Confessions of a cheater

That’s right, I’m a big, fat cheater. Actually, not much of one, but I have strayed from some of my initial Trim to Win goals.

One promise I made to myself was I would give up diet soda. I did, until late Sunday evening. Preparing entries for the annual Alaska Press Club contest I was in our “morgue” until late going through a year’s worth of newspapers. And no, although the press has the reputation of knowing where all the bodies are buried, we don’t have an actual morgue at the Frontiersman. The “morgue” is a small room where we keep bound editions of our newspaper since its first issue Sept. 17, 1947.

Anyway, having trouble keeping my eyes open (and I’m not a coffee drinker), I broke down and bought two cans of Diet Dr. Pepper from the company vending machine. I drank those sodas, and admit I enjoyed them. It was a treat I hadn’t had for a couple of weeks. That was followed by a week of not going to the gym.

I still feel motivated — in fact, except for the sodas, some and some lasagna a few days ago, my diet has been much improved. I’m not eating the bad stuff from fast-food restaurants (although I was really tempted the other day when someone in the newsroom was cruel enough to bring French fries into the building. The smell was torture).

And I do feel somewhat better, and know I’d feel even better still if I were more active about it. I felt good after my first few workouts, but I’ll be honest, when you’re as out of shape as I am, it’s humbling to have your body tell you (scream at you, more like it) that you can’t do the things you could a few years ago. An early version of Greg Johnson (Greg 1.0) played a lot of football, lifted a lot of weights and was used to working hard, whether it was in the gym or around the house. The fantasies I had about working out like Greg 1.0 did are just that — fantasies.

I also haven’t blogged, and I apologize for that. Like Charles Barkley, I don’t purport to be a role model here. What I will do is be honest about the experience. If it’s not going well, I’ll tell you. If it is, I’ll tell you.

So given all this, you may wonder if I’m really with the program. I am. In fact, I am more active every day and, with the exceptions of Diet Dr. Pepper Sunday, all the water I’ve been drinking has really made a difference. Take away more frequent bathroom visits, I just feel better and I’m enjoying eating some of the good foods I haven’t had for awhile.

And the news isn’t all bad. I’ll tell you about a small improvement I enjoyed this week. On Wednesday, I wore a pair of pants I had never worn before because I had mistakenly bought a size too small and just hadn’t taken it back. Well, on that day I wore that air of pants. It wasn’t a perfect but they were on.

This coming week my goal is to overcome my greatest obstacle — my procrastination. I’m the world’s greatest procrastinator. In fact, you can help me. At the end of this blog, I’m going to give you my cell phone. I have this phone with me at all times. Each Sunday, I’ll post a blog with a few small goal I want to accomplish for that week. Feel free to call and nag the stuffing out of me to make sure I do it. OK, here’s the first list:

• Make my follow-up doctor appointments on Monday. It’s been three weeks and I haven’t done it yet. I will make the appointment Monday and see him by Friday.

• Get back in the gym on my regular schedule (which was four days a week: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday). I’m prepared to suffer at the hands of the trainer I stood up. I may not be a successful dieter all the time, but I do fess up and will face the music.

• Have something for breakfast every day this week. This is the hardest for me, and our advertising director gave me a great tip: have a SlimFast or some other meal substitute. It’s easy, fast and I’ll probably have more success with that than trying to cook or plan extra meals every day.

OK, that’s enough. Here’s the number: 355-0290.

Later, Winners!