Eleventy-One Times

Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday: I am eleventy-one today! […] I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

It was 1992 when I first read Bilbo’s long-expected birthday speech and thought, “This is brilliant. Not to mention, eleventy-one should be a real number.” Full of such wonderful character, it deserves to be used more. Let’s give it a shot.

It was September 17, 2013 when I began Diet Number Eleventy-One. Yes, that’s one hundred and eleven times where I said, “This is it! This is Day One! I’m positive this time it’ll work!”

Now, has it actually been eleventy-one times? To be honest, I don’t know.

I didn’t begin the current numbering scheme until July 14, 2008. At that time, I took the spreadsheet where I store all my numbers (going back to 1990) and counted up the number of times I used the phrase “Day One.” Oddly enough, it didn’t make its first appearance until January 1, 1997. So right off the bat, I know that the first recorded Day One definitely was not the first Day One. But to balance it out, there were times where I also used the phrase in the spreadsheet and it wasn’t an actual Day One. So in 2008, I did a careful-enough historical analysis, made a reasonable tally, and declared that June 30, 2008 was Day One #86. The blog post looked like this:

Actually, I lied. That’s what half the blog post looked like. The other half was me falling off the wagon just a few days later and declaring July 7, 2008 to be Day One #87. That lasted until July 28, 2008, which I declared Day One #88.

From that point on, the numbers were real. It went something like this:

9/13/2009 Day One #89
9/14/2009 Just kidding, today is Day One #89
9/28/2009 Day One #90
10/5/2009 Day One #91
10/26/2009 Day One #92
11/8/2009 Day One #93
11/9/2009 Day One #94
12/1/2009 Day One #95
1/4/2010 Day One #96: Happy New Year!

What’s the definition of insanity again? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

This just kept going and going until . . . well, until September 2013 when Day One Eleventy-One rolled around. September, of course, is one of the worst times to try and get it together. There are several big food-related holidays between October and December each year. Yes, you know what I’m talking about: International Men’s Day, Geography Awareness Week, and the big one: Ninja Day (December 5).

February 3, 2014 is the 140th day of this last diet run. I had planned on telling you all about it today, however, this blog post ran a bit long, so the details will have to wait until next time. But just to lighten the suspense, here’s a quick summary. Half the diet went went only half as well as I should have liked, and less than half the diet went half as well as it deserved.



7 Responses to “Eleventy-One Times”

TexasDeb said
on
February 4, 2014 at 7:28 am

I have two books waiting for me at the library – one about fasting two days per week and the other suggesting 500 calorie menus. (I am at least imagining the recipes are short “Wash a carrot. Eat it”)

I’ve never tried such a thing but am fascinated by the prospect of such a Wimpyan endeavor – not eating a hamburger on Tuesday that I’ll gladly make up for on Thursday.

Stephanie (a.k.a. Spuzzy) said
on
February 4, 2014 at 10:37 am

Can I join you also on this Day One (done WAY too many times)? And it might not be Day One for you any more….but I’d like to be on your team and counting DOWN with you!

like old times!

Biz said
on
February 6, 2014 at 3:26 pm

“Half the diet went went only half as well as I should have liked, and less than half the diet went half as well as it deserved.”

I loved this line the best Charlie! So did you really join a gym??!!

Love, your prettiest sister, Biz

    Charlie said
    on
    February 8, 2014 at 10:16 am

    Uh, yeah. Back in 2008. That line was from my Day One #86 post, about five and a half years ago. 🙂

Back to the Fridge » Oh The Usual said
on
March 3, 2014 at 9:28 pm

[…] Eleventy-One Times Charlie said, "Uh, yeah. Back in 2008. That line was from my Day One #86 post, about five and a […]

Spuz said
on
November 12, 2015 at 10:44 am

I NEED to join you on your Day One… again…. 🙁

    Charlie said
    on
    November 13, 2015 at 7:33 am

    Whoa! New comment on very old post. I’m actually now up to Day One #116 right now (started 35 days ago), but I haven’t blogged about those experiences yet.