Another Year, Another Diet

My weight loss: 5 pounds
Dallas: 7 pounds

Every female in my office is on some sort of diet. The holidays do that to us. We eat with abandon from Thanksgiving until New Year's Eve and on January 2nd, we open our closet doors to find that our wardrobe has become the enemy. Ask Oprah. She knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

As you turn into my subdivision, there is a nice new gym on the corner and lately, the parking lot is full, all of the time. I received a text from a friend of mine the other night asking me to join her for a "Body pump" class. I had to decline, of course, because I am existing on 500 calories a day and I was afraid that anything strenuous beyond say...breathing, might send me straight for my secret stash of chocolate. So far, the truffles and I have been able to coexist peacefully and I haven't been the slightest bit tempted but the situation is tenuous at best. I am fully cognizant of the limitations of my willpower.

Another good friend of ours has been at the gym the last two nights, as well. He smokes, drinks Crown and eats these:

And he is as skinny as a rail. Apparently, he is concerned about a few extra pounds that he accumulated over the holidays so the last couple of nights have found him on the treadmill running for nearly 25 minutes. I'm impressed, actually. When I was a smoker, I was content to do weight bearing exercise but anything in the cardiovascular arena had me coughing, wheezing, red-faced and generally behaving like a future emphysema patient.

The big business of a "New Year, New You" theme has bled over into television, too. NBC kicked off their 7th season of "The Biggest Loser" last night. Dallas is not a big fan of the show but I find it strangely compelling in spite of Jillian, one of the trainers, who sets my teeth on edge. Near the end of the show, all of the contestants have to weigh in. Sometimes the formula strays but basically, the people who lose the least get sent home. One man dropped 32 pounds - in a single week. Of course, he's got a couple of hundred pounds to lose but the guy has got to feel better and that is why I like the show. In spite of the melodrama (or maybe secretly because of it), I find myself cheering them on.

So, January is here and like a lot of people, I am motivated to find my inner fit self. I was going to say that I didn't necessarily want to be thin as much as I wanted to be healthy but I wouldn't want to start off the New Year with a BIG FAT LIE.