WHAT I ATE TODAY
Meal 1
2 cups of cheerios
1 ½ cup of skim milk
Calories: 320
Fat: 0 grams

Meal 2
1 cup of vegetable soup
Calories: 120
Fat: .5 grams

Meal 3
2 slices of wheat bread
2 slices of lowfat turkey
Calories: 200
Fat: 4 grams

Meal 4
A big salad with lots of stuff in it
Calories: Approximately 700
Fat: Approximately 8 grams

Meal 5
1 fat-free yogurt
1 apple
Calories: 150
Fat: 0 grams

Meal 6
2 slices of wheat bread
2 slices of lowfat turkey
Calories: 200
Fat: 4 grams

Total Calories: 1,690
Total Fat: 16.5 grams

Exercise: Finally! After an unexplained 6-day absence, I made it back to the gym and did the typical elliptical workout of 30 minutes, burning 530 calories according to the machine. However, I can feel that the actual lifting of weights is growing closer and closer. I’ll let you know when I am ready to do that.

THE REAL REASON I BROUGHT YOU HERE TODAY

So I weighed in Thursday morning and saw pretty much what I expected: 275.4. Yep, I gained 1.4 pounds over the last week. Not surprising in the least bit, as I have struggled mightily with focus over that span. For some reason, I just didn’t have the will-power to do the things I was supposed to do.

When I weighed in at 274 last Thursday, I went to bed dreaming of 272 by Sunday. Though I went to the gym on Friday, I started a brief decline in healthy eating from that point.

In the interest of full and total honesty, which at times seems like a bad idea from my end, I will disclose the full error of my ways over that time. I am doing this so you can see what a fuckup I was, and how one slip can turn into a three-day binge.

Friday
Went grocery shopping, which is a great thing, but also very dangerous. Back when I was young, my mother would go grocery shopping every two weeks. She would buy a few really good things and then a bunch of stuff I would never touch. Of course I spent the two or three days immediately after her grocery trip eating every single delicious item she bought, thereby leaving the stuff I hated for the other 12 days before our fridge would get a refill.

Well, I haven’t broken that habit so much. So on Friday, when I spent $90 on groceries that were supposed to last me two weeks, I came home and started in on two weight-watchers meals (one of my favorite low-calorie indulgences). A few hours later, I lost the willpower and went for the other two that I bought. Oh, and I also ate a can of Chef Boyardee’s low-fat ravioli (must be a new product, since I saw it for the first time Friday. However its mere existence makes me a little giddy). All in all, I could fool myself by saying that all this stuff was acceptable on the diet. However, even a simpleton like me knows that if you eat five microwave dinners in one night, you probably aren’t going to wake up healthier the next morning.