The last twenty days mark the longest I’ve gone without posting on this site in the 35 weeks since I’ve started all this. Twenty days – that’s a long time.

Long enough for me to see my biggest jump up on the scale since I started weighing in everyday. Long enough to gather a few questionable glances from friends when eating a holiday cookie, as if to say “Are you even paying attention to what you’re eating anymore?” Long enough for me to start craving soda with certain foods again. Basically, it was long enough to illustrate that I’m still much farther away from my goal than I am from the 325 pounds I used to be.

I’ve been catching up with the sites on my blog roll and I’m definitely not the only one who’s posted a gain this holiday season, so I’m definitely in good company. However, I am the only one who was more or less stalled headed into the month of December. And I’m definitely the only to have hit this long a plateau so far removed from their goal. It’d be a real disservice to myself to try and pretend that the gears weren’t in motion well before the holiday temptations crept into the picture.

Luckily I’ve got some great support to help me get back on the wagon. A coworker of mine has challenged me to run a 5k with him this April. South Beach Steve has a great new challenge to follow up the Hot 100. And Daria’s comments (more specifically, the email I get on my phone telling me I have new comments) kept reminding me the site was sitting here, begging for my attention.

I spent the better part of 2009 trying to undo years worth of bad habits. While I certainly haven’t finished that process yet, I saw more success than failure, and that’s a victory in my book. For 2010 I plan to continue that work, but it’s also time I started to replace those old poor habits with some new, healthy ones. I’ve got until the 1st to put my list together for The Perfect Ten – Any Suggestions?