Greetings Bears! As we move out of Daylight Savings Time and the nights grow longer, I hope everyone out there has found them a nice warm man to snuggle up with at night for the upcoming winter months. This is actually my favorite time of the year. I love the cooler weather. I guess bundling up against the cold reminds me of my childhood and all the incredible holiday foods that are just around the corner.

Unfortunately, for those of us trying to keep fit and keep the pounds off, the holidays can be a challenging time. I'm afraid my holiday eating has started a wee bit too early this year. I've been trying to maintain my diet as best I can, but for some reason I have been having the most incredible cravings for sugar. I don't know if it's purely psychological or if it has something to do with the new schedule I am keeping and my body is craving the energy yielded from simple carbs, but I have found myself ingesting far too much refined sugar the last few weeks. My delivery system of choice seems to be gummi bears. I'm sure Freud would have something to say about that. Every time I turn around I am buying a pack of gummi bears and chowing down on them. It's gotten out of hand and I can really tell the difference in my performance at the gym. I've been purposely staying away from the scale because I know this bad habit is putting the weight back on. I knew I would have moments of weakness on this quest and give in to temptation, but I was not expecting it to grip me so strongly as it has these last few weeks. But, here I am and all I can do is accept my weaknesses and learn and grow from them.

Thus, I am attempting to wrestle back control of my eating habits today. Prior to my new schedule, when I had a day off in the middle of the week, I would cook enough food on Sundays to last through Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, I would cook enough to get me through Saturday. I've tried that the last few Sundays and by Wednesday I was so tired that cooking was the last thing on my mind. So Thursday through Friday would find me eating out all the time. I simply cannot do that anymore. So today, I am cooking for the entire week. I've been going at it for the last two hours. I've got every burner on the stove going in the background right now as I type. Chicken is boiling in a pot. I'm re hydrating sun-dried tomatoes. I've got onions and garlic sauteing. In a while, I will be cranking up the oven to make an enormous egg frittata to portion out for my breakfasts for the week. My trainer is not wild about my supplementing my diet with protein shakes, so I had pulled myself off of them; but I must now incorporate them back into my daily diet. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

Until next time,


Hugs (and licks if you want 'em)

Buzzed Beef