It is Friday morning and as I review my eating over the week I can proudly state that it is the best week I have had in a very long time. Here is what gets me, I have tried me best to record every calorie I have eaten or burned into MFP. What is scary, is on some days where I feel I ate smart and healthy—I still pushed 2500-3000 calories. While that seems like such a high number to me (it is too high), I just think if I weren’t tracking the calories and limiting what I eat—I could be eating 5 or 6 thousand calories without batting an eye. Here is where insanity plays into my previous failures. I always looked at myself as genetically being disadvantaged for weight loss. After all, several people in my family are overweight and so am I. I would ask myself—why am I not losing weight when I so active. I exercise a great deal during a week. This week I have had an epiphany to realize that I’m overweight due to my choices not due to my genes. This week I’m exercising hard and eating clean and I’m getting the negative net calories I would want each day. Yet, if I were eating how I previously ate—scientifically it would be easy to see that I’m simply taking in more calories than I can burn. A coworker told me once that it is impossible to out work a bad diet. I have debated that statement for a long time but I’m starting to realize—yes it may be impossible. More importantly, I have learned that if I eat good (I emphasize good and not great or perfect), I’m going to lose weight. The challenge for me is to eat good.

Overall, I’m happy with my week. I had some really tough temptations that while appearing to be insignificant—they were big to me. My wife made cookies one day and those are my weakness. I have fallen off the wagon more than once thinking I’m eating well enough to justify a cookie. I eat one and it is like a slippery slope where I start finding it easier and easier to snack. To my wife’s credit she halved the batch so there wouldn’t be extras lying around. To my credit, I almost took one—and resisted and am thrilled thinking about that victory. There have been a few moments like that this week. Another small victory for me is that I have been pretty good at exercising. I have been to a couple of spinning classes and I have swum twice and lifted weights. I have also played basketball a couple of times and felt more energy during these games. In fact, on Wednesday I got up at 5am and went spinning, lifting and swimming and was back before 8am. That was the best feeling I had all week. If I’m to continue doing this—I have to get to sleep. The last two nights I was up past midnight.

The best part of the week is I have lost some weight. I’m down ten pounds which is not unusual for me when I eat well as I exercise so much. I’m making sure I continue to lift weight and drink a lot of water to ensure I feel full. Now my challenge is the weekend. Weekends have no structure and I’m not close to my PC. It is going to be hard to be disciplined for my first weekend and yet, I keep thinking—if I can be strong for a couple of weeks—it will become a habit. I’m going with my family out of town—so wish me luck.