Dieting is a real pain in the gut.

I hate dieting. But, no two ways about it, I need to lose some poundage. According to a “height/weight “chart I found, my weight is ideal if I were just five inches taller. So, with encouragement from my wife, I’m trying to watch what I eat so I can start working my way toward having less of me around.

The problem is, I’ve always been able to eat what I wanted without an appreciable gain in weight. As I’ve approached the age of 50, that’s changed and I have to be more careful.

When I was reporting on a daily basis, I usually didn’t eat but once a day. My day usually started around 3:30 and when I was anchoring in the morning and then reporting, I was usually just trying to get to a story and get it done. Lolly gagging around meant I would end up being at the station for a 12-hour day. My rush-rush attitude usually didn’t endear me to the videographer I was working with since he or she generally came in during more normal hours than I did and wanted to take a lunch break. You can’t blame someone for that. Quitting smoking on my 40^th birthday didn’t help my weight either.

So now I’m fighting the battle of the bulge.

You really don’t have to be a scientist to figure out that there is a simple “cause and effect” situation going on here. The simple fact of the matter is that if you want to lose weight, you have to eat less or burn more calories. It’s hard to exercise and burn off the fat you carry without reducing your intake to help burn that fat. Fad diets don’t work in the long term although they may help kick start your weight loss. Once you get to your target weight, then you need to eat a balanced diet and exercise on a regular basis.

If you are serious about losing weight you learn a lot about what goes into your body. Things I’ve learned: Three and a half ounces of dry white wine have 70-calories. A non-light beer has 150 calories. Beer does not go well with carrot sticks and wine does not go well with celery. Oatmeal doesn’t go well with anything.
But we’re trying.

The problem is, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and it appears to be a train. On January 20th, I’m emceeing Opera Memphis’ Wild Game Dinner fundraiser. Imagine a starving man being turned loose in a banquet hall filled with food prepared by gourmet chefs. Oh the humanity. Thank goodness for cummerbunds. I’ll keep you posted.