"Today Tastes So Good"

Has anyone else heard the new KFC slogan??  "Today tastes so good."  I had to reflect on this when I saw the commercial yesterday while I was at the gym.  It's interesting (a bit ironic) because when I had the flu for a week, I watched "The Help" several times (awesome movie, by the way and fantastic book).  There are several scenes from the movie that center around fried chicken, cooked in Crisco, no less.  My grandmother used to fry chicken in Crisco and she would lay it out to drain on brown paper bags that she cut into flat pieces and spread across the counter.  Crisco fried chicken is pretty damn amazing, though not exactly a model of good health.  As I was recovering from the flu and my appetite began to come back (which hardly ever leaves, by the way), I seemed to keep turning on "The Help" in the middle of some delectable fried chicken scene.  So, as I got better, I developed a serious craving for some fried chicken.  I didn't indulge in any, though I did come close!  And then yesterday at the gym, the colonel's big mug appeared on screen along with that interesting tag line: Today tastes so good.

And I got to thinking.  Today would taste so good.  A few pieces of KFC with a tub of mashed potatoes and coleslaw with a couple biscuits for dipping would be divine.  I would seal the meal with a pint of Ben and Jerry's and sleep off my food-coma like a baby with a milk belly.  I could salivate just thinking about it.  Today could taste good, sooo good.  But... What about tomorrow??  Tomorrow won't taste so good.  Almost immediately after I eat something like that, especially at night, the sodium content starts to overtake my body.  I wake up in the middle of the night with a mouth like the Sahara Desert, running to the kitchen for WATER, blinded by fridge light.  My fingers puff up like the Michelin man when I am retaining too much water and salt.  It doesn't feel good.  It doesn't taste so good.  Now that I'm eating healthier, I am much more prone to food hangovers when I eat something bad, say like KFC.  I'm not saying I'll never eat it or other bad stuff for the matter.  I believe in nearly everything in moderation.  But, today tastes so good??  That's an American, instant-gratification line if ever I heard one.  You know what?  Sometimes, today needs to taste a little mediocre so tomorrow can taste so good.  I would love to be skinny and eat whatever I want.  Who wouldn't?  We all want our cake and to eat it too, but you can't eat cake everyday.  You can't have KFC every week (or even every month, possibly every year...).  I think one of the reasons it's so hard to lose weight in this place and time is that it is not immediate.  I've been banging this out for over a month now and though I do feel better and have lost 8.2 pounds, I still basically look the same.  No one has really noticed and I am learning to accept delayed gratification as a way of life.  There's definitely something to be said for hard work, sacrifice and saving some things for a special occasion.  How about, tomorrow tastes so good?  Because, God willing, my sun is coming out tomorrow, people!  Today I sweat and in the proverbial tomorrow, I will also sweat while hopefully looking good and feeling good and being much healthier.  Now that would taste good!

So during week 4, I lost a little more.  Very little, ha.  I lost: 0.2.  But, I am happy.  You can't ace all the weeks and this is still in the right direction.  Besides, I think 8.2 pounds for 4 weeks is darn good!  It's actually double my goal.  I will have good weeks.  I will have bad weeks.  I will have OK weeks.  The important thing is to keep moving forward.  Because you know, today could taste so good but tomorrow will taste even better.  I'm sure of it.