Jason Kalivas, Quit Coach, Service Delivery:

Two days after I wrote about the soccer World Cup, the U.S.A. got knocked out of the tournament. In the two weeks after that, my other two favorite teams (I have ties to both Germany and the Netherlands) made it almost all the way (3rd and 2nd place, respectively), but ultimately got knocked out as well. It's three weeks since the tournament ended, and I'm still recovering. Any sports fan hurts when their team doesn't take the title, but the recovery I'm talking about is more personal, something I really feel in my gut. Quite literally, unfortunately - I'm recovering from about seven pounds added directly to my stomach.

I had to wake up extra early in order to watch the games live before work and I watched most of the games out. Waking up early means being hungry early, and going out means eating breakfast out. Two or three times a week for an entire month I replaced my usual granola cereal with a cheese-covered omelet, fried hash-browns and an english muffin. According to a calorie calculator I checked out, that diet change about tripled my morning calorie intake, and added at least 200 calories from fat. Put another way, I was eating 1/4 MORE food during the World Cup than I was before, and very little of it was actually healthy.

I'm not alone in this, of course. Tournaments and playoffs, that sort of thing can be a real diet killer. Watching the biggest U.S. sporting event, the Super Bowl, the average American eats 1,200 calories worth of snacks. That's almost one THIRD of that average American's normal daily calorie intake, and probably on top of his or her normal diet as well. But that's just one day. I did something similar for a whole month, and I made matters worse by stopping my exercise routine altogether. 200+ press-ups a day? 4 days of 5k runs a week? Not for me; not during the World Cup. Yes, I'm normally a pretty active guy, but I swapped exercise for games, instead of changing my schedule to fit in both; by the end of the World Cup, I'm lucky that I only gained seven pounds.

I started my exercise routine up again on Sunday, and it hurts. I've gone from burning through a 5k to just barely squeezing out a half a mile; I've dropped from a 35 pushup maximum down to 20. I know I haven't completely turned into a couch potato, but it's true: if you don't use it, you lose it. Endurance drops off in two weeks, muscle strength leaves you in four to twelve.

And feeling this personally, I think I empathize more with our participants. I talk to people every day who remember what it was like when they breathed easy, ran far and fast, and weren't so tired at the end of it. The reasons are different, but that's where I am right now. The good news is that I already have all of the tools I need to get myself back to healthy.

The better news is that our participants do, too, once we get them on the phone.