Do you want the good news first?

If you've been keeping up with my “Becoming a Fit Fisherman” column, you'll know that I issued myself, and all of you, a 21-day challenge where we all tried to form a habit and break a habit over a period of three weeks.

If you've been keeping up with my “Becoming a Fit Fisherman” column, you'll know that I issued myself, and all of you, a 21-day challenge where we all tried to form a habit and break a habit over a period of three weeks. My bad habit, fried food. My good habit, daily exercise. 

Let's start with the bad news. As these things tend to go, I did great… until. Until I hit the road again headed to fish the Ross Barnett Central Open last week. The first 10 days or so before the Open, I was spot on. I started walking every day walking a little farther each day until I was up to about 3 miles. Then I fished a tournament on Saturday near home and drove to Ross Barnett afterward. 

I was up at 4 a.m. to fish the local derby; and by the time I had made it to Ross Barnett and setup camp, it was 10 p.m. I missed my exercise for that day, and so began the snowball effect. 

The next few days of fishing were a grind, and I turned to fried food for comfort and neglected my exercise because I was "too tired" from being on the water.

Excuses, excuses, excuses. I'm not proud to be making them but I am human as all of you reading this are. I thought initially in doing this blog, that I would have no problem with my will power since I would have the whole bass fishing community to hold me accountable. Even then, it's not easy. 

The good news, I am down 6 more pounds. That makes 20 overall. Definitely not where I wanted to be by now but I'm still moving in the right direction. Slow and steady wins the race right? 

I spent a couple days at home and got back into my walking. I’m on the road again now working the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship this weekend and I have a new found determination to hit the gym at the hotel every day and eat right. There's not a lot of extra time when I work a tournament either, but the stress level is a lot lower knowing that no matter if someone takes better pictures than me or not, I still get paid on Saturday. That's a lot better than knowing I have to catch more fish than someone to get paid when fishing a derby. More fun in front of the camera, but more steady behind it. 

I'm going to be bringing in more outside information in my next column. Many of you have offered various websites, apps and workout routines that have helped you. I also spoke with Elite Series pro Cliff "Cajun Baby" Crochet at the Open, and he offered up a quick workout tip that I'll be sharing. 

I'm looking forward to incorporating more and more content from other anglers and personalities from the bass fishing community. So stay tuned!