All Over Again

The month of October was an interesting one for me because I spent most of it engaged in a serious diet. The Game On diet was more of a test of willpower, because I had to forgo favorite staples of my diet like sugar and alcohol and bread and eat a whole lot of vegetables and other good stuff.

On October 1, I weighed in at 167.8 pounds and I hoped to get down to 160 by the end of the month. It wasn't easy; I was constantly confronted with temptation at work in the form of pizza, cake and our office Halloween party, which was chock full of candy and other goodies. Game On isn't just a diet, it's a team challenge, so we got points for sticking to our meals and were penalized for any slip-ups. We had to get at least seven hours of sleep a night (which meant I had to start going to bed earlier), drink 3 liters of water a day and take up a good new habit while giving up an old one. You can have a free meal and a day off from the whole thing each week, but the trick was not to go overboard and blow the gains you'd made all week.

I'm glad to say I was good in the face of all the candy and beer and other stuff and finished the four weeks at 153.0, which is the lightest I'd been in over a decade. My team won the challenge and then we took two weeks off, which coincided with Halloween itself. Deb and I stuck to the meals for the most part, but I did indulge in Halloween candy, desserts and beer. When it was time to start up again for round 2 this week, I weighed 157.2, although a few of those pounds were due to overdoing it a bit on Saturday night. As of this morning, I'd already dropped four pounds. Amazing what a little discipline can do. Deb has also been pleased with the results of the game and is enthused about this round, although we're now on different teams.

The benefits were immediately noticeable for me. I shed the flab around my midsection, I can wear clothes that were too tight a few months ago and I just feel better. And I can feel the difference when I'm running. In September when I did Reach the Beach, I was struggling to run 8-minute miles when a year earlier I was much faster. Even my regular runs were in the 8:30 range. Now I've got more jump, which makes sense since I'm not carrying around those extra 15 pounds. I've got a couple of races scheduled in the next few weeks and I'm excited to see how I'll do.

The goal this time around is to get down to the mid-140s, where I haven't been since the mid-'90s. It's encouraging to know that doing something as simple as changing what you eat can make such a difference. For years, I've eaten somewhat healthily and gotten plenty of exercise, but it would be difficult to shed pounds. Now I know I really have to sacrifice certain things to get results. And this doesn't mean I'm giving up beer, because I'm looking forward to having a few this weekend. There's also the matter of Thanksgiving coming up next week, but I can deal with it.