I’m home from RT and exhausted. Yesterday was a long travel day and I stayed up in Ft. Lauderdale rather than driving home alone at night when I was tired. The tradeoff is that I got up at 5 a.m. and drove down today right to work. I won’t say that my entire brain is still in Kansas City, maybe just the part that I need to think.
My food was so-so over the past week. I was good on my plan most of the time but also veered off the straight and narrow sometimes. I know what the problem was — the frazzled, non-routine schedule. I felt not out of control, but not fully in control of the when, what and where of eating. I did what I could when I could but all too often found myself grabbing available foods at random when they were available. Not to bury myself in coulda/woulda/shoulda but I have to recognize that in order to have been more successful, I needed to be even more disciplined. And I wasn’t disciplined enough a number of times.
My body does not like this randomness and I don’t just mean in weight loss or lack. Physically, my stomach and digestive system do not react well if I shake up the program. Even if I didn’t eat too much, I often ate too fast and that alone can cause problems. One time I had to leave a party because we not only had to eat later than usual but I was starving so I didn’t take my measured bites. The food items were perfectly on plan, but it isn’t only what I eat but how I eat that affects me. My stomach began to hurt and I wasn’t at all sure that I wasn’t going to throw up in a few minutes. I didn’t, but the ache and the time to let it ease up wore me out.
Shaking up my food plan does a number on my digestion and how my body processes what I eat on its path to, let me say this discreetly, elimination. My systems are still adjusting today. I think I should be back on track by Wednesday. At least I hope so. Because of this aspect, I’m not exactly sure right now if I successfully maintained my weight number. I have learned that my body reacts to change by holding onto fluid and bloating up. It’s possible that I gained a few pounds but I know that, if I did, it really is water weight and should come off quickly.
All of this said, I can’t quite bring myself to regret experiencing crisp bacon strips dipped in chocolate at the chocolate fountain. Some things just must be tried and enjoyed. At least I walked away before I could make myself a complete oinker. I did, however, encourage even pushed friends into trying it too. There are several new bacon and chocolate converts in the world tonight.
I am very pleased that I absolutely took advantage of some down time to exercise. Even though it was a large hotel and conference center that called for a chunk of walking just to get to different activities and workshops, I purposely logged treadmill time twice at the fitness center and did some Tai Chi every day. That’s happened, like, never before at one of these conventions. I would have gone three times but I managed to work a blister on the bottom of one of my toes and it hurt like a bitch for two days whenever I walked.
Now that I’m home, the task ahead of me is to get right back on track with rigorous attention to detail and completely honest assessments of my progress. I’ve had a good day today and anticipate having another one tomorrow, then Wednesday and the day after and after and after. I can’t make it to Zumba tomorrow evening but am doing my best to flex out some time the following morning to squeeze in a class. Now that Nat, Pyxi and I are reunited, the morning and evening walks will resume to the benefit of all three of us.
Eventually, I will share additional photos. I have some on my camera but, honestly, I’m simply too wiped out to fool with them tonight. Please be patient.
Weighty Matters 
If you had fun, and you didn’t backslide, I’d call that a win!
Travelling and not being on schedule does throw people’s bodies off. I’m really impressed that you exercised. That, to me, is huge. You claimed that valuable time for yourself. Yah you!
You’ll get back to your new normal soon.
Glad you had a fabulous time at RT. It must be a hoot.
Well, even though you weren’t 100% disciplined, I am amazed at what you can accomplish at a huge conference! You still do very well. And your body is teaching you to pay attention even when you are busy. But now you are home, back with your puppies and can get back on track. Good for you for all you accomplished!