Brian, I am glad to see that you have taken the reigns of your food consumption and gotten that horse under control. How is your exercising coming? Did you get your pedometer and your walking shoes? Since I have gotten my knee brace, and become accustomed to it, I will be resuming my walking this week. Hope to see you on the road...or walking in a truck stop. Listen for me to holler on the radio for a walking partner.

Yes, I agree it is difficult when companies utilize fuel options from places that do little to assist their drivers with food choices. Is your company amenable to considering other options if you explain the situation? It might be that they are unaware how their contracts with certain fuel suppliers is affecting the very people who generate their revenue for them and keep them in business. Perhaps, a mention would get them thinking about the situation. However, until then, I would suggest stopping to eat at a Petro first and then fueling at your designated fuel sites...or visa versa. There is nothing that says you have to eat at these places, so simply plan in the extra stops if you can.

Definitely, the Cheerio's and skim milk are a better choice than the "Big Rig Breakfast Special", but do you find that one serving of Cheerio's does the job of filling you up and getting you to your next snack time? How about adding a piece of fruit and and some extra protein....like a boiled egg or a handful of nuts? Three grams of protein in one cup (one serving) of Cheerio's doesn't seem like enough to fill an active male truck driver. Perhaps, you should blog Pam Whitfield about some breakfast, lunch, and dinner choices you could make to ensure that you are getting the right amount of calories and nutrition. If you cut your calories too far, you will fail at losing weight. Your body will think that it is starving and will hold on to all the fat with it's last dying breath. I should know, I starved myself to obesity for years!!

That said, I wanted to address a comment you made as I feel that it is time we began speaking out. Your comment was...."I think the "I'm in a hurry" mentality really wrecks havoc on one's eating plan".

Yes, it absolutely does! This was one of the main reasons I put on so much weight in the last year before I started in the Fit For The Road program. Gaining over 45 pounds in that last year, I can totally contribute it to that type of mentality. I struggled for a long time regarding how I wanted to reply to you regarding this issue. It is a key issue affecting the health of thousands of drivers across the country and it doesn't appear that change is in the near future.

So, how do you reconcile this with a healthy diet? I remember a time when drivers could stop and unwind around a hot nutritious meal. I remember a time when I could stop in the middle of the day, when I became drowsy, and take a 45 minute power nap. I remember a time when I could afford to drive when I was alert and awake and stop when I was tired and fatigued. That all changed with these new hours of service, didn't it?

Now, you start the log book and run like hell to get as far as you can before your hours run out. Meals?!? Yes, we eat. We stop at a truck stop, only because we need fuel, rush in to pay for our fuel, grab whatever greasy, fried, fast food is nearest the pay counter and run back out to our trucks to get rolling. Then, while trying to drive 80,000 pounds of truck and freight down the road, we try to choke down the calorie packed, dried out, greasy, fast food we just bought. Long gone are the times when we could visit a restaurant in the middle of the day, unwind, relax, re-energize, and eat a nutritious meal. Who has the time? No one!! Time, which we can not get back, continues to tick away, and while time is ticking away, so is our revenue as the dollars we might have earned during that time, is forever lost.

Nap during the middle of the day to rest our bodies and return to driving awake and alert?!? Sounds like a good idea, but who has the time? No one!! Instead, we now have drivers weaving across the roads, running over rumble strips, and getting honked at by other drivers. Why? Because they are falling asleep behind the wheel. In all the years I have been driving, I have never seen so many trucks weaving all over the roads at night. I followed five trucks over the last week who's drivers were so tired they were all over the road. One truck continually ran between the rumble strips on the right shoulder to the extreme left shoulder. For nearly 15 miles, the truck ran split down the middle of lanes two and three. I found myself driving like this all the time last year. My solution? I opened the bag of chips, peeled the wrapper off the candy bar, opened the honey bun, and downed it all with cup after cup of coffee. What was this doing to my health?

Until the hours of service changes, I was able to at least maintain my then weight. After the changes, I put on pound after pound and was buying bigger pants on a monthly basis. I seldom had the chance to eat correctly and I seldom had the chance to get enough sleep. So, when I started my journey to better health, I made a dangerous business decision. I decided to become a "conscientious objector" to the hours of service regulations. Now, I don't recommend this line of action to my readers unless the change in regulations are truly affecting your health in such a negative manner that your decline in health will make you unable to continue driving.

I tried to drive under the regulations, make a decent income, and lead a healthy lifestyle. I found it to be impossible! Finding time to order nutritious food (which always seems to take longer to cook), finding time to sleep properly, and finding time to exercise, all took a real financial toll on our little companies revenues. So, I had to make a choice. With my diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and cholesterol all out of control, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I would no longer be able to get a medical card. I had to make a choice. Do I follow the regulations, go down the road asleep with blood pressure so high I could hear it pounding in my ears and sugar so dangerously high that I could pass out?  I didn't feel like this was an option.

Do I drive under the regulations, take the down time, and loose the revenue? With fuel prices out of control, a downturn in available freight, and the competition simply "cut throat" out there, it wasn't going to take long and I would be out of business. Going out of business didn't seem like a good idea either, as I still have a child for which I am responsible for. So, then what was I to do?

Thinking on this one day, I decided that what I REALLY needed to do is to take my health in hand first. I figured that if my health was in check, then I would simply have to be a better, safer, and more alert professional driver. I needed to sleep when my body told me I was tired or when I failed to be alert behind the wheel. I needed to take time out throughout the day and sit down to a good meal while taking a little time to de-stress, regroup, and relax. I needed to take time to park the truck and get out for a little fresh air and exercise. Most importantly, I needed to be able to do all these things without loosing the hours that are available for me to drive and earn a living.

The only way I could figure out how to do this was to simply and peacefully object to the new hours of service regulations. I drive safe!! I drive awake!! I drive with a healthy and rested body!! If someone wants to fault me for that, then let them do it in front of God, the driving community, and all the people who would have faced me coming down the road when I was sick, tired, and in poor physical shape. I crossed a scale one day and had my log book called out. I handed it over to the officer who asked me if I was aware that I was driving out of my hours. I replied that I was aware of the situation and went on to explain what I have just written to all of you. After talking with the officer for a while, he told me to go on down the road, and replied that if all drivers were given the opportunities to do what I was already doing, then there would be many fewer accidents and many more healthy drivers on the road.

I don't know what the answer to this problem will be to each of you readers. I know that if you suffer from the same problems, then you are going to have to take a stand and change your lifestyle on the road. Your alternative is death from stroke, heart attack, diabetes, or simply falling asleep and driving off the road and/or crashing. I believe that our government took a very myopic point of view when they changed the regulations. I believe that there needs to be an immediate change to the regulations until which time driver's health becomes a factor in determining the rules to be handed down. I believe that until something is done, drivers will continue to weave dangerously from lane to lane while struggling to keep their eyes open and their minds alert.

Until that time, I have a responsibility to the traveling public to be behind the wheel in the best possible physical and mental state that I can be. Until that time, I have a right, as an American, to make a fair and honest living. Until that time, I will continue to operate with my health and, subsequently, the driving publics safety as primary concerns........even if that means that I can not follow the current hours of service regulations. Look through history....peaceful objection has historically made changes to rules made by the government that were later deemed to be unjust, unfair, or unsafe to the American population. I believe that the hours of service regulations are such a case.

For each of you, you will have to make your own decisions. As for me, my diabetes is under control, my blood pressure is down, and I've lost 50 pounds.....all while using common sense with my driving lifestyle. If that isn't reason enough for our government to revisit the hours of service regulations, then I know not how to change their minds. Perhaps, they should come and spend a month in my truck with me!!

Keep healthy, keep happy, keep safe.......(and yes, I'm going to say it)...PARK THAT TRUCK AND GET WALKING!!