On August 11 I hit my all time low weight of 217.2, the next day I went on vacation. I came home and on August 20th found an additional 12 pounds had clung to me while spending time in Alaska. I did enjoy the meals (and desserts and milkshakes) on board the ship! It has been approximately 2.5 months since I returned home and I have not been able to get back down to that magical 217.2 (which coincidentally is exactly the 100 lbs lost mark for me. I reached 218.0 last week, just .8 away from getting back to feel good status. Then this last week comes up, this week where I vowed to eat better, exercise more, be more active and all that jazz.

But none of that jazz happened this last week. I didn't get to the gym once this last week! I ate like an emaciated velociraptor for the first few days of the week, anything and everything in sight!
I ATE DONUTS!!! I hadn't had a donut in probably 4 years, I always liked them, but they were never a 'gotta have it' type of food item for me. Then last Sunday some donuts got brought into the house and I had half of a chocolate glazed one and it was on! I think I ate 8 donuts between Sunday and Monday! Good Lord, It was like watching a horror movie! On both days that I was eating donuts, I seemed to be eating everything else that looked good. I wasn't eating to just be eating mind you, I was sincerely feeling deep, painful hunger. I believe it was psychologically triggered by the donuts because I can easily go 36 hours with no food without feeling the empty pit of the stomach hunger pangs I was getting.

With that being said, I think I may experiment every once in while with a single donut type item. I believe the problem stemmed from not having had a donut for so long and the smell and taste brought up memories of workday mornings long since past with the pretty pink box full of doughy sweetness. I think the first bite of donut triggered a release of endorphins, because I felt pretty good all day, as long as I periodically stopped by the pink box to grab another 'taste'. The sad thing is that my favorite donut treat wasn't even in the box, the mighty Apple Fritter.

So I feel I have 2 choices here, either avoid donuts (as I had done for around 4 years with ravaging consequences) or occasionally visit a donut shop and purchase one Apple Fritter and leave to consume it elsewhere (somewhere where there are no innocent donuts to fall prey to my donut triggered Mr. Hyde personality switch). I think this will work to keep me from ever again being triggered like a dough loving Manchurian Candidate.

Now aside from the donut story I think it was apparent that I didn't have a great week. But on the other hand I had a good week. How can I say that? How can this be true? Well, after all was said and done and I got on the scale on Saturday, my weight was exactly the same as it was the previous week. Wed, Thurs and Fri I ate clean and light and drank tons of water. Had I gone to the gym, I probably would have posted a loss and maybe even gotten back to my magic 100 lb mark. But I did not do those things and I can't change it now.

Here's the numbers.

Weight : 218.0
Lost : 0
Total : 99.2

Overall, after everything I did (and ate) I am pleased to have walked away from this week only psychologically scarred. Now I can vow to do better this week! (again) Talk is cheap, I need to do the things that need to be done, not talk about them.

So everyone, get out there and have yourselves one fantastic week!

Ken Heaston
Since 1970