I'm BaaaAAAaaack! and Weigh-In Wednesday

My vacation was absolutely awesome. We had such a good time and did so many wonderful things. We were busy, busy but not overly, so I still feel like I got a bit of rest. I admit I was nervous about juggling the weight loss issues with my usual vacation binge-fest, but I did really well overall. I weighed this am and I am down to 224, for a loss of 1.2# and 26 total!

I learned a couple of things on this trip. First, there is absolutely no reason why I can't make healthy food choices in nearly every situation. Second, that exercise thingy every one talks about is for REAL.

I managed to log my food everyday, except maybe twice. I am very proud about this as in the past it wouldn't have even entered my mind. I usually go into my vacation with a feeling of entitlement to the binge eating. After all, "I work hard and deserve to eat what I want", right? That kind of attitude and thinking is what has kept me in the land of the obese my whole life.

I used to say, "I'll start my diet after vacation" and never did. I used to say "One week of eating badly won't hurt". This would be true if I was eating right the rest of the time, which I never was, so I don't know where I got off having that little delusion. Just the fact that I realized that there is no vacation from being healthy is a huge victory for me. You are either making healthy choices or not. The machine that is your body doesn't know if you're on vacation or really depressed or celebrating. It just knows: fuel in, burn what you need, store the rest.

I logged everything. Even the stuff I shouldn't have eaten like the Hershey chocolate and the Doritos and the garlic bread, etc, etc. Overall, I did pretty well at first and by day 10 or 11, I was slipping into old habits. I had my first Pepsi/Coke in 3 months. It. Tasted. So. Good. But, I realized the next day how bad that crap makes me feel. Water really is the only thing that makes my body run properly.

Even though I ate a lot of things I know I should avoid, I did way better than I usually would have on a trip. Mainly because I actually thought about everything I put in my mouth. I did not mindlessly eat out of boredom or for fun. When I wanted chocolate or Pepsi or chips, I thought about it and made a conscious decision to eat it. Then, I logged it. Even with eating out a lot (sometimes in the drive through. Boo hiss!), I was mainly able to make good choices. Even when I didn't, I made sure we did something active and that helped to balance it all out most days.

It is freakish for me to admit, but I really missed working out and going to the gym. I did lots and lots of exercise on this trip, but I realized how much I like and need that "me time". Twice we stayed in a hotel with a gym and each time I went in the morning and worked out. It's amazing to me how focused you are on your diet when you work out in the am. The rest of the days, we spent doing all sorts of fun stuff.

We hiked up and down into a volcano in New Mexico. We hiked at Garden of the Gods. We walked all over Boulder. We hiked up to a mountain waterfall and had a picnic. We fished and hiked around a mountain lake-twice. We went rafting. It was really too much fun. The kids had a blast.

My only regret is I didn't stick to my goal of doing the C25K week 5 day 3. A lot of it was schedule, but some was the altitude and not knowing any good route to run. So, I hadn't run in nearly 2 weeks before this am. I restarted week 5 today as I thought it would be setting myself up to fail to try that 25 minute run when I haven't done any running in 2 weeks.

It was really, really hard. I didn't think I could finish and my pace was worse than before. BUT. I. DID. Finish. I jogged all my intervals without walking. I felt extremely tired afterward. I didn't necessarily feel triumphant or more energetic. I do however feel proud that I was able to muddle through. I guess there are just days that are easier than others. Isn't that true about everything?

The best part of all is that I got up yesterday morning to return to the real world without my usual post-vacation food-binge hangover. I did not feel guilty or particularly bloated. I did not have to swear to myself to never do that again. I did not regret the Hershey bar or ice cream or Doritos or even the Pepsi. Why? Because I was in control of my food. Food didn't control me.