The Playoffs 15

Anyone who's ever gone to college knows about The Freshman 15. It's the weight an 18-year-old puts on from being away from home for the first time, constantly surrounded by copious amount of food in the dorm cafeteria and all-you-can-drink keg parties at the fraternity house down the street. They are out of routine, not on the football or cheerleading squad exercising every day after school, and sleeping through any class that starts before 11 a.m. By the time they all go home for holiday break, boom! Everyone's chunkier.

When the San Francisco Giants baseball team was in the 2002 and 2003 playoffs, I found myself in a similar situation. Instead of going jogging after work along the gorgeous Crissy Field coastline, there were very important games I HAD to see…..at a sports bar…..with pitchers of beer and plates of nachos. The problem with a playoff series is that they can go on for weeks upon weeks. And if your team is lucky enough to make it to the World Series, as we did in 2002, those weeks turn into months. Before you know it, one missed jog around the neighborhood turns into 17. Pile the sports bar calories on top of it and you've suddenly gained The Playoffs 15!

The Giants' recent run for the pennant has proven I have still not taken these learnings and applied them. I have spent the last two evenings with my eyes glued to the flat screens at a place here called Rosemunde's Sausage Grill. It is every bit as delicious as it sounds. Literally more than a dozen different kinds of specialty sausages to choose from. The fries are to die for. And there's an excellent selection of specialty beers. So as I rooted for enough wins to take us to the World Series, I stuffed my face with said deliciousnesses. Never mind the previous two-week-long series that got us to this one, or the end of the regular season prior to that, which was a nail biter down to the end, so I HAD to watch all those games too.

Needless to say, Weight Watchers tracking is not one of the 'stats' I've been paying any attention to lately. It's much more interesting to see how our star closer Brian Wilson matches up against the league's other best pitchers. But, I am still subjecting myself to weekly weigh-ins. If I'm going down with the team, I at least want to know it. I thought I was beating the odds when last week when I weighed in at a new all-time-low for myself. Pleased as punch I figured I could keep on doing what I'd been doing and get away with it. Well, that philosophy turned into strike three when I stepped on the scale this week…… UP 4.5 LBS! It was a new record stat: largest gain in a week since starting Weight Watchers. Boy do I not need that on my ERA.

There are a couple more critical games this weekend. I’m not sure my behavior will change completely, but maybe it isn't necessary to sit in the sausage joint again for starters. Hopefully I can monitor myself a bit better and avoid another error on the scale. And hopefully I can celebrate doing so by popping open a bottle of champagne with a Giants World Series berth.

LET'S GO GIANTS!