At 4:45 AM, the alarm clock went off and I turned that thing off immediately and re-assumed the sleeping position. The cat lying next to me was nice and warm.

About three minutes later, I realized that it was time to get up and get at it. I hauled my carcass out of bed, stepped on the scale (216.9), and got ready for the gym. By 5:15, I had gotten dressed, navigated the Winter Wonderland, arrived at the gym, and made my way up to the cycling room. Yes, folks, I hopped on that bike, burned 816 calories, crawled off, went down and sat in the sauna for 10 minutes, got showered, and went home, where mother and daughter were up and getting ready for school. I called my Dad (at 7:19) to see if he'd gotten any snow and he said, "What are you doing up so early?" Uh, Dad, I've been up for 2 1/2 hours already.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Not A+ or anything, but good. Sort of. I exercised and controlled the diet until dinner time. My wife had made a special meal and I thought I should eat it. Well, I ate more than I wanted and then I got into the almonds. I swear to jeebus that I wasn't hungry, I just wanted to enjoy the sensation of eating almonds. So, I ate way more than I wanted to. All in all, I expect that I ate somewhere around 2600 calories yesterday (just a guess). That late outburst doesn't help anything. When I think about it, I wasn't feeling hungry at all. It is strictly that I absolutely love the sensation of eating raw almonds. I can totally eat a pound or more of those damned things at one sitting. Cannot get enough. I know that they are a good food, but I cannot resist, even if I've already eaten 3000 calories. It's like setting a pile of cocaine in front of an addict. Last time I was in Fargo, I bought a 3 lb. bag. They were gone in three days. Not kidding. We got a three pound bag on last Sunday. I was gone three days. They are pretty much gone.

I just have to stop buying the damned things. That's too bad, because when you travel like I do, almonds are such an easy food. No prep, no issues with freshness.

So, I've got to find some better snacks (i.e., something where I don't lose my mind).