I’ve been answering this question a lot, and oddly enough the answer seems to be evolving over time.

Let’s break this down into 2 sub-questions, and the first on is why/how did this start?

Totally by accident.  It’s really kind of interesting how I “fall into” some really great things in life.  (NOTE 1: I strongly recommend keeping the balance in the Karma account high so these things happen more; NOTE 2: When you see an opportunity, seize it, ask questions later, remember luck = opportunity + preparation). 

As most people in New Orleans, I totally overindulged between Thanksgiving 2009 and Mardi Gras 2010 (2/16/10).  Let’s remember, the Saints run to the superbowl (God bless you boys) essentially eliminated that productive month we like to call January. 

When I woke up on Ash Wednesday (2/17), I went to the gym to hit the elliptical (as I have 5+ days/wk for years) and on the way home I said to myself, only protein shakes today.  Let’s just try to really clean out my GI system and get the excess sugar out of my body.

I’ve done this before, and what usually happens is that I’ll have a shake for breakfast, one for lunch, but for dinner I would crave some food, so I’d eat.  But for whatever reason, not this time.  Had another 2 shakes at home and went to bed.   

Thursday - I woke up and said “What the hell, let’s do it one more day”… and I did.  So Friday comes around, and after breakfast shake I’m getting really hungry.  At this point I really had gotten the crap out of my body and it wanted more!

I found myself really pissed off at the power of this craving.  Really.  It reminded me of how I felt when I quit smoking in Aug 09, and then it hit me - it’s time to beat this.  So I decided I was not going to eat for the duration of Lent.  I know I’m not Catholic, thank you, but it just made sense.  Catholics give up something during the Lenten season for spiritual reasons and now, so was I…

Why I am still on it???

Because I’m not done yet.  That’s the only way I can put it.  This started as a journey to break an addiction, kickstart some weight loss, and get killer bragging rights, and its now turned into a Vision Quest.  I’m discovering a lot of things about myself and others around me.  I’ll expand on this in my next post…

(NOTE: I’m late my AM workout :-)