I felt like a fat@$$ all summer long.  I’ve been topping the scales, in the afternoon when I’m lightest, at 180-181 for most of the year.  This isn’t all bad.  Some of that’s muscle because I’m a fair order stronger this year than I was last, and I did a fair bit of weight training during the off season last year as well – and even at 180, I’m still in the healthy range for any measure of BMI (new or old), and I’m even better off with the newfangled curve they have out now…

Still, my love handles, which at more like little lumps, were bitching at me when I looked in the mirror.  Nice, wide shoulders, fantastically muscular legs – and a midsection that is a lot less than impressive.

I have a problem with food, actually have for a while.  My problem is that I like eating it.  I have another problem;  I don’t smoke, so my taste buds actually work.

Anyway, you’d think a guy who rides 8,000+ miles a year on a bicycle would be thin as a rail, right?  Well, not when you eat like I do, you wouldn’t.  I love me a good burger.

That said, I decided to get a little drastic a while back and actually go on a bit of a diet and I’ve managed to drop somewhere between six and ten pounds, simply by eating a little more wisely, and that’s weighing myself in the morning too – I’m lighter in the afternoon, after I’ve ridden and rehydrated.

Eating wisely, when I’ve got the best excuse to eat whatever crosses my mind as “yummy”, isn’t always easy.  I still struggle at the gas station, when I’m picking up my morning coffee.  There’s a donut rack just five paces to the southeast of the coffee pots.  I still have to avert my eyes from the wonderful looking tobacco products on the wall, because I’d rather not stink like charred ass or have my mouth fall apart from chewing on tobacco instead of smoking it.  I flat-out avoid the alcohol aisle.  25 years sober and I still won’t go near it unless I can’t get around the aisle.

No, I am what I am, and I don’t tempt myself because I know the one truth that keeps me on the right path:  Spend enough time in a barbershop and you’re going to get a haircut sooner or later.

I stay out of the barbershop.