Diet... No

I've been doing the on-again-off-again diet & exercise yo-yo for decades.

But to the current situation:

For about the past 6 months, I've been dieting and exercising. My goal was to get my gut down to a reasonable diameter, say about 38 to 40 inches at the belly button line. Be nice to go slimmer, but that size would be spiffy. This goal was to have been reached by December.

In order to exercise, I must get up at about 5am so I can work out and get to the office by 8:30am. Working out at any other time of day is simply out of the question.
So, I would always try to get to bed by 9pm (that's 2100 to you 24 hour clock folks), but almost never could make it in until an hour to two hours later.

I tried to eat healthy, basically a high protein diet with most carbs coming from green veggies.

The fat loss was excruciatingly slow. It was apparent that I would not make my goal unless I did something extreme. But I'm 50 years old, so extreme anything is a bit dangerous. Still, I felt confident that I could get there somehow.

Despite the exercise, which should have revved me up, I was almost constantly tired.
Despite eating healthy, even to the point of a lot of expensive organic foods, I would start nodding off at my desk by about 2pm and have to walk around and guzzle coffee just to look awake. I couldn't concentrate well at all.

I was always thinking about what I could eat. What am I allowed to eat, what can I pack for lunch, etc. I had to be sure to cook up my lunches in the crock pot and Foreman grill so I'd have something for the week. Lot's of cooking! I had to keep a stash of nuts in the car because I couldn't eat at delis or fast food joints if I got the munchies on the road.
I went to three stores when food shopping. It was a half a day excursion! Costco, then Trader Joe's, then Stop & Shop. I couldn't afford to buy the organics anywhere but Trader Joe's and Costco.
All I ever could think about was getting sleep and what to eat.
But I figured I'd get used to it and get back to normal. I still felt this way about 6 months later.

Then, I started a huge project (more on that later!), which ate up so much of my time that I had none left for anything, including my family unfortunately.

I stopped working out completely and eliminated much of the eating healthy. Speed and convenience trump all.
Now:
Breakfast: 4 raw eggs blended in water and a bit of cocoa powder.
Lunch: Whatever microwave meals are on sale. I just bought a bunch of Marie Callender's for $2 each.
Dinner: Whatever I can scrounge or whatever the rest of the family is having. I discovered Subway $5 footlongs, for example.
Snacks: Cheddar cheese, various nuts (walnuts, peanuts, etc), instant soups.

I am staying up until near midnight most nights, and getting up between 5:30 and 6:00 am.
I'm cooking nothing outside of the microwave.

You know what?

I FEEL GREAT!

I am much more alert. I'm not falling asleep at my desk. I never think about food unless I'm hungry, and then it's just a minor annoyance. I never think about sleep unless I'm tired, and even then, it's easy to stay up a little longer and so much easier to get out of bed in the morning.
Food shopping takes minutes instead of half a day. I can get most of what I want at Wal-Mart or Target, except the microwave dinners.
I'm in the car and I get the munchies, I hit the deli. Yeah, I still keep nuts in the car, but it's not critical anymore.

I was planning on getting back to the diet & exercise after the project wound down, but I really don't think so anymore.
Let's see, tired and consumed with thoughts of food and sleep, or fat and working well.

Guess I'm gonna be a fudgy pucker. That's OK, I can concentrate on living.