The Football Fan’s Diet

By Matt DeReno
On the FFD

PITTSBURGH – So I have won again on the FFD even though I showed a slight gain in weight the past two days. How then could I be rewarded? Because I am still under my average weight for last week.

This built-in forgiveness is feature that is really nice about this new scoring system. In case you missed most of what this blog is about, The Football Fan’s Diet is sort of like a Weight Watcher’s for men.

Instead of attributing point values for certain food items, we dole out touchdowns and field goals. We compete against ourselves. We give ourselves a victory if we win a week. We track our record over a season with the idea of winning the Super Bowl of health.

Recently, I tweaked the FFD scoring system to simply reward myself for beating my weight average from the week before (though it should be noted the beauty of the FFD is that you can devise your own rules for earning touchdowns and giving them up). See our rules for more details.

So now with the new system in place, I have to beat my last week’s weight average. Yes, this means I have to weigh myself everyday but I am staying on top of my weight by doing so. I have also noticed when I weigh myself, I usually watch what I eat. It is almost like that weight number on the scale is a reminder of how much I have to loose.

What happened today is that I got a touchdown because I am still under that average from last week. Even though I could have surely ate better yesterday, there was still no junk food at night. Yes, I showed a slight gain, but today I have an opportunity to be really healthy and make up for it. To keep that average going down.

On the old system, I would have chalked up a loss for yesterday. Any slight gain is to give up points on the old system. A losing day seems to beget more losing days and then it all seems hopeless. Could a tweak in how I record my scores, result in me actually sticking with The FFD and losing weight? Or is it merely creative weight accounting? Those are legitimate questions for sure.

As tenuous as the weight loss psyche can be, I am inclined to believe that what keeps one motivated can keep one going. There is no creative weigh to record weight and be under that last week’s average. That will be the true test. And, by extension of this scoring system, it will get more and more difficult each progressive week.

Nevertheless, I won 4 days in a row now; 4 consecutive days I have been under that average. I am now inspired to hit the gym and keep it going.

The motivating factors are really in place with this system. When I think back to weeks where there were major events approaching, I was bummed out because in all likelihood it meant a loss on that day.

This system sort of means I can bust my but to keep that average going down for the week and then on the major event day, one so-called lax day of beer and grub might not even matter.

In short, the caloric transgressions of that event will simply have been mitigated across six days of ass kicking at the gym.

Now that is inspiring.

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – I won’t belabor the point because on a Tuesday, things are usually smooth sailing for me health wise. As testament, I chalked up another wining day yesterday. However, it is the end of the week that presents the biggest challenge.

As it is now, I took a day off from exercise yesterday but it was well needed if not outright deserved. Today, I will get in about a half hour of walking—at least. Maybe more, if I walk the dog. Even more than that, if the dog walks me. The nice thing is we have the Super Bowl too look forward to this weekend.

As the Super Bowl approaches, I can only dream about what commitment, dedication and passion it takes to hoist the Lombardi. But, like the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts – dreams are formed in training camp. And so to it goes with health.

You have to work hard in camp if you want good things to happen. If you want to be healthy, it starts with practicing each day. Practice makes perfect. Practice enough and you develop skill. Work hard enough at that skill, you will be a champion.

For the record, The Football Fan’s Diet is pulling for the New Orleans Saints. My prediction is for a close Super Bowl. New Orleans 35 – Indianapolis 28.

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – I won’t belabor the point. This week the game is moving much too fast to think about how I dropped the ball yesterday. I could only watch as my Inner Fat Slob took it in for a score.

I am now losing the week 20-13. The momentum has clearly swung. The game is tough again.

However, the ball is back in my possession. I have to pull myself up and start gaining positive yards. I won’t elaborate about how I plan to do it. I just have to do it.

To me at least half the battle of weight loss is often one of recovery. When you do go off the healthy path, how far did you go? How long will stay off it? This is an issue that I struggle with. Because, when I go off the path, it is incredibly difficult for me to get back on it.

The parallels to football are amazing in that respect. How many times have you seen your favorite NFL team just give up an easy score after they built a comfortable lead? Next thing you know, the swagger goes to the other team and you all you can do at this point is hope to hang on for a win. It goes to prove a point: no lead is too comfortable.

Anybody remember Buffalo Bills backup QB Frank Reich orchestrating a historic comeback win against the Houston Oilers in an AFC wild card game in 1993?

To be exact, it was January 3, 1993. Buffalo was getting trounced by the Houston Oilers 35-3. I was still in college, home on break, thinking that it was Houston’s year to hoist the Lombardi. They had all the right pieces: Hall-of-Famer Warren Moon at QB; a trio of excellent receivers in Ernest Givens, Haywood Jeffries and Curtis Duncan; Lorenzo White totted the pigskin. This was their year. How could they lose? Somehow, they did just that.

I recall watching the contest on the small kitchen TV in my parent’s home in disbelief as Bills came roaring back in the second half of this lopsided game. Frank Reich began throwing darts and the momentum turned at first into a trickle, then into a tidal wave.

At the end of the day Reich finished the game with 21 of 34 pass completions for 289 yards and 4 touchdowns, with 1 interception. Andre Reed had 8 catches for 136 yards and 3 touchdowns.

What stats will I have at the end of the week? How do I get the momentum on my side? How can I be like Frank Reich on that cold January day? How can I rally the troops? How can I get back on track?

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – I must admit I had a few false starts here in the new year. However, the quasi-week of holidays is now over. This is the first real first week and if it sounds like I am coming up with a bit of revisionist history to justify straying off the healthy lifestyle path after New Year’s Even and New Year’s Day, I am.

Granted it was a zero sum sort of week in terms of dieting and getting back into physical shape. But, I want to start out of the gate fast and not hindered by a holiday on this new season of dieting. I am hoping then there is no excuse next week for blowing the Football Fan’s Diet.

For now, I’ll take this as Week 1. I should wind this thing up sometime in July. I am going with a much more simplified Game Day Objective but not an easier one. I aim to minimize brew if not eliminate it altogether. In an ideal scenario, my next beer will be sometime in July if not later.

Is that insane? Can I do that? I believe if I can, then I will surely get to my goal of 185. This will be far easier said then done but nothing worthwhile ever was. So the whistle is blown on the New Year. It is a cold Monday. I just dropped my daughter off at her freezing bus stop and I have the ball. What will I do with it? What will you do with it? It is time to make health and dieting a priority in our lives. We need a diet we can live with fellas. I truly believe the Football Fan’s Diet is the ticket.

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – Last week was another pathetic effort on my part. I lost and barely noticed. I suppose if there is any good to be taken out of what looks to be a debacle of a preseason it is that the FFD does not lie. If I don’t score well, it is clearly because I have decided to ignore health and exercise. And, The FFD is serving to remind me of what I need to do and how far off the beaten path I have stumbled. I didn’t just stumble off the beaten path. Rather I was bushwhacked along it.

You see when I look at all the poor pathetic scores and see how this is now—count’em—4 preseason losses in a row, it means I have essentially mailed it in. However, I will not start over.
It is the preseason. The only danger of becoming the Tennessee Titans, whom coming off the heels of a great 2008 campaign have just flat out sucked to date in 2009, is to string together this sort of sad effort at the beginning of the regular season, when it counts.
That being said, no good NFL team with Super Bowl aspirations would mail it in like my team has done in the past month on the FFD. Yes, there have been moments of success, but those moments are few and far between. How then can I get it back?
I can at least start by winning this last week of preseason. If I can do that, then I can head into the regular season on a winning note. Maybe then, my slow start will be a thing of the past. Maybe then I will figure out how to beat my Inner Fat Slob during what is arguably the time of the year when the Inner Fat Slob plays its best game: The Holidays.

Well, time to get mentally prepared. The regular season looms as large as my jelly belly! I plan to play Ebenezer Scrooge to the Ghost of Fat Asses Past! You can bet my Dickens on that promise. Time to get this thing going the right way.

Last 2 weeks of preseason box scores (I am not proud of this at all…)

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – The Steelers were able to finally finish a game, but man, they almost lost in the end. One minute they looked like world beaters and the next, they looked like the Cleveland Browns. They better learn to play football in the fourth quarter or it is going to be a painful season. I can relate.

After my first Preseason Week on the FFD, I couldn’t finish in the end. I was going strong for 6 days and then it all collapsed. The culprit was the various string of events that killed me. I drank far too much beer and ate far too much grub. We had football all weekend and even an early fall Halloween party. It was a lot of fun, but it cost me in the end. So, I lost. Oh well, I better learn how to figure this out or it is going to be a very painful season, much like the Steelers.

I won’t dwell on my shortcomings, I’ll just work on getting better. And so the first week on The FFD was a loss.