"The Weighing Is the Hardest Part"

Or, "What I've Been Doing Since My Last Post"

I've needed to lose some weight for awhile, and by "some weight" I mean about 50-60 pounds... roughly 1/4 of myself. I had tried the Atkins approach before and had some success (losing roughly 20 lbs in six weeks), but once I fell off the no carb wagon, I rapidly put the 20 lbs. back on after a few helpings of potatoes. If man cannot live on bread alone, what makes Dr. Atkins (may he rest in peace) think man can live on bacon and rabbit food alone.

So here I was on January 22, 2006, back from a week of gorging myself on queso in Austin and looking for a sensible way to change my eating habits without being forced to give up the lifeblood of any self-respecting Irishman or adopt the eating habits of primitive man.

I decided to return to a site of a former failure. CalorieKing.com I had attempted to keep track of calories in the past, but had been unsuccessful sticking with it. I would get tired of toting around my little book made from office-supplied materials and jotting down my caloric intake day after day. This time, I downloaded their trial software, so I could keep track of what I was doing in the comfort of my little Macintosh world. Plus, it gives me fat, carb, protein, and fiber content in addition to caloric information. The database of foods included is truly stupefying, so I can usually find what I need and simply drag the item into my daily intake window. After two and a half weeks, I can see that I tend to like things that have fat in them. Imagine that. I am routinely close to or slightly above my daily allotted fat intake while I usually lag behind in the protein department. The whole exercise has been very eye-opening, and speaking of exercise, it'll keep track of that too.

Anyway, if I can trust our little bathroom scale (and that's a big IF), I have managed to shed eight pounds in two and a half weeks. At that rate, I should find myself getting to where I need to be in another.... oh, four months. I suppose it would help if I ramped up the exercise regiment a little, and by "ramped up" I mean started, of course.

I realize that some of our loyal handful of readers will be taken aback by the confessional nature of this post, but as somebody once said, "Confession is good for the soul." Now, let's see if it does anything for love handles.