Christmas Holiday

A few years ago I was making excellent progress on a diet for the first time. I tried Michael Thurmond's 6 Week Body Makeover. I followed the diet and exercise plan for 8 weeks with no cheating and no deviations. I ate 6 times a day, tiny mini-meals with 2 oz. of protein and each one. I spent an 2 - 3 hours each week preparing and organizing meals so I could follow the diet while working on the road.

At the time I was working as a claims adjuster in the field. I spent 8-10 hours each day alone in my car driving from house to house and inspecting damage. I ate breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks in my car. The temptation to pull through a McDonald's or other fast food restaurant was sometimes overwhelming. Some days I would count the number of Taco Bell's I passed when working on the road. Spending so much time in the car also means that my meals were eaten cold. No microwave in the car.

My meals consisted of 2 oz of cold chicken or beef with raw veggies and cold rice or a boiled egg with a piece of fruit. For those 8 weeks I gave up my beloved soda, all caffeine, processed sugar and alcohol. I ate beef more often than I was used to and I missed bread and cheese more than I could ever have expected.

So for 2 months things were going great. I felt better, I exercised and I was energetic. During that time I lost 30 pounds and was very pleased with my success.

The trouble started when I went home for the holidays. You see my family all lives in Florida. At the time I was residing in Atlanta. I did OK on the 7 hour drive home by myself. I even took a cooler of meat and veggies so that I would be able to prepare my meals. I was determined to stick with my diet even during the holidays. I was so confident I could do it.

There were 2 problems I didn't consider
1. The stress of my family and having to divide my time to make sure I visited everyone with an equal amount of time and attention was exhausting. When I'm stressed I reach for the caffeine and sugar combo. All it took was one sip of an ice cold Coke and I remembered what I'd been missing. The rush of that first soda reminded me how I'd survived college and my teen years - fueling up on soda and putting off sleep for days at a time.

2. The same exhausting effort that caused the stress made it impossible for me to prepare the foods I brought with me. I spent no time at one single place, no time in the kitchen to cook and portion my meals. I ended up with a cooler full of food that was going bad and grabbing meals at restaurants and family dinners. While I was there I tried to keep to the mini-meals for frequency and portion size.

The drive home proved the most troublesome. After a week of constantly being around people (I'm a bit of a loner by nature) I was ready for some time alone. I turned the radio up and sang along. I also reached for a soda and a bag of cheese curls at my first stop for gas.

That was my big mistake. Cheese curls and soda are the best junk for a road trip and I caved. I caved to the craving and the emotional comfort of those foods. I never went back to the diet.



The sad thing is that I could have gotten home and gotten back on the diet without any real problem. You see even though I went back to my old habits I kept that weight off for almost 6 months. At about that time I started to feel the weight creeping back up but I let being busy and my previous failure stop me from getting my act together. 6 months after that I'd gained all the weight back plus 5 pounds. I didn't even bother to try dieting the next Christmas holiday.