Well, I at least kinda started out on the right foot this morning. I did make it to the gym, which is a good thing. I did my standard (or at least what WAS my standard) morning workout: 50 crunches on the crunch machine (I really should do these on an exercise ball instead, I guess), 30 back/sides on the back/side stand (don't really know how to explain it--it stands at an angle with a brace for your feet and a pad for your hip area, and you lean over it and rise back up), reps on some of the leg machines (what I call the "gynecology" machines that do your abductor/adductor muscles of your hips and thighs, the calf press, and the quad and hamstring machines), and then 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. Since my morning workout is pretty much all machine-oriented, I should do non-machine stuff in the afternoons, such as swimming, running, biking on a real bike, etc. It all depends on what is available when I get to the gym, and how crowded it is.

The reason I said I "kinda" started out right was because my weigh-in was WRONG. I managed to gain almost half a pound between yesterday's weigh-in and today's. Probably had something to do with the pizza, beer, breaded fish fillets and tater tots I consumed over the weekend. I needed to get it out of the way, since it was my last weekend of freedom, so to speak. But it does hit on the temptations that I have to deal with. For example, we got a bunch of candy in our stockings at Christmas and brought it home with us. What do we do with it? We bought our favorite beer while we were on vacation and brought it home with us because they don't sell it in the South. What do we do with it? My sister-in-law sent pieces of her husband's birthday cake home with us because we missed his party. What do we do with it? We have all kinds of probably unhealthy food in the fridge and cupboard (Hamburger Helper, Hot Pockets, tater tots, etc). What do we do with it? This is where the self-control and portion-control issues kick in for me. It's one thing for some people to have candy around the house; they can resist the urge to scarf it all, and consume it a piece or two daily. Not me. M&Ms and Hershey's Kisses disappear by the handful when I'm around. One piece of pizza turns into four. I really need to be vigilant.

At school it won't be quite so hard. I can only eat what's available, since I really can't run out and pick anything up in the middle of the day. If I can limit what I eat to what's healthy, and also limit the amount stashed in my desk (even good things can be bad if you eat too much of them), and chew gum or suck a mint when I need something in my mouth, I might be able to restrain myself.

It was interesting to see the New Year's resolution crew at the gym this morning. Not quite as many as there have been in years past. I figured it would be packed, but there really weren't significantly more people there than there had been the last time I'd hit the gym before work (beginning of December). Maybe I'll see them this afternoon...