If you haven’t already figured it out, I’ve been naming my blog entries for songs — and this week is no different. There’s a jazz number called Niner Two by Don Ellis. When I was in marching band in college, we performed this piece. It’s especially tough because the time signature changes throughout the song, including an extended section in 7/4 time.

(YouTube video: Niner Two with the 27th Lancers Drum & Bugle Corp — I did not perform with this band. It’s just there for your entertainment.)

This was the hardest piece we ever marched to, and for a while, it didn’t look like we were going to be able to pull it off. Our marching band was a show band, and pretty advanced for its time. We prided ourselves on musicality as well as a showy performance, and it took extra hours of rehearsal to hammer Niner Two into place, but we mastered it. Unbelievably, we mastered it — and even the college football team stood on the sidelines and watched the show in awe. Believe me, that’s a rarity.

It took discipline and hard work, as well as a willingness to break out of the mold and try new things. And that’s exactly why I chose that song title for this week’s blog, because that’s where I’m at in my weight loss journey. I have pushed myself back into a mental place where I am disciplined in my food and beverage intake. I’m also trying some new methods to see how they work. And I’ve had to come to an understanding with myself: as much as I enjoy having weekends at higher levels of carbs and calories, they kill my progress if I let them get out of hand, and I’ve been routinely letting them get out of hand.

Much of that has been because I was losing hope in this process, and slowly gaining weight. I truly feared vacation, because I really figured that after nearly two weeks of a food and drink free-for-all, I’d have no desire to reign it all in, again; and the last time I just let my diet go, I gained 100 pounds in a year. I can never, EVER allow that to happen, again.

But here I am, on my third week of eating clean, and the weight continues to come off. As of today, I am now only 7.2 pounds above my low; considering I started out almost three weeks ago at 23.4 pounds above my low, I have reason to be very happy with my progress.

If I keep working hard, if I maintain the discipline, and if I keep my options open to adapt as needed, I just might pull off what looked impossible previously. Right now, my goal is just to exceed my low, but I’m proving to myself, again, that there are rewards for hard work.