Day 17

Well, I survived the Christmas party. The food was okay for me (salad, soup, chicken, veggies). Only the dessert was a no-no, so I took a bite, played with it for a bit, and left it on my plate. Dancing with my wife was fun! Lots of good exercise (if you do more than simply shuffle your feet). As Caroline reported, I was out there quite a bit, and seemed to have enough energy to keep up. By the way, did you ever notice those dudes who have absolutely no rhythm? I tried once, and couldn't get my body to miss the beat like they can. Don't get me wrong, I won't win "So You Think You Can Dance" or anything, but being that far off the beat is tough!

Parties are also traditionally over-populated with alcohol. Not for me. As George Costanza once said in an episode of Seinfeld, "There's no way wine is better than Pepsi". I stuck to Pepsi (Diet), and water.

Today was another challenge. An out-of-town business meeting. In preparation for the likelihood of eating too much, I started the day by shovelling the snow off my driveway. Not really my choice, but I'll take credit for it. On the flight, I made sure to skip the breakfast which was undoubtedly some fatty danish or something. In fact, I wouldn't even look at it. Okay, so I fell asleep, kill me!

At the meeting, I had a glass of juice and a low-fat muffin (made out of low-fat cardboard) while I listened to the speaker. At lunch, we were taken into the main dining room, and let loose to attack the buffet. Yes, an all-you-can-eat buffet! This was my chance to shine...

I took a salad plate and dug into the salad side of the buffet, filling quite a bit of my plate. Then I went to the veggie section, and loaded up some more. By the time I got to the fattening part, there was very little room on my plate. You see, I used my salad plate for my entire meal. There were huge dinner plates as well, but I figured if my plate filled up, I would trick myself into feeling satisfied with the amount of food I had. Brains AND good looks. Now, there's a winning combination!

When it came to dessert (and I LOVE desserts!), there was an entire table filled with cakes, pudding, tarts, cookies, etc. I found the section with rich, fattening, chocolate sauce and fruit for dipping into it. Yes, you guessed it, I loaded up on the fruit and skipped the sauce. I did, however, treat myself to a single cookie as well.

On the flight home, they served a boxed meal that contained a bun sandwich, cheese, and a cookie. I took the ham out of the bun, and wrapped it around the cheese and ate that (one of my rules is that EVERY sandwich has cheese). Then I put the cookie into my pocket to bring home for one of my boys.

All in all, a pretty good trip. Tomorrow I head out again, so we'll see how creative I can be with room service....

Day 17
Current Weight: 198
Weight Lost To Date: 8

The scale is still my friend. I don't expect much, but the fact that it's still slowly displaying lower numbers is very comforting. I'm sure I'll hit some plateaus, and even some hills, but I think I'm on the right track.

For those of you kind enough to leave your thoughts/comments/advice, I thank you! It really does make a difference. For those that haven't, it's really quite simple. Just click the "comments" link at the end of the blog entry you want to comment on, and type your message in the edit box. Then, unless you have a Google Account, simply select the radio button beside "nickname" and give yourself a name (although your parents might be sad if you don't use your real one, since they gave it to you and I'm sure they thought very deeply about it). If you're really shy, just click the "anonymous" option. This would also work if your real name happens to be "anonymous", but then I'll have to take back the part I wrote about your parents thinking deeply about naming you. Then post it. It's that simple.

Don