What's YOUR "Kick-in-the-butt"?

So, after a week I would have to give myself maybe a B- on this attempt at change.


My eating has improved, although not where I need it to be. Honestly, eating during the day has been very good. My selection/choice of foods is better with oatmeal, Greek yogurt and more fruits. But my dinner and evening snacking needs some work.

What may be happening is my calorie deficit during the day is a bit too strict causing me to head for the pantry when I get home. It is also, I think, causing me to eat too much for dinner. What is sometimes happening is that I am ruining a perfectly good day of “dieting” from 7:00am to 5:00pm with less than good eating from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. I’ve been able to be a very good boy at not eating anything after dinner.

So, I am thinking I need to maybe add more GOOD stuff during the day and see if that doesn’t help me do better during the evening. We will see.

On the exercise front, not a lot of change, but I wasn’t needing a lot there. I continue to run 5 days a week, although still very “labored”. I honestly don’t expect a change on the labored front until some of the eating changes have had more of a chance to kick in and help lose some weight and improve my overall feeling.

As we all know, during these times, we ALL look for things to help, reasons to stay on track. Anything helps. It may be putting on a pair of pants that doesn’t fit well anymore. Maybe that extra belt hole does the trick. CERTAINLY a labored run does it for this guy. But as time goes on, we need to make sure that if something doesn’t jump out and smack us in the face, we look for it.

This morning I was smacked in the face.

If you have been following my life at all, you know I am 55 years old and raising my second gorgeous and perfect family, one 5 year old son and two beautiful 3 year old daughters.

This morning, my son walked out of the front door at his daycare wearing a backpack and HUGE smile, and leaped onto a school bus for his first day at kindergarten.

Although this was no doubt a far more traumatic experience for my wife, the importance was not lost on Connor’s veteran father. And neither was the fact that the REAL reason I should give a darn about my health was staring me right in the face….. From a big yellow bus window!

This perfect kid has no idea, or at least doesn’t care that his dad is pretty much the oldest dad of all his friends. All he knows is when he’s ready to wrestle, I better be ready too. Or that even though dad might rather sit in a nice lounge chair and watch T-Ball practice from the sidelines, HE wants me on the field helping to coach.

So THERE is the reason to keep this going. THERE is the added kick in the fatter-than-normal butt I need. Now, all I need to do is put the feeling I had this morning when I watched him strut to the bus, and I have right now writing about it, in my pocket and remember to pull it out tonight should I head for the pantry when I get home from work!

Wish me luck, look for YOUR kick in the butt, and lets all do what we need to do.