For Mike, life is all about finding that perfect mix of fun and hard work.  Tune in on Fridays when he gives you a weekly rundown.

This week I want to talk more about practice and repetition. Though I’m still in the beginning stages of what I hope is a thorough transformation, I recognize the importance of developing and implementing a quality routine.

I’ve started to do that by trying to stick to eating certain things for breakfast every day, normally low fat Pop Tarts or a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee. I try to follow that with a snack around 10am, usually a Kashi granola bar, some natural almonds or a piece of fruit. Lunch used to be a sandwich, but I’m doing my best to stay away from excess bread if I can help it. I’ve been eating a lot of Vietnamese food lately, usually sticking with a bowl of Pho Ga, which is essentially just chicken soup. The cilantro and bean sprouts I add to it give it more substance and keep the meal healthy, except for the sodium in the broth.

After going back over my food journal for the past month, it looks like my biggest challenge is controlling what I eat for lunch. It’s no surprise either, since I go out for lunch about 90% of the time. The key is to make sure I go places where I can track my calories, like Chipotle, Chick-Fil-A and other places where nutritional information is readily available.

Now, this week I did allow myself to splurge one morning for breakfast. I’m from Texas, so I have to get my Whataburger fix every now and then. Two taquitos always hit the spot…

The only negative to my routine so far is that I really haven’t developed a consistent enough workout plan. I’ll be honest, it’s been way too sporadic for my liking. The only thing that’s been a constant is soccer practice on Monday, softball games on Wednesday (which are killing me; I’m getting too old to recover quick enough) and soccer games on Saturday. Now that my son’s soccer season is winding down (for those that don’t know, I’m the player wrangler, er, coach), I’m going to have to find something else to drive me crazy, I mean, some other worthy cause to devote my time and energy to.

Another thing I’ve decided to do is weigh myself monthly rather than weekly. I don’t want to get discouraged if I do happen to gain a pound a two during a given week. I’m trying to stay in this for the long haul, so I figure once a month should suffice.

What do you do to exercise, other than the standard walking/running/weight lifting combination?