The Football Fan’s Diet

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – Friday is here and with it is a gorgeous weekend weather outlook for Pittsburgh. I have to do something to take advantage of that. Perchance, the dust covered bag of golf clubs seemed to beckon me from the corner of our garage this morning. Say, 72 degrees, sunny outside. Is there a better time to lose golf balls?

Okay, I know I should be talking about football, but, man, football season—the real NFL season—is still a good bit away. Nonetheless, there was talk earlier this week about this year’s 2009 NFL schedule. It gave me goose bumps. Even a whiff of football is good.

I had a remarkably productive day yesterday. It may be attributed to this procrastination tip I stumbled upon. It said in terms of putting things off, think instead that you “want” to do something instead of you “have” to do something. Also, it said, don’t expect perfection. Allow yourself to be human. Then, it advised, schedule your fun time first and then put in all that other stuff in between.

I gave it a shot and what do you know? I got a heck of lot done yesterday. The same advice could be appropriate for getting healthy. Allow yourself to be human. If you stumble, get back up. The only real way to lose is to quit. Don’t expect perfection. Schedule your fun first too. If you want to go to happy hour and slam a couple brews, schedule that first. Then, plan out how you are going to compensate for your caloric Tomfoolery.

Sometimes being human and rolling with it, has its pluses. For instance, earlier this week, I order a toasty roast beef and cheddar sandwich at Quiznos. When the oven gave birth to my lunch meat mash-up, it was turkey instead of the roast beef. The kind lady at the register realized I ordered a roast beef. But, I was like “no problem, I like the turkey just as much.” Problem solved. However, after she thought a second (maybe because I didn’t bitch) she said “give that man an “oops card.”

An “oops card” gets me a free lunch next time I am at the joint, which is quite often. That got me thinking that if you are nice to people in general, then you deserve an “oops card” too. If you screw up your plans to get healthy, give yourself an “oops card” and get right back on it as soon as you can. You deserve it. You didn’t bitch. You simply acknowledged that you fell off the healthy wagon.

On a different subject, I noticed something at the Y lately too. There are noticeably less and less people there when the weather is nice. Good for them. I hope they are enjoying it. I hope that instead of the Y, these absentees are out running in the sun. Oh, jeez, the sun shining in the Burgh. It just doesn’t happen that much around here. Around here, it is as rare as a total eclipse. But, enough about Pittsburgh’s solar shortcomings and how lonely I am at the Y now: how have you been lately? How are your plans to be healthy going? Are you procrastinating? Did you quit? Or, are you going strong? Are you getting enough sun?

I stumbled two weeks in a row, but now I am feeling as if I am getting back that magic. My swagger had been jacked, to borrow a phrase, but it is back. I feel as if my legs are awakening again. They were awake this morning. They wanted to run. The past two weeks, that was not the case and in that time span, I lost twice.

On the whole, I am 7-2. Not too bad. But, I still got a long ways to go. The road will not get any easier with the nice weather and all it will bring. The trick will be to keep that in mind as the sun shines, as my mind wonders at the lonely Y, and as I find every more ways to put off what needs doing now. Well, now I am off to Quiznos with my “Oops card.” Oops. What the hell did I do with it? Son of a B!

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