Faithful readers of the Diary, the few of you who are left, might have noticed that it hasn't been published with any great degree of regularity for the last few months.

Those of you who have written to ask if I'd gone "off the wagon" and offered advice and encouragement were exactly right. Like so many of you, I have fallen prey to the menace of yo-yo weight loss. At my best, I had lost almost 110 pounds. At this writing, at least half of that has again settled on my nearly ponderous frame.

So what happened? What didn't? I encountered a perfect storm of stressors, life events and sheer lack of willpower that made it all too easy to stop going to the gym and pick up that next slice of pizza. Time I would have spent working out I spent playing with my son, working on writing projects, doing housework or just vegetating, telling myself I worked hard and deserved some relaxation time.

Oh, and we had another son ... just a minor detail, of course.

The simple fact is that I had completely lost my perspective on what was truly important: losing weight and being around to see my two sons grow up and grow old with the woman I love. If that means we skip a trip to the playground one day a week or I take one less freelance writing job, then so be it. I think my boys would rather have dad be there when they cross the stage and get their diplomas than have him huffing and puffing around with them on the playground.

What am I going to do?

The answer is deceptively simple. I'm going to go back and read the early issues of the Diary, remind myself of the drive and initiative that used to govern every bite I took and push me to get to the gym every day. I'm not doing it by myself, either. My better half is on board, and together we are going to get in shape.

We have to. If my older son is any indication, we're going to need all our energy just to keep up with them.

Next week, we'll have the new tale of the tape. Rather than go by pounds, we're going to go by inches. How far will I have to go? That remains to be seen ... but this time I'm going to finish the job.