Father's Day Fit

I spoke earlier on the blog about my using Lent to get control of my habits, and of my weight issues.  That worked really well for me, right up until Lent ended.  It was then that I realized that my efforts were based on pillars of sand.  

I was looking to really change my diet – not in the “I’m on a diet for a few weeks” style, but try to make fundamental changes to my eating habits, and my exercise habits.  For six weeks they worked, but Easter came, and out came the excuses.  First, it was Easter, with the chocolate and the release of Lenten promises.  Then came a wedding, and my birthday, and those made for reasons to eat outside of my new norm.

But that was only a week, and I could totally have recovered.  But then the quarter close came at work – these come four times a year, and require a lot of focused effort and energy, and also a lot of time – 12-16 hour days for 7-10 days are not unusual.  So I tend to eat dinner (sometimes all three meals) at the office, and I’m not known for making the best decision when I’m tired and faced with lots of food items I enjoy.  This cycle was particularly bad, as we had multiple birthdays, baby showers, farewell celebrations, etc. that put temptation in front of me on a regular basis.   

After that, I went on vacation for a week, and thought I would use this as a time to do less eating and more workouts.  Thanks (in part) to a pulled muscle a few days before vacation, that didn’t work out on the workout side, and the experience of travel (and the desire for freedom that comes with it) left my menu plans in the dust (with no criticism to my wife, who was trying to help me at every turn).

While I have demonstrated an ability to say “No Thank you” on many occasions, this time, I lacked the will for the last month.  All of the weight that I managed to lose ahead of Easter has piled back on, and I’m unhappily back over 200 pounds.  I feel disappointed, angry, and a bit helpless (which I know is not true).  

Do I have a plan?  Of course I do (don’t I always)?  Now that the quarter is over, and I’m fresh from vacation, I’m going into this next month with all good intentions.  Scheduling more exercise, carving out time in my calendar for it at work, adding more strength and core exercises, and truly limiting my caloric intake (doing a ‘hard stop’ at 1500 calories – meaning if I hit that limit, I’m done eating for the day).   It’s going to require discipline, which I know I have if I put my mind to it. 

The one conflict is that I know that I need to commit to this for a long period of time (think 6-12 months), but that idea is exhausting.  Thinking day-to-day doesn’t work for me; it gives me the excuse of ‘missing one day isn’t a big deal’, so I’m going to put this back into that same six week horizon that seemed to work last time (than book six more weeks after that, etc.).  So starting today, I would need to stick to it through about June 19^th, which is the day of the 5K I’m directing.  So while I thought this would be about Re-Lent, maybe “Father’s Day Fit” has a better ring to it.