Lee's Wednesday Weigh-in: Week 2

I learned to play blackjack when I was a toddler. My grandmother thought it would be an effective way to teach me how to add. It was. Along the way, I also learned all the rules and nuances of blackjack. By the time I was five, I knew when to double down and what cards to split. Of course, I might have also become slightly addicted along the way. I first played in Vegas when I was 16. And over the course of the last nine years, with the exception of one magical weekend in Vegas, I have done nothing but lose. It was the course of these years – when the money was on the table – that I learned that breaking even isn’t all that bad.

Unless you are some kind of MIT genius card-counter, nobody comes out ahead in Vegas every time. Most people lose, and everyone is thrilled just to break even. Similarly, no one on a diet loses weight every week. It doesn’t take a lot – a Chipotle burrito here, a double cheeseburger there – to really mess up a dieter. And yet, that’s exactly what I did this past week. Over the course of about thirty hours last weekend, I ate a Chipotle burrito, went out drinking, ate a double cheeseburger, then ate steak, followed by cake. Eating like that is how a thin person becomes fat.

So basically, the way I ate during the first part of the week was like catching a bad shoe of cards. I really wanted to play my cards right, but never even had the opportunity because the deck was stacked. I’m absolutely screwed. But then, half way through the shoe, the cards turn. The table gets hot. I split when I can, double-down at will, work my tail off. By the end of the shoe, I’ve seen the worst cards possible and the best cards possible, but I still broke even.

And so, on this week, I would be happy just to break even. Following my weekend of bingeing, I busted my ass harder than I ever have. I put together a new workout that makes me sweat so hard that I look like I’ve stepped out of a swimming pool. I got back to eating relatively healthy. And when cake was again put on the table, I simply sampled.

The hard work paid off. Half a week of gluttony followed by half a being on the program resulted in a push: no weight gained, no weight lost.

If only I did that well in Vegas.

Starting Weight: 212
Week 1 Weight: 208
Week 2 Weight: 208