I have something to declare to the world. This November, I am giving up bagels. It pains me to say that, as bagels are by far my favorite food, but something's gotta give. In the past year, I've packed on 15 pounds, and I am not okay with that.

#ICantEven

# I Cant Even

I have found myself eating not just one bagel a day, but often two. Between me and you, some days three. It is some sort of a weird impulse that I cannot suppress. My brain, or at least my subconscious, is overriding any logical thought process I have to not consume a thousand calories of delicious cinnamon-swirl bread with raisins, covered in tasty, whipped, air-infused cream cheese.

I blame my hypothalamus, which I have inadvertently conditioned for many years to seek out delicious circular bread.

In scientific terms, the hypothalamus is responsible for maintaining the body's internal balance, like temperate, hunger, sleep, and other basic requirements. It does this by incredibly complex signaling pathways that rely on the production of hormones and molecular targets to fire off the signal that drives me towards my heart's true desire.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/clpt.2010.57

The incredibly complex signaling pathways related to appetite control. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/clpt.2010.57

I suppose my hypothalamus is just doing its job, which has evolutionarily evolved to store as much fat and energy reserve as possible, so that when food is scarce (winter is coming) the body will have enough to get by.

But this needs to stop . . . my hypothalamus is just simply too good at getting me to stuff my face, usually in my car without Ellie knowing.

So I am going cold turkey. It is not going to be pretty, and I apologize to all my coworkers as I experience the peaks and valleys of my withdrawal.