January 1, 2012 wrapped up week 23 of my Transformation Day 2012 challenge. As many of you have come to expect from me lately, this week’s update includes some bad news along side buckets of optimism!
Last week, my family and I spent the week in Panama City Beach, Florida. Considering the temperatures here in Indiana stayed firmly in the darned-cold range, you can imagine how thrilled I was to spend some time on the beach (even though the water was about 60 degrees and the air temps ran in the low-to-mid 60s most days.) Although I got more exercise than usual — playing in the surf, walking in the sand, etc — my eating went to you-know-where in near-record time.
My husband and I planned for healthy eating. After all, there’s nothing worse than being on vacation, wanting to enjoy the sites and the venue, and being paralyzed by the effects of sugar and grain. We packed a cooler for the 700-mile drive. We ate on-plan on the way down, and we had hoped for some “real food” by the time we arrived at the condo that first night. Unfortunately though, it didn’t work out that way. After being on the road for 13 hours, we drug ourselves upstairs to find a kitchen and pantry full of more sugar and grain than I’d seen in a long time. Fred had some ham that Mom had fixed the day before, and I ate some Slim Jims and went to bed. (I don’t like ham.)
The next morning, Mom was so sweet. She fixed eggs for me and Fred, and after we’d gotten some coffee in us, we went over to Panama City to hit up Sam’s Club for real food. We came back with a whole pile of ground beef, chicken breast, and frozen veggies. I was so optimistic!
Wednesday was when it all started to unravel for me though. There was so much junk food in the condo — candy, chips, pretzels, ice cream, Pop Tarts, homemade cookie bars — but the straw that broke the camel’s back were the donuts! My mom and my brother came back from an early-morning donut run with every kind of pastry you could imagine. Worst of all though, they brought back two, large cheese danishes. I was sunk!
I kept trying to start my days with good food choices, but by the end of each day, I found myself eating candy or ice cream or pastry. Even my husband, who usually has few issues with food and cravings, ended up having some pretzels, a seven layer cookie, and some donuts. He was treated to a migraine the next morning for his choices.
Under normal circumstances, when I’m well-seated in my low-carb eating, those items wouldn’t call to me. In this situation though, I was bombarded with junk from every direction. I couldn’t get away from it, and since I wasn’t existing in a no-fail environment, I failed.
Fortunately, it was a vacation. And since last week’s vacation was only the third vacation I’d had in almost 12 years of marriage, there were definitely some unusual circumstances. I won’t be dealing with those sorts of issues on a daily basis here in my home. Still, I had no idea how hard it was going to be.
So the damage . . .
I weighed myself on 12/23/11 and I weighed 250.4 pounds. When I stepped on the scale yesterday morning, I weighed 257.4 pounds. This morning, I’d recovered slightly, weighing in at 256.2 pounds. I know that I’m retaining a lot of water because I’m no longer fat-adapted. I’m also experiencing a temperamental digestive system as a result of my bad food choices last week, so I know some of this weight will come off over the next week. That being said though, I’ll still likely work for weeks to get back down under 250 pounds. Losing weight can be simple, but it’s never easy.
With the passing of New Year’s Day, most folks have already made their New Year’s resolutions. I don’t bother with New Year’s resolutions; making them feels like I’m setting myself up for failure. Since we arrived home in the early hours of January 2 though, getting back into the swing of things essentially coincides with New Year’s Day. I’m OK with that. I’ve been working on this since July, and at my current pace, I’ll be working on it long past December 21, 2012. I’m fine with that though. I’m learning so much about myself along the way, and these lessons are sure to help things stick long-term. I’m not discouraged; I’m simply educated. Most importantly though, I’m back into the swing of things here at home.
I loved Panama City Beach. I loved spending time with my family. I loved sitting outside and just listening to the ocean. More than all that though, I loved coming home. We were so blessed to have that experience, and I’ll never forget it. Again though, I couldn’t be more glad to come home!