SALT LAKE CITY — My life has been kind of hectic lately.

Trying-to-catch-shuteye-on-a-hospital-couch-and-in-cramped-airplane-seats kind of hectic.

I blame (thank?) most of that on my job, of course. One day I'll be in Salt Lake City, and the next I could be in New Orleans, San Antonio or Memphis. Or I could do all four of those cities in four days like I did earlier this month as part of my sports-writing duties of covering the Utah Jazz's every move.

My family life has contributed to my hectic lifestyle, too.

One day I'm a father of three and a husband of one, and the next I've got yet another hungry mouth in the house.

That was the case when we added to our Genessy clan last week. Now, I'm a father of four.

Between the start of the NBA season and our family expansion, this has been a challenging couple of weeks when it comes to my weight-loss efforts. Good grief, I even managed to gain 6 pounds and 6 ounces in one day. Granted, it was a very cute weight gain.

My problem, aside from an addiction to making cheesy jokes, is that my default lifestyle mode is to pig out and to not work out.

For me, it's extra hard to be healthy when all, um, hectic breaks loose.

My brain is hardwired to tell my mouth that I deserve a treat — or a bonus snack or pastries or pizza or lots of fried food with salt and ketchup or all of the above — to compensate for the madness I'm dealing with around me.

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I know I'm overweight. Nothing new. Unfortunately, I've been on the chunkier side for most of my life, dating back to my elementary days when I wore J.C. Penney husky-sized jeans and called myself the "Incredible Bulk" when I'd wear my green shirt covered with cartoon drawings of Bruce Banner's angry alter ego.

Of course, that kind of thinking led to me getting back up to 301.8 pounds on Memorial Day after I'd spent the past five years in the 200s (even in the 190s for a few short weeks in 2009).

In other words, my default mode is a faulty mode.

I've got to learn to find consistency in the chaos.

That's especially true because I don't ever really remember a time when my life wasn't chaotic. And as much as I love them, adding more children to the mix isn't exactly conducive to non-chaotic conditions.

The way I look at it, I have two choices:

1. Learn to manage my mouth and habits in the madness of the wonderful and wacky life I have; or
2. Settle for the self-destructive defaults that taste oh-so good but take their toll.

I've kind of done both of those lately.

The only healthy eating success I had while camping out in the hospital this past weekend was not ripping the IV out of my newborn son's arm and sucking on the sugary substance the nurses were intravenously feeding him. I'll spare the confessional details, but some of my eating choices were less than ideal.

Yet, the previous week, I managed to lose a few pounds despite spending time in the culinary hot spots of New Orleans (Cajun!), San Antonio (TexMex!) and Memphis (BBQ!). And I did that even while enjoying famously delicious beignets in NOLA, a taste of Mexican grub in Texas and some awesome ribs in Tennessee.

That success, which brings my weight-loss total to 49 pounds the past five months, was made possible thanks to some good choices that included eating extra fruits and veggies, skipping more fattening options, eating lean meats, and spending some free time looking high and low for water-packed tuna fish packets that my nutritionist suggested I grab for traveling meals.

If I've taken anything away from my recent helter-skelterness — aside from a healthy new baby boy from the hospital — it's that it takes good planning and a constantly renewed resolve to succeed when your routine is anything but routine.

That's a good lesson to re-learn right before the most hectic (happiest?) time of the year — the diet-dreading holiday season.

Utah Jazz beat writer Jody Genessy chronicles his weight-loss adventures in this monthly column. Total Health & Fitness co-founder Rick Plenert is consulting Jody in this phase of his dieting journey. EMAIL: jody@desnews.com TWITTER: DJJazzyJody

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