As I continue to work hard to lose the 60 pounds I’ve set as my goal, this time of the year is especially difficult.
Flick: ndbutter
Writing this on a crisp (69 degrees!) fall day in San Diego, I am watching college football with my three sons. Seeing the beer commercials, barbecue commercials and references to Wisconsin bratwurst and other tasty morsels, it’s tough. Being a huge football fan, I realize now how much food has been part of sports for me. I am learning to enjoy it without the calorie orgy that usually ensues. I am not going to lie: it’s tough as hell.
So tough that I decided not to attend the San Diego Padres last Saturday home game this past Saturday. Not because of their horrendous record, but because I honestly don’t know if I could attend a baseball game without having a hot dog. Seems silly but it’s part of my ballpark experience.
Flickr: boxchain
I am doing really well on my diet despite the occasional big-time carbohydrate urges. In fact, since I am on paternity leave I haven’t worn a pair of pants in two weeks until last night. I threw on a pair of my jeans and they were very roomy. That’s good news. I am not weighing myself until I hit the one month mark but I am dropping weight. It’s good motivation for sure.
What about you? Is it hard to separate the food portion of sports from your passion as a fan? Can you watch college/pro football and not want to down a cold brew and throw back a hot dog?
I’d like to hear from all of you and how common this link between food and sports is.
Until then, back to the protein shake.
This is one of Scott’s updates related to his original post about losing weight this fall. He’ll be updating everyone on his progress from time to time here on the Every Other Thursday blog.
Follow Scott on Twitter @prgully or email him at scott@everyotherthursday.com. His personal blog, where he writes about public relations and social media, will relaunch soon at www.scottgulbransen.com. Just don’t bitch to him because he has a very strong pimp hand.
As the Director of Social Media at tax giant H&R Block, Scott Gulbransen recently returned to the tax business after previously spending 1o years at rival Intuit working on the TurboTax & Quicken brands. He brings 16 years as a marketing communications professional, and 11 tax seasons, with him to H&R Block and was responsible for the launch of many key social initiatives at Intuit before leaving in 2010. A strategic thinker and business problem solver, Gulbransen has worked for some of the world’s top brands including TurboTax, Sony Online Entertainment, and Applebee’s.
In 2010, Gulbransen became the first Director of Social Media & Digital Content for Applebee’s, creating the first-ever social media strategy for the world’s largest casual dining chain. While at Applebee’s, Gulbransen lead a small but nimble team responsible for creating a robust and far-reaching social engagement channel for Applebee’s and its franchise community.
In addition to his professional accomplishments at the corporate level, Gulbransen is also a prolific blogger recently named as one of the Top 50 Daddy Bloggers in the US by Cision. Gulbransen was ranked #21.
As a member of the TurboTax communications and social media team for 10 years, Scott helped the TurboTax team launch and sustain the brand’s social media platform. He also drove and was responsible for the launch of TurboTax’s successful content strategy, including the launch of the TurboTax Blog. Recently, he launched one of the most significant social media campaigns in the brand’s history with the @TeamTurboTax Twitter project.
Gulbransen was instrumental in reinvigorating the Quicken brand almost entirely through the use of social media and, particularly, Twitter. By engaging with customers and influencers who talk about personal finance on Twitter, he and his team helped Quicken Online grow from just 200,000 users in October 2008 to over 1.4 Million in just 10 months. This led to a more focused look at the personal finance space for Intuit and, ultimately, the acquisition of Mint.com.
A former print journalist, who, after realizing his paychecks from the newspaper industry weren’t going to get much bigger, turned to the Dark Side – public relations. After working in both college athletics and inside mid-size agencies, he joined Intuit in 2000 and Applebee’s in 2010. He is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and is the married father of five kids.
Despite his busy personal and professional life, Scott is a digital native who never strays far from social networking. To hassle Scott, or to tell him how great you think he is (or not!), email him at scott@scottgulbransen.com, add him to your Circles on Google+, or ping him on Twitter at @sdgully. Scott also is an editor and writer for Technorati.com.
I find it hard to watch sports without being inundated with the beer and snack ads. And inevitably it’s become habit to grab a beer and some chips and watch the Monday night game. Fortunately I grew up in Detroit so Sunday afternoon football, aside from fantasy football updates, isn’t all that much of a ritual in our house. And thanks to all of the kids activities on Saturday it’s getting harder and harder to do the cheese/sausage/cracker and cheeze whiz/turkey chili/nacho chip ritual — which ain’t a bad thing!
Suggestions: to satisfy that snack craving while watching sports, have some flax seed nacho chips or organic tortilla chips from Trader Joes with homemade pico de gallo instead of that queso. Have a glass of wine instead of that high-cal beer. OR guzzle down water. I have not had a soda in over 9 months…I satisfy my craving for the fizzies with sparkling flavored water – no calories and no high fructose corn syrup crap. Also, a good healthy sports food is turkey chili with black bean…very hearty yet healthy for those fall Sunday football games. I know these suggestions are kind of chick-like, but this is what I do to keep my figure.
My husband watches a ton of sports (including doing triathlons!) and he eats like this all the time. Another suggestion (which I am sure you’ve already thought of), have your whole family participate with you in eating healthier together…you are setting your kids
health habits for life. Good luck!