Two Guys Lose Weight: Oops!

The following is a blog documenting two Los Angeles Times editors’ attempts to lose weight. It all began on Jan. 10.

Yeah, I cratered.

To skeptics who didn’t think I could survive the D.C. trip without falling off the diet bandwagon, they were right. “I was who you thought I was!” you could say (paraphrasing Dennis Green).

I was doing fine on Monday. I made the trip out in a situation that might cause most people to crater immediately.

My flight was running more than three hours late. As I would miss my connection, the airline switched me to another carrier. Rest of the story is predictable. I knew it. An airline switch at the gate? You know where I was going to end up sitting.

Just like O.J. Simpson (of the 1970s), I hurdled through the airport at lightning speed and made what was supposed to be a 15-minute walk in about … 14 ½ minutes. So it wasn’t quite lightning speed. Maybe lightning with special needs. Regardless, it gave me some semblance of a workout.

Then news of the impending doom. Middle seat. For the entire 5 ½ hour flight. That’s reason enough to bring on the food. But I abstained. Held back. Drank coffee and water. And because the flight had wi-fi, I watched ESPN worked.

Day Two was fatal, however. After a full day of meetings, I was able to catch up with one of my oldest and best friends for dinner at his house. Although I brought a frozen entree with me, it didn’t leave my computer bag once I saw two 18-ounce Delmonico steaks raring to go.

That’s what Rob and I always did. Steaks. Huge steaks. We used to have the 24 oz. Dry Aged Porterhouse Steaks at our favorite steakhouse in Washington and enjoy the steak tartare for a warmup. If they would have offered meatsicles for dessert, I’d have had those.

The memories were too much. I walked in the house with a white flag waving. After six minutes on the grill, the steaks were perfect – somewhere between still mooing and rare. Then when I got back to the hotel, I had some kind of a caramel ice cream thing. As long as I was off the wagon, I was going first-class.

No regrets the next day. Sure, I choked. But I bounced back. Wednesday was fine. I got the splurge out of the way. And was back full-time on Nutrisystem. Ham and cheese omelet for breakfast; steak and cheese melt for lunch; and meat loaf for dinner. All was good.

But those steaks were awesome...

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