Weight Watchin'

This gentleman is Grady Jackson, defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions. He and I have a lot in common.

I can't pull off a mustard colored velvet jumpsuit (I wish I could, believe me), take on two 300 pound offensive lineman at once, and from what I can tell from this photo, Grady drives a much fancier car than me.

No, Grady and I both have issues with keeping out weight under control. Grady's weight gain may be on a grander scale- an ESPN article said that Grady "is listed at 350 pounds, but appears much larger" (Ouch!), but I too have trouble keeping the scale at a level at which I'm comfortable. It's pretty stressful to try to maintain a low weight, and I don't even have to deal with getting fined by my NFL franchise for every pound overweight I am at the morning weigh in! No wonder Grady felt pressure to use the banned substance "StarCaps" to drop some tonnage...he's only human! LEAVE GRADY JACKSON ALONE!

Okay, back to me. Now, I could bellyache and blame my weight on my slow-as-molasses metabolism (thanks Mom & Dad). impotently pissing and moaning- cursing evolution for making this way as I've done so many times before, or I could do something about it.

Now, I've had varying degrees of success losing weight since my college days (I will eventually summon the courage to post a picture of myself from college. My friend Tom recently said I was like "Mega Panek"), but the weight always seems to sneak back up on me and make me all soft and puffy. Now, let's see...what's been a constant vice in my life the past, oh, 13 years?

Could it be a certain calorie-laden substance that lowers my inhibitions and increases the likelihood of me spontaneously breaking out goofy white boy dance moves every 7 days??? Yup, it's the booze.

Today I was thinking about how many calories I must put down on some weekends, and it's pretty staggering to think of it in those terms. Even when I have an evening of "light" drinking ("priming the engine", remember?), I really like to drink Belgian beer and other heavy brews...Michelob Ultra they ain't. I'd venture to say that a night of moderate drinking (in my terms, anyway) would equate to a roughly the caloric equivalent of an average sized Thanksgiving dinner, with a Boston creme pie thrown in for good measure. All the spin classes in the world aren't gonna burn that off.

So, I'm pretty confident that my drinking hiatus will help me to melt off some unsightly pounds, which is definitely a motivation for me to succeed. Nothing quite like having the ole trousers fiting a little bit more loosely to make you feel like a million bucks! I hope that my introspective look at the overindulgences in my life will help me become a bit more moderate...I'm pretty sure it will.

If not, guess I'll be shopping for a new mustard velvet jumpsuit!

Well folks, that's about it for now. Feeling fairly crappy today (after hitting 30, the hangovers tend to last for 2 days), so I think I'm gonna start my month off one week early...no sense putting it off any more. Time to DO WORK!