"Diet Schmiet"

“The only time to eat diet food is when you are waiting for the steak to cook”. Julia Child. As told to me by my wife Abigail, although I do feel this is spot on.

I am at my most optimistic the day before I start a diet. I am high on life, indulging myself in whatever peaks my palette, living large and usually consuming profuse amounts of cheese all in the interest of hoping to satiate my desire to have such luxuries in the coming days of self deprivation. Inevitably I will tell everyone around me when I am starting my diet, what diet plan I will be following (South Beach, Atkins, etc) and how much weight they can expect to see falling off my body and inescapably, by the third day I am no longer dieting. In fact by the 3^rd day I am so mad at the fact that I have to diet that I curse myself for ever discovering super nachos and Pale Ales. This is a vicious pattern I have repeated more times than I wish to admit. What is it about dieting that is so illusive to me? (I bet Dawson never had to deal with lack of motivation, then again Pacey was always trying to get his girl, and by the by, would have thought she would end up with Maverick anyways) Yet, I digress.

My consistent plan for eating seems to be eat lots of cheese, pizza and Mexican food, without giving consideration to portion. Is that bad? I’m kidding I know it’s bad, but it tastes so good. But here I am, well into the 2^nd month and hovering right around the 15 pound weight loss, and I need to lose another 50-60 pounds, so I guess it’s time to climb the diet bandwagon again. The pressure of the documentary makes me certain that I will be able to follow through, but the doubts creep in and seem to find plenty of place to live. However it’s pretty linear right now and I just need to follow the line: I need to eat less in order to lose the weight, I know I have to lose the weight in order to jump higher, and I know I have to jump higher in order to dunk the basketball.

I am going to see Dr. Ida P. Crocker-Sabbagh next week which will begin the medically supervised portion of the documentary (hopefully she won’t want me to do anything crazy like cut cheese or sandwiches out of my life). March is my do or die month, I need to lose at least 20 pounds between now and the end of the month in order to stay on task. Heather has really upped the workouts, just flat out hammering my legs (why is it my double chin won’t go away? Probably the afore mentioned cheese dilemma). I am feeling better, just not looking it yet, and let’s be honest it’s all about looks now a days. I hope to, in several months, look back at the picture above (which will become the poster for Dunk) and not cringe. The goal of Dunk is to end up a better person than I was before I started in all facets of life (not just really-really good looking with flowing curly hair).

There is big news on the horizon, can’t wait to share it with you all but will have to wait until things are finalized. I would love to hear from anyone who has anything to say at all about DUNK? so please email me at cspannagel@gmail.com.

If you live in Phoenix and need a place to workout, go to Sky Fitness, honestly wouldn't have lasted these 7 weeks without the H-Track and her workouts. I am actually starting to feel like an athlete again. www.skyfitaz.com

If you need serious savory seasoning for any meal go to www.slavosalt.com, it’s the fricking shiznit.

“The good, the bad and the ehh”

The good – one month in, down 15 pounds, which has me feeling great. My body is starting to resemble a little something closer to an athlete (or if not athlete, an agile fat man), and the best news of all is I’m getting totally psyched when I see my reflection in the mirror (Abby manages to catch me staring at that more than I care to admit but it’s a life style-Nick Quan) but I’m seriously stoked, no more man boobs, a shrinking gut and I can keep an eye on my little guy now, which hasn’t always been the case.

The bad – I missed a blog week. I was chalking it up to laziness (as lazy as I can be with a full time job, a wife to catch up with and twins at home), but I fear it’s something more serious. I thought the one part that would be easy about this project was the writing. It’s what I love, what I’ve studied and what I think I’m best at – but truthfully, it’s been the hardest. Sitting down to chronicle each week has left me with a bit of loss for words. I feel pressure to make it engaging, funny and most of all do a good job of describing the experience. But what I find when I sit down to write is that I’m not as funny as I think I am (well that’s probably not true – I’m pretty funny, some say top 5), and my writing and vocabulary has gone in the pooper, which is not what an aspiring writer wants to realize. So I sought out a mentor from my past, my high school English teacher Papa Jack LaBonte. He brought me back to the awareness that to be good at something you have to practice it, and just like I neglected my body, I neglected my writing. This past week, after much thought, I have come back to one of the main reasons I am doing this project – I am story teller. And so tell the story I will. (On a side note, I will begin working with Papa Jack on “Lone Country Road” my debut novel, getting ready to cry your little hearts out you Dawson Creekers)

The ehh – one month in, but the project is just getting started and I have 8 more months left, but it’s already feeling daunting. Everyone has treated me and this project with open arms and well wishes, but now I have to see what I am made of (which up to this point hasn’t been hard work and dedication). I am 31 years old, with two 8 month olds, and something tells me that if I don’t accomplish this now, I will never do it. If you see me, rocking a Philly Cheese steak, a disapproving look is warranted. However, if you see me grabbing a salad and an iced tea go ahead and smack that ass.

Down But Not Out

It was the fall of 1991, I had just arrived at Madison Meadows from the harsh streets of Pleasanton, CA (whether or not I arrived in a Nike Flight Suit is still up for debate). Shortly into the fall school year, I had joined the basketball team, and was actually playing well and making some good friends (or terrible ones, depends on who you ask, yeah you Renke). During the beginning part of the season, on a breakaway layup attempt by our opponent, I came from behind and pinned the ball to the backboard, a clean block, but on the way down I landed on the player’s foot and snapped my ankle. My foot ballooned to the size of a grapefruit and I was shut down for 6 weeks. However, during this time I got my first Arizona girlfriend, (thank you Cameron Mercer), became best friends with Mike Martori, and settled nicely into the North Central life style.

This incident is what flashed in my mind this Sunday morning as I was icing what appeared to be fractured ankle (thankfully it wasn’t fractured, just badly sprained). Unfortunately, there wasn’t quite as much glory with the injury that I happened to come by this weekend. Innocently enough, I was playing a game of football with a couple of ferocious 10 year olds. The play I had devised was fantastic (fake hand off, end around, qb fly pattern) but 10 steps into my route, I hit a gopher hole – I dropped the pass, limped back to the huddle and settled in for all time QB with a rapidly swelling ankle. Immediately my thoughts turned to the production of DUNK. Had I injured my foot too badly to continue? Would I be sidelined for too long? How would this impact my workouts? Fortunately I didn’t have to wait long for the answer, on Monday the X-Ray came back negative and three days after the incident the icing and elevation has worked well.

Three days off from working out has me itching to get back, but right now my mind goes to all the horrible exercise routines Heather (www.skyfitaz.com) can devise for me with a bum leg. I have a feeling my arms and core and going to hurt a lot. This injury won’t keep me down, if anything it is a refocus, just around the time when everything is starting to feel mundane. There is a difference in wanting to exercise and not having the ability to, and having the ability and not having the desire. Fortunately I still have the desire and the ability will come back soon enough.