ABC-7’s Leonard Martinez Joins Battle Of Bulge

Week 1 ending Feb. 19.

This feels like dj vu all over again – or something like that.

To support Jennifer, I’m embarking on my own eating lifestyle change (I prefer not to call it a diet). See, I’ve done this before – several times. It’s been successful and I’ve gained all the weight back and a few more. A few years ago I even chronicled the six-month South Beach diet experiment, along with two colleagues, at the newspaper.

I lost weight, breathing wasn’t as labored and dayum, was I cute. But like anything, all the effort it takes to keep the lifestyle change got to be too much. Let’s just call it what it is – I got lazy and then one election night I went down the rabbit hole with I don’t know how many pizza slices.

And the weight went back up.

Think of me as Oprah without the billions of dollars and no booklist. But if I see you, I’m just as apt to give you something for free. “AND YOU GET HASHBROWNS AND YOU GET A BREAKFAST SANDWICH AND YOU GET A HAMBURGER!!!”

My problem is and always has been fast food. It’s the convenience of it all. I saw “supersize Me” and it scared me straight for a few weeks.

But now I know the changes need to be permanent because as you get older, the consequences of bad eating habits get worse and it gets harder to fix them. Just think, wasn’t it easier to lose 10 pounds in your 20s than in your 30s?

I need to change because my blood pressure became an issue recently. It wasn’t sky-high-let’s-call-an-ambulance-for-him-in-the-grocery-store aisle high. But it was enough to concern the doctor. I was advised to give up caffeine and sodium. The caffeine was easy enough and I was off my half a can of soda a day fix for a couple weeks. Then some stressful, tiring days at work meant I had to jump off the wagon. The sodium has been easier, except when I decide I want potato chips.

So, since november I’ve eaten less fast food, eaten smaller portions at all meals and practiced intermittent fasting. It’s helped me go from 224 pounds to 210. My goal during Jennifer’s sugar detox is to eliminate fast food, eat healthier and be more consistent with my exercise. I will also try as hard as I can to eat paleo – ie, only eat what a caveman would have been able to eat.

Parking the furthest away from the front door office shouldn’t be the longest walk of the day.

My first week of this lifestyle change, was, well, a failure. When a buddy needs to talk late at night about a business problem, it seems to go better over a couple of breakfast taquitos and light lemonade.

Then there was Saturday night. I went to a friend’s baby shower and there was loads of delicious food. The wings were pretty healthy, but the nachos and cake, washed down with the Throwback Pepsi with real sugar weren’t good choices.

It’s the beginning of week two and my breakfast consists of a Frusion strawberry-banana smoothie and a Diet Coke. Here’s to new beginnings.

My friends and I have a thing about taking pictures of our meals so you will see me post several pictures of my meals – good or bad.