Weighed in this morning at 152 pounds. Up two pounds from my last report a week ago.

As the days grow closer to Thanksgiving, it's becoming more tough to stick to this diet. Everywhere I look, I see photos of turkey dinners, pumpkin pie, and people being festive and merry. It seems to trigger something deep down inside me that wants to break open a bottle of beer, grill some steaks, or eat a pint of ice cream.

Compounding that is the colder weather. I hate jogging with cold air blowing on my face. Even though running will raise my body temperature, I still feel that bitter cold windchill. And so I don't feel encouraged to exercise.

I guess these are the moments where you learn what you're made of. I tell people I spent a few years alone just trying to control my appetite. I like to think that I've made progress on that. Yet maybe no matter what you do, there's always going to be something that Mother Nature puts into us that makes us want to eat.

The body always thinks it's living in the wild, trying to survive from one day to the next. But our conscience knows that food is readily available without the need to expend a lot of physical activity.

That seems to be the root of everyone's weight problems. It's a tug-of-war between our body's natural mechanisms and our desires to satiate our palates.

I hear some vegans and vegetarians say that they have lost the desire to eat meat. I always wonder about that. I'm not a vegetarian, though I do love eating fruit, vegetables, and grains. Yet, I have to believe that even vegans still possess these natural tiggers deep in their psyche that makes a rack of pork ribs look and smell absolutely irresistible.

But I think vegans have the power of ideology, and their stable of vegans friends to help them stick to their lifestyle. As for myself, I don't have any ideology that turns a carnivorous diet into something criminal, and nor do I have any dieting friends to pull me along.

All I have is a desire to stay healthy. And so far my desire to stay healthy is often trumped by my desire to eat and eat and eat. When your entire weight loss efforts are driven simply by a desire, it's tough to stay the course.