Franklin Matters: Franklin TV: ReDieting

Sunday, January 11, 2026

Franklin TV: ReDieting – Again

It’s Baaaaaaaaack!

by Pete Fasciano, Executive Director 01/11/2026

We’re 11 days into 2026 – and counting. (‘Counting what?’ you may ask.) Counting days until we faceplant on our New Year’s resolutions. (Well, that’s a fairly negative outlook.) True, but the fact remains; most resolutions fade away by mid-month. This year I’m tackling three of them.

A. Keep things generally tidier. (Yeh. Good luck with that.)
B. Get more exercise. (Increasingly important.)
C. Lose weight. (Ah, yes. That perennial challenge.) (Sigh!)

Yet, diet we must. I’ve written much about dieting here – or ReDieting. The ‘Re’ part is a key acknowledgement that just because you (we/I) lost weight, that doesn’t mean you (we/I) can drift back to contentedly mindlessly binging on empty calories.

How we eat is a creeping habit. We become rehabituated, subtly slip-sliding in and through the ordinariness of our day-to-day circumstances. Time goes by-and-by, and you (we/I) find yourself (myself) off your (my) game – again. That diet discipline has dispersed, shifted. Shift happens. Hence, the most important aspect of the ReDiet? Monday!

That glorious Monday. It rolls around every week as an unavoidable trigger to rededicate yourself (myself) to restarting anew; redieting for just – one – day.

You (we/I) are/am back in training.

You (we/I) can make it through a day. Then, after a few weeks of Monday successes, you (we/I) can add a day later in the week. Now, it’s two days each week – and so on.

A small caution: ReDieting does not mean starving. (Although, it might feel like that.) Even dieting is subject to moderation. Consider that every 100 calorie gain or loss over a month of days is almost a pound. So, if you (we/I) can drop 300 calories on any given day, it’s decent progress, but not a huge ask. Now the trick is to start gradually lining up enough days each month to matter.

And – as always –