Back in my Clydesdale days, I took a look at what I ate and was able to make small changes that, by themselves didn't seem significant but really had an impact collectively.

I remember switching from margarine to fruit spread on my morning bagel or toast. Taking the stairs as a matter of habit over the elevator. It really added up.

As a side note, you've said before that you were in the military. I would have guessed that you would have to have quite a bit of discipline from that?

In any event, good luck. Stay focused and you will succeed. Don't let momentary lapses throw you off the path, either. They're just annoying crosswinds.

I've had much luck with the South Beach “Lifestyle” (ne, diet, 'cause lord knows I can't afford to be anywhere near South Beach.) …Anyway, we all fight our personal demons. I've recently taken to using a method my brother and his wife used with one of their more rather ADD kids: they gave her a wrist watch and set the timer to go off every 30 minutes. The purpose of this was to constantly remind her of the passing of time, in order to keep her focused on whatever task was at hand. It was only in the past two weeks that I realized I can apply this same method to keep me focused on things such as hydration, diet, posture, or whatever little part of our lives “slothfulness” tends to invade. Personally, I can be really good at cleaning the house, but actually “keeping” it clean is another matter… for some reason I'm always surprised when the toilet needs scrubbing, yet again. I mean, haven't I've already cleaned the toilet once? WTF? Why have I gotta do it again?

Keep at it, dude. I lost 80 pounds doing the South Beach thing. I have integrated that lifestyle in and out of my life over the last 5 years or so and have pretty much kept it off (with a 10 pound allowance for winter/holiday season) and have staved off a lifetime prescription of Gout medicine for at least this long.

stomach . I love learning the lingo, although there is one bit of cycling parlance that bugs me…sit bones. They're called “ischial tuberosities”. Or at least, I wish people would say “butt bones”. I mean really, no one ever says “I'd like to try these new shoes on my walk bones”, or I'm typing with my “typing bones”.

Rant over.

I have all the same problems on this post. I do the work, but don't put much effort into controlling the diet. It totally sucks that big improvements can be made without the diet improving.

I'm going to fix this properly after my charity ride in March. And it'll be small changes like above. Cut/change one thing a week. This seems like the most manageable solution to me. Let's see how my self-discipline is.