The one really bad thing about the Steelers going to the playoffs is that the holiday party/feeding frenzy season has just been extended into at least mid-January.

I'm barely squeezing into my fat pants now following a week of non-stop holiday eating and drinking. The last thing I need is a really convenient excuse to party, party, party every weekend until the biggest winter food frenzy ever — Superbowl Sunday.

Much as I love my team, my butt could've used an early end to the football season. But, alas...at least we got the bye week.

I used to have such willpower. There was a time when I wouldn't have eaten a Christmas cookie if it were the last remaining morsel of food in Erie county. But, (sigh) I've grown soft in my old age and I've eaten Christmas cookies for breakfast at least three times in the last week. Heck, on Christmas morning, I had double-chocolate birthday cake for breakfast (it was Baby Jesus' birthday, afterall).

The bottom line is that I've got no one to blame for my winter weight woes but myself. I ate my way into these fat pants and now, I'll have to find a way to get out of them. Preferably by the end of next month when we jet off to the land of white sand, blue water and bathing suits. Oy.

It starts with going back to bananas and oatmeal for breakfast instead of chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter blossoms. It means not finishing every evening with a few cocktails.

And, it means finding something healthy to take the inevitable football playoff parties and enduring the ridicule of family and friends who feel "health food" has no business keeping company with buffalo wing dip, pizza and all manner of deep fried crunchy things.