Day 5 - Shouldn't have had that Chicken Stir-Fry

Welcome to Day 5.  I weighed in at 254.2 this morning.  That's 1.2 down from yesterday and 9.2 overall.  Hopefully, by this time next week I'll be under 250 and on my way to tackling 240. 

A couple of my co-workers decided they were going to go to a Teriyaki place for lunch and invited me along.  I wasn't going to eat anything, but wasn't able to grab my lunch I brought before we left so I was pretty hungry.  I got the Chicken Stir-fry with white rice.  It was really good, and I figured it couldn't be that bad for me considering it's a stir-fry, but I sure don't feel great right now.  Let's hope it's the sodium from the teriyaki making me feel worse.  I knew I should stay away, but it looked really good and was certainly healthier than most of the menu. 

This is probably a good time to confess the biggest obstacle I've ever had to getting my ideal body.  Once I actually start doing the things I know I need to do to get in shape, I've always been able to drop body fat and build muscle pretty easily.  Then I'll get to a point where I'm feeling much better about myself internally and externally and decide it's ok to let off the gas a little.  It might start with a burger, a slice of pizza or a drink.  But I wind up getting stuck in the "just one meal isn't going to kill me" mentality.  And it's true.  One meal or drink won't kill you.  However, when that one meal doesn't make you feel like crap and you use that as internal justification for doing it again, you end up in the same place you started.  Fortunately, I'm nowhere near feeling good about the way I look and feel so the odds of this meal leading to any type of relapse is remote.  But it's always in the back of my mind.  Many diet strategies will advise you to "cheat" once a week or so.  The thinking is that you'll not miss the foods you love most and therefore be less likely to fall back into the habits.  That's never worked for me.  I do best when I never cheat.  You train your body to eat a certain way, and eventually, it doesn't crave those other foods.  Another way to look at it is this: The way you eat is a habit, typically formed over many years.  Often we become somewhat addicted to certain types of food.  Our body becomes accustomed to them and you'll sometimes find yourself physically craving something even though you know it's not good for you.  This may sound extreme, but what's the difference between that and a tobacco, drug or alcohol dependency?  Have any of you ever heard of a rehab clinic that tells their clients "throw down a couple shots on Sunday, and you should be good for the rest of the week" or "Just snort one line on the weekend when you're not at work so you don't have to worry about needing it during the week"?  I haven't.  Food, sloth and the race for the easy fix has turned our society overweight to the degree it's now an epidemic.  Yet we're still treating it as a small change to our routine that we can take a momentary reprieve from at will and then we wonder why so many people experience the yo-yo effect.

Alright, I'll get off that soap box for now. 

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, I did take my oldest son to his pediatrician yesterday.  It was a really good appointment.  We went over his medical history, his behavioral history, home life, etc..  While her and I don't share the same opinion of whether or not ADHD is over-diagnosed (She's a doctor, so I consider it intelligent to defer to her opinion on that for the time being.  At least until I author some type of case-study or something with my Ivy league-educated medical staff.  That might be a little bit down the road; or never.)  We do share an opinion with treating it when it is properly diagnosed.  She looks at how the disorder is effecting the child's self-esteem, social life and academics.  If it's not causing a negative impact on any of those things she sees no reason to pursue any type of aggressive treatment.  However, if it is negatively imapacting those things (as it is already with my son) we can discuss possible treatments.  She gave me two questionnaires to have filled out.  One is for me and the other for his kindergarten teacher.  Once those are completed we'll go back, review the answers and discuss what we're going to do from there.  So we shall see.

I can't think of a whole lot more to write at the moment.  This weekend should be full of cleaning the house and watching the NFL playoffs.  However, I'll be sure to update this.  Hopefully I'll be able to get both boys to take a nap at the same time and can sit down and relax for a minute and do that.  As any parent of young children can surely attest, getting multiple kids to actually take a nap at the same time is disturbingly satisfying.  The whole house goes quiet.  Then, a while later.... you hear a cry.  Then, a second later, you hear another... and it gets louder as you realize it's you... because the peace is gone until bedtime.