know I may have continued that lifestyle for the rest of my life however short that may be. During an exploratory surgery where the doctor was looking for cancer I was given an ultimatum. I could either keep doing what I was doing and my body would revolt or I could make changes.

It’s hard to hear the doctor telling you things like that. I didn’t see myself as overweight. Granted I had put on some pounds but looking around it seemed like all of society did. And no offense but there are a lot of people who were substantially heavier than I was so why me?

The answer was that my body has a limited tolerance for things being out of balance. If I am 10 pounds overweight it will immediately show up in my liver as an early warning sign to take the weight off. My challenge is to learn what my body is telling me and why.

During my reading assignment before the diet they talked about potential side effects from being on this program. I had not really considered side effects from weight loss other than the obvious one that I would actually lose weight.

The text outlined several things that could result when I go on the diet. The first was a metallic taste in my mouth. At the time I had no idea what in the world they were talking about. It wasn’t like I would be sucking on loose change or something.

The metallic taste is actually a result of the sugar substitutes contained in some foods or condiments such as sugarless syrup or some of the diet foods in the program. Increasing the number of times you brush your teeth can treat this side effect. Who knew that better dental hygiene could be a diet side effect?

I’m ok with increasing the number of daily brushings as long as it doesn’t also include more flossing. As my dentist will tell you, I suck at flossing despite the value that it provides.

The side effect that I had not anticipated and the one that is the most troubling to me is the fact that I cannot seem to stay warm. My hands and feet seem to always be cold despite the warm temperatures.

I grew up living in Idaho where each winter there would be stretches where the temperatures never got above zero. I cursed the cold each winter so when we decided to relocate “warm weather” was at the top of the wish list.

At the time I remember Trina saying that we could not possibly find a place that would be too warm. I’m sure that there have been a few times when the outside temperature during the summer reached 115 degrees that she questioned her assumption.

So while the high temperatures during the day have been in the mid-70’s to low-80’s I have found myself bundled up in my Arizona Diamondbacks sweatshirt blowing on my hands trying to get warm. Maybe I should have waited to start this diet until June when it was 110 outside. No, I still think I would be cold but at least there is less of me to shiver now than before I started this diet.

Sometimes you start a tradition and do not really think through the implications of what it may mean down the road. When our oldest daughter graduated from high school we wanted to reward he by taking a family trip. At the time it seemed like a great way to recognize this accomplishment in her life.

We decided to allow her to select where we would go on the trip. Without hesitation she exclaimed, “Walt Disney World!” Well who are we to argue with a trip to see Mickey Mouse and friends? Plans were made and we made the trip.

When our second daughter became a senior she immediately began asking if she too would get a “senior trip”. We agreed and before my head even stopped nodding she had already decided that she too wanted to go to Walt Disney World.

Now with our youngest daughter entering her final semester of high school thoughts are beginning to turn to graduation but even more importantly to that ritual that has become the “senior trip”. I broached the subject today and although I already knew the answer to the question I had to ask, where did she want to go for her trip? As expected the answer was Walt Disney World.

I gave my approval and almost immediately the plans began to be made. Where would we stay, how long would the trip be, who would be available to go, and was dad going to pick up all the expenses (I thought that last part was a valid question but everyone stared at me like I was from another planet; of course dad would be paying).

It was interesting though. When the decision was being made that we would indeed go, each of the kids had the very same question and approached me individually to ask. “What are you going to do about your diet?”

I thought that was an interesting question. Rather than assuming that I would just blow the diet and have fun on vacation they have begun to realize that learning a healthy lifestyle is important and they wanted to make sure that my needs would be taken care of.

With the progress I have made in just the first two weeks I plan to go the distance until I reach my desired weight. If progress goes as planned, I should hit my target approximately mid-March. This would give me eight weeks to transition from the regimented eating plan I am currently on to one I will manage myself watching caloric intake, food choices, and portion sizing.

The goal will be to be in full weight maintenance mode by the time we go to Orlando. And maybe for the first time in a very long time I won’t mind being in front of the camera having pictures taken while on vacation rather than hiding behind the lens just so I don’t have to be reminded that I had let my weight get somewhat out of control.

Yeah, I think it is safe to assume that this transformation is working and that I am seeing lifestyle changes that I plan to adhere to for the rest of my life. So while I may eat a frozen Mickey ice cream bar during our trip I anticipate have a lot more vegetables and fruits than on past vacations and to be honest I am looking forward to that.

An important part of my diet is eating five small “meals” a day along with one “Lean and Green” meal consisting of a healthy protein and vegetables. The five small meals come from a catalog of food whichI ordered when I started the program.

The problem of course is that never having been on a diet nor knowing what any of this food tasted like I had no way to know whether the things I was choosing were good or not so good. During the first two weeks of being on this diet it has been a giant science experiment to see what I would or would not eat.

Now I am two weeks into the four-week initial order and I have to pay for some of my early mistakes in program food selection. My first realization is that I bought WAY too many eggs. My initial assumption that eggs are eggs regardless of whether they come in egg form or power form was severely mistaken. These powdered eggs have the consistency of scrambled rubber bands with a clinical after taste.

Within a week I went from begin able to tolerate the taste to an exercise in managing my gag reflex so I don’t spew rubber eggs across the kitchen. Granted that’s not a visual I wanted to paint and I am further worried that throwing up rubber eggs may be dangerous as I am not completely sure they would not act like Wham-o Super Balls and if my childhood taught me anything its that you can lose an eye if your not careful releasing too much kinetic energy.

I’m in the process of returning the unused portion of my egg order (I was tempted to return the used portion as well but thought that might not be a great idea). This has left me short two weeks of breakfasts that I need to somehow replace.

I am now getting to the point of running out of things that have proven more popular than I first expected. I am completely out of the energy bars. The chocolate and chocolate mint crunch bars are actually very good but now I am out of those so I will have to do without them the next couple of weeks until I reorder.

I have also seen the chicken noodle soup, pancakes, and brownies boxes become empty leaving me short those as well. With two weeks still remaining on this first month’s order I wondered what I would end up eating?

A quick survey shows I have three kinds of pudding left including chocolate, vanilla, and banana. I have half a box left of Dutch chocolate shake and orange crème shakes so the combination of the two will last another week.

I have another box of chicken noodle soup and a few portions of chicken and rice so it would appear that I am set for the remainder of the month for lunches. I have a limited number of pretzel sticks and pizza cheese snacks that I can have one each of those every other day. Finally I have a partial box of chocolate chip cookies and brownies that I can eat.

As I gaze down into the box I have to wonder whether it was me or put this order together or a five year old boy? Seriously I am out of breakfast but I have an abundance of cookies, pudding, and chocolate shakes? Clearly I still need to work on making proper food choices.