My Body's a Carnival

The holidays were wild this year. I felt like I lived one of those lives you see in movies about 80s Wall Street idiots, just constantly snorting drugs, drinking martinis, not sleeping. Except I didn't do drugs and I don't have the kind of money they did.

I'm just me, fueled by coffee, trying not to think about how many miles I'm driving or how few hours I'm sleeping.

Madison for work November 18th-21st,
Survivor Series in Chicago the 22nd-25th,
Thanksgiving last week of November,
Puerto Rico for work the first week of December,
followed by Ron Swanika on the 6th (a drinking and steak holiday my friends celebrate),
put up Christmas on the 7th and 8th,
The Get Up Kids concert on the 10th,
babysit the niece on the 12th, hangout with the brother on the 13th,
Columbia the weekend of the 20th, all the Dobyns family Christmas stuff the 24th,
friends in town the weekend 27th-29th,
New Years Eve with some good friends,
take the decorations down the 1st barely getting to enjoy them,
Christmas with the Hickles at the lake the 3rd-5th.

I guess what I'm saying is I spent a 5 week period treating my body like a dangerous church carnival covered in mud, beer, cotton candy, half eaten hot dogs, and rats. And like the church carnivals I attended as a kid, Jesus was only found when saying a prayer before riding the Tilt-a-whirl operated by a drunk carny.

I somehow didn't gain a single pound... but I certainly didn't lose any weight. If it wasn't for working out religiously 5 days a week, I probably would've gained 10 lbs.

Instead, I felt bloated, and tired, and sluggish coming out of the New Year.

So I (we) are doing a hard right turn while things are quiet in January. Not an official sober, clean eating January, but more or less doing that.

For instance this weekend for our anniversary, I wanted nothing more than to split a bottle of red wine over our delicious pasta. Instead we went for a 7 mile hike and drank lot's of water, and ate dairy free ice cream.

Last week I was in Madison for work, and no matter how much my peers wanted to go out for Happy Hour, I had dinner, and then went home.

We got a cookbook that helps you plan a weeks worth of meals using the same ingredients to cut down on wasted food.

9 days in, I gotta say, I feel pretty good. I still haven't lost weight, but I feel less bloated and tired.

I think the hardest thing is that I love going out with some friends, having a couple of glasses of wine, and relaxing. I know there's an option to just go out with friends and not have drinks while they do, but it puts a weird vibe out. As someone who has been on the receiving end of that, I'm not going to put that on someone else's weekend. 

So this will probably only go on for a couple more weeks. Hell, I'm meeting the Stanley Cup in two weeks, that seems like a good time to celebrate with a bottle of Champagne.