Day 20: The Witching Hour

Morning was the standard, and soon-to-be iconic, Atkins bar. 

The way my day in work unfolded, however gave rise to a lot of stress. I was asked to create a document describing a very complicated proposal to solve a very complicated problem – and only had a few hours to do it. 

I suddenly wanted some comfort food.

I ignored my salmon chowder and went to the store for some low sodium bologna and low carb bread. A sandwich was my lunch – and I ate while emails came in to further ruin my Friday – one had ‘YIKES!’ in the subject line – it was that kind of afternoon.

I took the document home to finish it up, and left work to start on my hour commute. 

Then I went back because I forgot my food in the fridge – the cleaning staff purges the fridge each Friday to avoid the science experiments that unintentionally gather in office refrigerators.

Arriving home late, I get a call from my wife, who is wrangling a herd of trick-or-treaters, to come pick them up because they were tired and cold.

I run out to search the streets to find them, but not before picking up the dog crap our aged dog deposited on the living room floor.

Later, back at the house with the kids, my wife asked me to cook up some impromptu fried spaghetti for them. Fried spaghetti is a hit with the family – and a classic comfort food from my youth. Take leftover pasta, fry in butter, add parm cheese and some garlic powder and you’ve got a meal. I’ve made a low carb version of this, but the kids got the high-carb version. I added some chicken strips from the freezer and some diced fresh tomatoes, and the meal was done in about 10 minutes.

I drank some wine while I cooked, and the kids when through their mountains of candy, gobbling down some while trading pieces with each other, each maximizing their favorites.

The soon forgot the fried pasta on the stove, having their fill, and the house was full of candies, glazed donuts, and brownies.

Then, in less than an hour, I tore in to all of them.

Let’s be adult here: I could rationalize that my day somehow led me to scarf down candies, but then I cede contol to forces outside my control. I’m forever helpless if I do that. Nope – I ate the candies. No one to bleme but myself. I might have failed on this particular day, but I still maintain ultimate control over myself – not that I showed any particular control during the carbfest I had, but taking responsibility puts me in control – and tomorrow is another day.

I think my success in keeping off 65 lbs. for 4 years comes more from taking responsibility for my failures than taking pride in my success. Really, I’m no Superman – I just keep on trying and don’t give up.

So the damage? Today I’m 206.0 – up 1.6 lbs from yesterday, for a total loss of 8.0 lbs. from the start.