It has been a long time in the making, but my fitness plan is officially in place and has begun. First things first, getting my food consumption under control and dropping enough weight to comfortably work out without hurting myself. Now, for you “in shape” golfers, this probably sounds stupid, but for us “fat guy” golfers, finding a balance between nutrition and our desire to eat an entire box of Girl Scout cookies can be a tough one to work out in our heads. So, I enlisted the help of Weight Watchers to get me rolling and to reprogram my eating habits. I’ve had success with calorie counting programs like Noom, MyFitnessPal and even Samsung Health in the past, but the last time I actually felt great about my weight was back in 2006 when I was on a different weight loss program. I had been toying with the idea of using that one again, but to me, the program was just a bit to restrictive on what I could and couldn’t eat. I didn’t have a family with a junk food drawer back then, so it was easy to purge the bad and keep the good. Now, not so much.
As I start out the day, I’ve made it a consistent mission to eat a decent breakfast every morning. This, for example, is 2 pieces of bread, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, 2 sausage links and an orange. Now to some, this may look amazing as a breakfast goes, but in all honesty, I’m pretty sure I used to lick more than 2 tablespoons of peanut butter off the knife when I was done smothering my bread with it. I mean, I think it was a people would ask if I’d like some bread to go with my PB sort of thing. I also never let a fruit come near by breakfast plate at all. This has taken a bit of an adjustment to get down, but what I try to do is pick out a protein, for this one it’s the PB and sausage, a fruit, like an orange or banana, and something to compliment it. Like if I wanted to do breakfast burritos, it would be a tortilla (the something), eggs (protein) and then maybe spinach and tomato with salsa to finish it up. I’d probably throw a banana in on top of that just for a bit of extra filler and nutrition, but it’s a nice rounded meal. A cup of black coffee added to it and I’m set for the morning. 
Lunch continues the same pattern, with a small amount of protein, a starch and vegetables. I like to use mason jars as they provide a good portion size for just about anything on the planet. They even have mini-mason jars for sides like hummus or dips. This lunch, for example, is 3 ounces of ground turkey over mashed potatoes and a green salad with yellow peppers, olives and mushrooms. I use a yogurt based dressing from Bolthouse Farms to keep the salad from becoming too unhealthy. If you’re counting calories, this lunch would be 150 for the turkey, 150 for the potatoes, about 30 for the salad and 45 for the dressing. It’s about 400 calories worth of food. Add that to breakfast, 190 for the peanut butter, 150 for the bread, 170 for the sausage and 90 for the orange. That puts breakfast at 600 calories. Now, when I was calorie counting, I tried to limit my intake to 1200-1500 calories a day, which using 1,000 calories at breakfast and lunch would have left me nothing for dinner, not to mention any snacks or fillers that I may need through out the day.
All of that said, so far, I’m completely ahead of my goal pace. As I said, retraining myself to eat better is the key with this and I have made a 6 month commitment to this program, not only to get in shape, but also, to make sure I stay there. Some of my best golf was played back when I was last in the ‘best shape’ I’d been in for a long time, and I’d like to be back to it before the summer months hit. I’ve got some strokes to shave from that handicap and I haven’t played enough this winter to start the year as sharp as I’d like to. Hopefully, the next couple of months go as well as the first week has and I will be there before I know it, and if not, I’ll keep working throughout the year to get there.
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