Pizza and beer: Weight Watchers bane

Pizza. The first grad class to feature a snack, and it had to be pizza.

The good news: it's Domino's, which is to pizza as Julio Lugo was to the Red Sox and the annoying blond girl was to the Goonies. The bad news: it's still friggin' pizza, which the gods gave to man to apologize for the Minotaur and Busch beer.

Let me set the scene a little bit better. I'm in my third week of Weight Watchers, and so far things are going well. How well? You'll learn a bit later, but suffice to say (or write) that I got a second sticker from the slightly frightening group leader. It's also my second week of graduate school as I work toward a Masters degree.

The pizzas come at the start of class in a scene right out of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The boxes are piled in the front of the room. No one stirs, though the gently thrilling scent of cheese and crust begin to waft from student to student.

A half hour into class and my mouth is watering. An hour in, pizza consumes my thoughts much more than the impact of social standing in education. By the time we take a break, an hour and a half has gone by, my stomach has groaned as loudly as the professor can talk, and the piddly 100 calorie pack of miniature coffee cakes has completely crumbled in my book bag.

I do the only thing I can do: I leave the room. When I come back, most of the pizza is gone and I resign myself quietly to consuming the still recognizable parts of the cakes.

I'm scoring this a minor victory. One slice of pizza converts to about 6 points, and I have resisted the temptation.

We all know that nothing goes with pizza quite like a good beer. No, they weren't serving beer in class, but I've developed quite a love for all things brewed. I enjoy a good beer and drink only socially, but if I am drinking, beer is my go-to beverage. A few weeks ago at a party, I polished off a a 64-ounce growler of Cape Cod Beer Summer Ale in about 90 minutes.

Weight Watchers measures regular, non-lite beer at 1 point per 4 ounces of beer. In other words, in an hour and a half, I drank 16 points worth of ale. Good for a party? sure. Good for a person desperate to reduce his Body Mass Index? I would have been better entering a pie eating contest.

In college, during a fraternity event, I drank 8 beers and ate 5 slices of pizza in 60 minutes. I think my waist expanded by 6 sizes that night.

Those days are long behind me. They'd better be if I'm going to follow through and not look like an ass on the Internet.

So pizza and beer, I say begone with you! Visit occasionally, but you two are a package deal no more.

At least until the bachelor's party. All bets are off on that night.

So, here's the skinny: At the second weigh-in, I was down another 4 pounds. That makes 12 in two weeks, 1/5 toward my final goal. I'm determined to lose another 3-5 this week.

I'm feeling good, even if there's no mozzarella swimming in my gut. On second thought, maybe that's why I am feeling so good.

Week 2 totals:

Weeks until wedding: 44
Pounds lost this week: 4
Total pounds lost: 12
NBA Hall of Famer inducted this weekend who wore #12: John Stockton
Career assists for John Stockton: 15,806
On the 12th Day of Xmas: 12 Drummers Drumming
# of episodes planned for Season 3 of Chuck: 12
Year it was when I was 12: 1994
Percentage toward my overall goal: 20 percent
Pounds remaining to go: 48
48 divisible by: 48, 24, 12, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1