OnePhatMan

First, the boring part: several people have had trouble seeing all of the site because of a combination of limitations with Internet Explorer’s rendering of pictures within a style sheet, and their screen resolution being set low. I’ve modified the style file for the site, so anything that formerly would have forced itself on top of the right sidebar will now go behind it. Text should still wrap and be readable, but any big pictures should go to the background.

I’ve been asked if I intend to continue using Friday as a junk food day. For those who don’t know, Friday is the day I eat most any unhealthy thing I want, anything I’ve maybe been craving during the week. For example, this past Friday, I had fish sticks and tater tots. Why? Because I saw them on TV earlier in the week and they looked good. Rather than running out and getting some right then, as I might have done back in the days when I was much larger, I made a mental note to have them on Friday.

And then I did.

Junk food day serves a good purpose that way. It lets you deal with any cravings you have during the other six days by providing an outlet, a way to say to yourself I can have that, just not right now. It makes it easier not to cheat yourself and eat unhealthy (which can lead to guilt and a binge) when you have a special time set aside to eat whatever you want.

A junk day also serves a second good purpose: it reminds you how eating crappy food makes you feel. I guarantee you if you eat good natural foods for six days, then on the seventh you pig out on processed unnatural things, you’ll understand. You walk around for hours feeling like you have a bowling ball in your stomach. Your workout the next morning seems sluggish, and it’s hard to keep up your normal effort because of the sludge in your veins and digestive tract. And speaking of your digestive tract, it shows you what foods with little redeeming nutritional value and no fiber turn into on their way through you.

So why would I do that to myself?

Because it keeps me from eating things like fish sticks and tater tots regularly. When I was losing the 171 pounds, it was a piece of figurative cake not to eat any unhealthy foods. I was driven then, on a mission. I wanted to prove to the world that it was possible.

Near the end of that mission, I decided to try the junk food thing, because I was having the occasional temptation. I found something out when I did: I still enjoy the taste of junk. Could I eat it every day? Sure, but I remember where doing that got me. See, there’s the problem with eating it every day—you don’t feel the bowling ball, you don’t feel the sluggish, because you’re used to it and you probably don’t eat as much of it as you would on a single junk day. You don’t feel crappy because you don’t know what it feels like to feel great.

Junk day, for me, is an extreme reminder of what that food will do to me. I get to enjoy the hell out of it (because I still like the taste) when I’m eating it—like the doughnuts I had from Publix Friday morning for breakfast—but I also get the painful reminder of how much worse I feel physically after I ate them. I also know that if I only do it once a week, I’m not going to undo the other six days.

Pleasure and pain, baby. Remember that? You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around, that’s what it’s all about.

So the short answer, after all that wind-blowing is that yes, I intend to keep having junk food Fridays.

Unless—here’s the catch—it’s not working. Remember, the big secret to getting anything you want out of life is to set a goal, and work toward it. If you find that what you’re doing isn’t working, you modify your approach and you try again. Stick with it, and you’ll get what you want.

So if I ever think that, contrary to what I believe about one day of bad screwing up six days of good, junk day is keeping me from what I want, you better believe I’ll drop that bad boy in a second. Because as good as it tastes, nothing is worth my health. I know what it feels like to be a little overweight, fat, and even morbidly obese, and I don’t ever want to feel like that again.

Life’s far too important for that.

Given that it’s been a while since I’ve written for this site, there may be questions you have for me, or things you’d like me to write about in the future. By all means, let me know. Please do it via the contact page (there’s a form there, or just email me) instead of using the comments.

I went for a hike on Monte Sano mountain yesterday, and for the first time ever, I went up the hardest trail there—my favorite trail, the Waterline—twice. I thought I was going to pass out the second time, and my legs were spaghetti when I finished, but I did it. Sometimes I wish we had taller mountains here.

Remember, unless you push yourself to find out what you’re capable of, you’ll never know what sorts of things you can accomplish.

How have you pushed yourself today?

health, diet, fitness, workouts, exercise, weight, weight+loss, junk+food