It seems that my self-discipline has left me to some degree. Yesterday was supposed to be a fasting day, but with a few hours of the work day still left, I decided that I needed to eat something after work—and that something would be a cheeseburger. When my workday (mercifully) ended, I stopped at P. Terry’s on the way home. I’m still lighter today than I was yesterday, but the erosion of my willpower is a concern.

I should explain the affinity for P. Terry’s. Although my stops there are more frequent than I’d like them to be, I’m not a fast-food cheeseburger and fries addict. And, while P. Terry’s food is a step above McDonald’s and Burger King, it’s not like I’m enamored with it. It’s good, sure, but it’s not like I crave it daily. Besides the convenience (it’s on my way home from work), I think it just “hits the spot” in terms of feeling satiated. It fills me up, in other words, and that feeling relieves me from thinking about food for a while.

One of the other reasons I make impulsive decisions like stopping at P. Terry’s is that I don’t keep a well-stocked refrigerator or cupboard. I tend not to have a lot of food around the house—especially if it’s tasty—because I’ll eat it. And I’m careful about buying too much produce at one time because it tends to go bad. Another factor is that I absolutely hate grocery shopping at any time other than the early morning. I don’t like crowds, and the grocery store near my house is ALWAYS crowded, so I avoid going there at peak hours.

Anyway, the plan now is to fast today (Tuesday) and Thursday. I also plan to make tomorrow (Wednesday) a low-calorie day just as an experiment. If I can eat breakfast and a small meal after work tomorrow, I should be able to lose weight on all three days. I keep saying this, but I need to get below 240 pounds soon. I’m three months into this project, and I’ve lost only 30 pounds, which is far below what I’d hoped to have lost at this point. While losing an average of 10 pounds per month isn’t bad, I’ve made a lot of missteps that have prevented me from losing more. My original goal was to lose 20 pounds per month, and maybe that was just too ambitious, but there have been a lot of chocolate-covered almonds and cheeseburgers that have helped derail that plan.