Dear readers, I haven’t been entirely straight with you. Three years ago, on the eve of New Years 2014, I started on a diet and exercise regimen – every month I added another rule, until there were over twenty separate restrictions, each infraction punished by a $100 donation to charity. I did this for eighteen months, during which time I reached my lowest weight in twenty years(!), and only slipped up (mostly by forgetting to do sit-ups) a grand total of twenty-one times.

And then one month – July 2015? August? – I decided to stop. I’d still follow most of the rules, I thought, but unofficially – it would be nice to have a beer with dinner every so often. And seconds. And chocolate. And… Oops. I justified this to myself by saying that I just wasn’t re-upping – I could afford to cheat now and then, no big deal – not that I was giving up. But I didn’t write a post explaining what I was doing – I just kind of quietly stopped. Not good.

So here I am, eighteen months later, having gained all of that weight back. I’m still following the exercise regimen, not eating after 8 pm, not adding sugar to coffee… But it just isn’t doing the trick.

Time to get back on the wagon. This isn’t going to be easy, either – TripAdvisor’s new HQ has some pretty amazing lunches and snack rooms, and I’ve been availing myself of them fully (mmm, soft serve ice cream…). I’ve also been doing a lot of home baking. That’s why I’m making this public, and enlisting your help (whether anyone reads this or not). In this case, peer pressure is good.

Back to the restrictions – it was a good list.

Back to the salad bar.

Back to portion control.

And critically, back to penalties.

The restrictions will be in force until publicly renounced or modified. No rules lawyering, no dropping out secretly. Time to get serious again.

Happy New Year!