Soap Box

I've been on vacation in Colorado since shortly after Christmas, which means that my physical activity has basically been limited to the few minutes of stretching and an hour of aerobics, which is my daily exercise regimen.

Before and after, barring the occasional day of snowmobiling, I live a much more sedentary life than I do during the touring portions of the year or even my off times at Twin Pines, where there are horses and four-wheelers to ride, hours spent hitting golf balls out into the back pasture and all kinds of recreational and non-recreational activities.

I've noticed that I have put on a few pounds since I've been on vacation and, as I'm sure have already surmised, it cannot be totally blamed on lack of activity. Actually the major culprit has been the copious amounts of food I've been leisurely consuming, a trait that seems to go along with vacations like hands in gloves.

Our touring year starts in a little over three weeks and not wanting to expend any energy toting extra weight around the stage all year long, I want to take it off which, like it or not, cannot be done without taking adjustments to the quantity and kinds of food we eat.

I am an old hand at losing weight and after years of trying what seems like every starvation, fad, liquid, fasting and miracle diet known to man, I have arrived at some conclusions and none of them involves the slickly advertised, celebrity-driven glamour diets where they send you the food, portions measured and instructions included.

And it's not because they don't work, conversely, they all work, if you follow instructions and don't stray from the iron-clad guidelines, they work really well, but unless you intend to stay on their regimen for the rest of your life, as soon as you stop, unless you have made a drastic change in your lifestyle, you're going to put the weight right back on.

I speak from experience. I've done it more than once, saddled myself with some pre-measured, precooked food that tastes like a mixture of tomato sauce and sawdust, adhered to the regimen for several weeks, lost a bunch of weight, got off the diet and put it right back on.

Now, I'm never going to be the type of person who enjoys taking his shirt off in public or wears bikini bathing suits or sports a pair of form fitting jeans around the stage, I�m always going to be a little on the chubby side, and as long as I'm healthy that doesn't bother me.

But there's a point when a little extra weight starts to affect all your physical activity and it's best to shed the extra pounds.

Now the sensible approach is to realize you didn't put it on in three days and no matter how much you starve yourself and how many hours you spend on the treadmill, you're not going to take it off in three days.

I again, speak from experience, bitter experience in fact, I've fasted, starved myself, ate rabbit food and took pills and raised my exercise to the point that I truly dreaded doing it every day.

I learned that the best thing to do - at least for me - is to eat three sensible meals a day and lay off the junk food and sweet stuff and set hour exercise at a realistic level, I think consistency is more important than intensity, and when I say three meals I'm not talking about tofu and lettuce.
Eat what you want, just watch the portions, eat slow, take smaller bites and when you finish what's on your plate, push it back and get up from the table.

It takes a few days to adjust, to walk on by the Hershey bars and ice cream, to refuse that extra glass of sweet tea or the dessert, but if you're vigilant and sensible, in a little while you'll see the pounds slowly coming off, and the good thing is you haven't starved yourself and you've been in the process of changing your eating habits.

Works pretty good until next Christmas.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

� Charlie Daniels

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