I am a night owl still trying to be an early bird. Lately, though, I haven’t been trying hard at all. 

Over the Christmas holidays I allowed myself to stay up late and sleep in more. Because I was sleeping in more I was exercising less, and because I was exercising less I started eating crap again. A couple weeks of that and I’m now geared up for a self-imposed intervention.

Feeling crummy is not unfamiliar territory to me. I’ve written a few times about my long struggling battle of the bulge and how directly related the food I eat affects the way I feel. What may be unfamiliar is the potentially speedier recovery from my fall off the proverbial wagon.

“You’re skinny,” my friend said when she learned of my junk food relapse. “You should allow yourself the occasional treat.”

First of all, I’ve only ever been skinny once and that was 15 years ago and only lasted about four days, but thank you.

Secondly, an occasional cupcake will do to me what an occasional hit of heroine will do to a druggie. I’d really rather not spend the year ahead jonesing for junk food like so many years past.

So how do I jump back on the wagon and reverse my last two weeks of destruction? By waking up early for starters.

“The early bird gets the worm,” my dad used to say when I was a sleepy-head teen. Fine with me, I’d think to myself, it can have the worm.

Eventually I took him less literally and gave his early morning strategy a try.

Initially I disliked exercising before the sun was up, but after awhile I found that if I didn’t get it over with right away, I wouldn’t do it at all. I also discovered that once I went to the trouble of working up a sweat at the start of my day, I’d be more likely to eat healthy and get to bed at a decent hour later on.

My plan now is to return to that great habit for at least two weeks to put myself back where I was and feeling good again.

If it sounds like I’m embarking on a new years resolution, that’s okay. I am.

I’ve always liked the fresh start of a new year, a new month or a new week to make goals for myself.  And I’m experienced enough at failing miserably that I won’t abandon my resolutions for long periods of time anymore. I now cut myself some slack and keep trying until I finally find some success with whatever it is I’m attempting to achieve.

Of course, rising with the sun isn’t the only solution. It’s doing what works for us as individuals and our willingness to persist that makes the difference.

My dad was right about the early bird getting the worm, but there’s another equally correct saying about how it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese.

Personally, if I had to choose between a worm or cheese, I’d eat the latter. But I’d better compare their calorie counts before deciding for sure.

Lori Welbourne is a syndicated columnist. She can be contacted at LoriWelbourne.com

Two weeks ago I wrote a column about losing 25 pounds this summer by changing my addiction from junk food to an addiction to healthy food and exercise. Pleased with my mental transformation, I now continue to work on my physical goals which include toning up, getting stronger and shedding about 10 more pounds.

I say “about” 10 more pounds because it’s not the number on the scale that matters, but the way I look and feel. The number is just a guesstimate.

Over the last few months I’ve been working out daily: the treadmill, walks around the lake, hikes, weight training – that kind of thing. For the last phase of my mission I thought I’d step it up a notch and allow my friend Carly from Vo2Max in West Kelowna to become the boss of me for four or five hours a week.

After attending my first day of her brutal boot camp, I was thrilled to wake up the next morning feeling like a little old lady, barely able to crawl out of my own bed. Every muscle ached, and I loved that because I knew my body had been worked so much harder and different than when I exercise on my own.

I would just like Carly to know one important thing: I am not a kangaroo.

I can not jump rope, jump up on benches or perform that horrendous movement called the burpee with any kind of grace or accuracy. In fact, I feel and look like a complete tool every time I try.

After all the hopping around she had us doing in my first class I foolishly expected less of it in my second. I was wrong.

I understand that these explosive movements can get the body responding more dramatically than with the more comfortable physical activity I’ve been doing on my own, but that doesn’t make me love doing it.  I remind myself though, that if I can change my life-long junk food addiction to a healthy food addiction, anything is possible.

My husband, on the other hand, has no interest in learning to love Carly’s boot camp.

“No thanks,” he said decisively when I asked him if he wanted to try a class. I can’t say I was surprised. Although I would enjoy watching him struggle like me, I know it’s not his thing, and when it comes to exercise I’m a firm believer in doing what you want to do or you won’t stick with it.

“Moderate exercise will only get you moderate results,” another fitness trainer told me recently. Perhaps that’s partly true, but moderate results are a lot better than none and I’d rather see my husband doing something he likes rather than doing something he’s not into and giving up.

I might not like jumping, but after avoiding exercise classes most of my life, it turns out that I really love turning my brain off and following someone else’s lead for awhile. I know I look ridiculous performing some of Carly’s orders, but I’ll get better after attending enough of her ever-changing classes.

And there’s nothing quite as gratifying as waking up a day after a great workout feeling like a little old lady. Except, perhaps, a little old lady who’s finally learned how to jump.

For information on Carly’s Boot Camp: www.VO2MaxPersonalTraining.com

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Three months ago at the beginning of the summer, I wrote a column about my 30 year addiction to junk food. I am happy to report it is now in remission.

This may seem like an insignificant feat to some, but for me and the self inflicted jail of a body that I built for myself, it’s a game changer.  It’s also an entirely different accomplishment than just losing a dramatic amount of weight, which I’ve done several times in my 20’s, 30’s and 40’s.

My most extreme weight loss was when I was 25 and I lost 85 lbs by jogging daily and eating an unhealthy, low-fat, low cal diet. Since then I’ve gained and lost 30 lbs over and over, never keeping it off for good. Why? Because I never stopped eating crap.

My belief was that I could drink pop as long as it was calorie free. I thought it was okay to eat processed garbage if it said something as clever as “low fat” or “less than 100 calories” on the package.  And I also thought it was fine to skip meals as important as breakfast and then devour six Skinny Cow Fudgesicles right before bed.

The goal for me was always about losing weight rather than becoming as healthy as I could be, and because of that my successes with the scale would never last long.

At a certain point I finally did enough reading on the subject that I came to understand that some people develop an addiction to junk-food and I was clearly one of them.  At first I wondered if that was just a cop out, a lack of will power on my part and on the part of others who struggle with over eating and eating disorders. I then discovered there is neuroscientific proof that some of our brains react to food the exact same way other brains react to drugs. It was an eye opener that changed the way I looked at my problem and how I should be dealing with it.

At the beginning of July I sat down at the computer and typed every single garbage food or beverage I was injesting. My goal with this list was to find a healthy substitute for all of them and then commit to making a switch for a full 21 days. I had read somewhere that it takes 21 days to form a new habit and I liked the sounds of that.

I figured if I was a junk food junkie and the “everything in moderation” theory didn’t work on me, perhaps I could change my harmful addiction to a helpful addiction instead. How hard could it be? I liked lots of healthy food. I just never ate much of it when I was busy eating crap since the crap I consumed had me craving more of the same.

I replaced diet pops with ice water, coffee and Baileys with organic lattes, white rice with quinoa, ice cream with yogurt parfaits, and limitless spoonfulls of Nutella with a delicious square of dark chocolate instead. The list was rather lengthy, but I was able to figure out a nutritious alternative that I liked for everything, and I never allowed myself to feel hungry or deprived.

After 21 days I felt like I had traded one addiction for three. No longer craving junk, my old obsession was replaced by an addiction to healthy foods, working out and treating myself with love.

I’m down 25 lbs now and for the first time ever I don’t fear gaining weight because I’m finally listening to my body and giving it what it needs, and now wants as well.

Have I sworn off pizza and cookies for good? No way. They just happen to now be homemade, nutritious and far more delicious.

More columns, blogs, cartoons and videos can be found at LoriWelbourne.com

Nine years ago when I was running my own daycare, I encouraged the kids to tidy up by making it into a game and singing this Barney classic with them: “Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up. Clean, clean up, everybody do your share.”

For some reason, this song doesn’t work on my husband.

“It looks fine in here,” he will say in a room full of chaos. “Under the clutter it’s clean.” Personally, I don’t care how clean it is under the clutter, I just want everything put away. I do my best to accomplish this with the limited time I have, but strangely enough, once this goal is achieved in our home, the tidiness never lasts long.

“I’ll tell you how to make housekeeping more rewarding,” my friend told me recently. “You make it part of your daily exercise routine. Kill two birds with one stone.” I’m not into killing birds, but I am into deriving more satisfaction from something as mundane and never ending as housecleaning, so I was all ears. “Schedule a chunk of time in your day, turn up your favourite exercise tunes, and go for it just like you would if you were working out in the gym.”

I liked the idea, but could substituting cleaning with exercise really be an option? “It depends on your output of energy and what you’re doing,” my friend explained. “If you’re just puttering around, no. But if you move swiftly you can definitely build up a sweat and you won’t need to work out later.” Having always fantasized about getting my house cleaned by a professional while I lifted weights elsewhere, reality set in and I started to seriously consider her strategy.

Yes, I could do this, and while I’m at it, why not turn it up a notch? I could increase the intensity of my cleaning by simply wearing some ankle and wrist weights as I dusted and mopped. I could also do butt clenches and calf raises as I washed dishes, and a sit up for every piece of laundry I picked off the floor to fold.

And why stop there? I could apply this physical exertion to other parts of my life as well. Instead of pushing around a shopping cart like I normally do, I could lace up my runners and jog through the store. I could perform walking lunges down the street to pick up the mail. I could do jumping jacks as I cheered for the kids at their soccer games. And an evening stroll around the lake could burn way more calories if I wore a weighted vest and skipped along the walkway instead.

The multi-tasking possibilities were endless, but after a few minutes I felt exhausted at the mere thought of them. Maybe my husband’s right: under the clutter it probably is pretty clean.

More columns, blogs, cartoons and videos can be found at LoriWelbourne.com