II'M TERRIBLY PROUD OF MYSELF

"Hi...I'm Brian Sullivan...and I'm a junkfood-aholic."

"Hi Brian."

My New Year's resolution for 2009, in conjunction with a contest at work, was to cut out the garbage in my diet. I couldn't see, given what truly was an addiction for me, the chances for success, but decided to give it a shot. And so on the day that our contest started (January 7), I resolved to make two changes to my lifestyle. One was to cut out my fast food intake. I defined that as McDonald's, Taco Bell, Wendy's, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Second was to cut out carbonated beverages, specifically Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and Mountain Dew. I gave it a week before the shakes and headaches and other withdrawal symptoms became too much for me.

However, I'm happy to report that for 82 days, I was able to successfully withstand the temptation of those four dining establishments and the soft drinks that I used to gleefully guzzle. The end result as March 31 arrived to herald the end of our weight-loss contest was a drop from 209.4 to 198.8 pounds.

I'm sure it could have been more, if not for two factors. One, while I made necessary cuts to my diet, I will not presume to claim that I was on a total health food kick. There were at least a half-dozen trips to the nearby ice cream shoppe for M&M Cyclones. On at least four occasions we were lazy and wound up picking up a pizza for dinner. Leftover candy from Christmas, then Valentine's Day, along with goodies from a handful of birthdays also conspired against me. Secondly, this weight loss came almost solely from cutting out the fast food and soft drinks but without the benefit of much exercise. I was probably on the treadmill in the garage four times and ran another half-dozen times along with several walks out with Katie in the stroller.

My weight actually did drop as low as 193 during the process before it settled right around the final number. But after what I'm sure is going to be a week of weakness (I'm heading out to St. Louis for the women's Final Four and I'm sure will be too cheap and hurried to do anything other than quickie meals), I plan to get right back on the horse and be even more stringent, as well as amp up the exercise. My goal by my birthday is to be down to about 180.