BACK ON

I am back online and getting back on plan.  I had the experience many people talk about - I was away from blogging, reading blogs and surfing the net for over a week.  It was odd at first,  I felt a bit remiss, like I neglected to say goodbye before leaving on a long trip or something.  Then I just sort of went on with life.  Life does that.  It fills in around the empty spaces of time and then they aren't empty anymore.

We had a lovely trip for our anniversary.  We went back to the little inn where we stayed for our first anniversary 25 years before.  It is much more upscale now and we enjoyed the very good food in the dining room and the short stumble up the stairs to our spacious room after significant quantities of wine.  The weather was fabulous - warm and sunny.  We hiked around and found places on the beaches and bluffs to camp out in the sun with our books, watching the birds riding the up currents of air and enjoyed a coral colored sunset.

I was not "on plan" in the least.  I had a taste of how I might live when I am not counting calories and living by my current rules.  My husband has been very supportive of my diet plan, but he has been a bit bothered by my not drinking when we've gone out in the last 6 months.  I had both cocktails and wine on this trip.  I had bread which was not whole grain, I ate some home fried potatoes, we shared a dessert one night and I had a pastry for breakfast one morning. 

The pastry choice as a real splurge - there was not a whole grain option and pastries were the only thing available.  The other things I ate just a bit and enjoyed the taste.  I left food on my plate from the two breakfast meals.  Dinner options were great and I had "light" choices and I ate every delicious bite.  The night of much wine following cocktails I ate more bread than I normally would -  it was GOOD bread and the excuse in my head, of course, was it would sop up the alcohol!  I didn't have a hangover in the morning - but I think that is luck - not bread!

But we walked a lot and climbed up and down the cliff to get to and from the beach. My husband is not one to just sit around when we are travelling, but we did have a very relaxing time.

So now I am getting back on plan.  Oatmeal with berries for breakfast as soon as I finish this post.  Glad to be back online and looking forward to catching up with everyone.

REPORTING BACK TO DUTY

I keep feeling like I must report back to duty after my few days "off" from my diet regime. When I last posted I mentioned that I had a stressful week but managed to meet my goal. Before we left and I was getting everything ready; the house, the laundry, packing, meal planning, snacks for the plane trip, altering clothes, attending Ally's performances - all the little details. Our dog sitter cancelled and I had to find a new one, then the dog developed a sore on her face and I had to make an appointment with the Vet. So yes, stress. And I went off plan - overate, but still met my goal of losing 2 pounds.

I have not weighed in since I got back last night, I had no specific goal for my trip, just to enjoy myself and to get back onto my plan when I got back...

Day one of the trip was fine, diet wise. I had food from home in my carry on and we had a nice dinner at a Greek restaurant. I tried Limoncello for the first time and enjoyed the dips with pita bread, but not to excess!

Once there, the hotel breakfast had a few options which were not bad, like eggs and fruit. Lunches and dinners I did pretty well, too. No really big bad splurges. I tried some of the good bread at lunch one day (no butter.) I shared dessert twice, had a couple of nice salads and an amazing Salmon BLT sandwich on this wonderfully crunchy wheat bread. I had a very nice martini and a couple of glasses of champagne.

The trip home was a different story. Even though we got to the airport at 5:30 for a 7:10 am flight, the security line was so long (shame on you Philly airport!) we didn't have the time we expected we would for breakfast. They were actually boarding our flight when we got there. I grabbed pre-wrapped scones from a vendor and hoped that we would have time during our change of planes 4 hours later to do better...

In Salt Lake City we only had about 20 minutes instead of the hour we were scheduled to have and the choices were pretty slim (and dim). I ended up with a California Pizza Kitchen Margarita Pizza. It tasted great and really made me feel guilty until I found the calorie count online and it wasn't as bad as I expected. It was actually about equal to a salad I looked at and rejected because it had red peppers in it (I can't eat peppers.)

So, my trip was carb heavier than I have been eating and this morning I was feeling it. I was craving carbs. So I will have to go through carb detox again. Sigh. Tomorrow I will weigh in.

ROAD TRIP

I am off on a road trip with my youngest daughter to visit colleges. We will be heading up the northern California coast and into Oregon. A very long car trip. I plan to stick with my diet and since she is trying to drop a few pounds for her prom dress, she is motivated to eat well, too.

I booked hotels with pools and one with a gym, so we will get some exercise in - although those campus tours tend to be very long walks up and down, around and around!

I will be back on Sunday!