So I’m working on my washboard abs. Okay, that’s not true. At least not yet.

It’s not time to work on my abs right now.

But it is time to get under 260. That’s the plan this week. Saturday morning, I weighed in at a slight 261, then took the day off. I am thinking that 259 is a pretty achievable goal this week, and certainly it is time for another milestone.

What’s amazing to me is the fact that the two weeks off didn’t really hurt much at all. Granted, over those 14 days I took no more than five days off, but you would think that would be good for at least seven or eight pounds gained, right?

Wrong.

Here is something I’ve learned over the last two years: isolated screw-ups won’t really hurt the cause that much. And, I am sure, in some twisted way they might actually help you (though I can’t really explain how).

Every time I have gone through rough patches in either the 100 Days or the Fortress, I have seen minimal damage done to my weight. I’m not really talking about one or two days of eating poorly, I am talking a week or two of bad decisions that just don’t have the body-crippling effect you think they would.

With all we hear about obesity and the national movement towards losing weight and healthy living, we are all scared to death to fall off the wagon. But no one ever breaks that fear down for us. How many of us thought that slipping up on a diet meant you would do irreparable physical harm to your weight loss? I know I did, but maybe I am just dumb.

The real danger of falling off the wagon, though, is the potential mental failure. Certainly one drink will not actually kill an alcoholic. But it might make him want to start drinking regularly again. So maybe it’s all about being able to control the urges. Maybe I am lucky that I am so far into this that I don’t have to worry about never recovering from a day off.

I am, however, very familiar with the mental danger. I’ve had plenty of diets derail after a slip-up three days in. And it wasn’t until my mind was fully focused on the task of losing weight that I was able to overcome that danger. That’s also why I didn’t begin The Fortress until 16 months after I abandoned the 100 Days. In those months, my mind wandered away from being healthy. A diet wouldn’t have been really possible then.