Vacation: All I Ever Wanted and Getting Back on Track

From June 20th through the 27th, my family and I vacationed in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It was a trip with a huge group of us going together, and I vowed that while I was on vacation, I would be mindful of what I was eating, but that I wasn't going to be strict about it.

Mindful totally went out the window.

First of all, let me say that my husband's family is the absolute LAST people you want to be around when you're trying to lose weight. My mother-in-law baked two cakes to bring with us. My husband's aunts brought brownies, cakes, cookies, and about anything else with enough calories and fat to choke a horse. When they cooked breakfast, there was nothing healthy to be found. Gravy, biscuits, bacon, sausage, country ham, etc. (and let me say that country ham has to be the worst breakfast food ever. I tried it one time, and the pure salt taste of it choked me to the point that I thought my throat was going to close. I would LOVE to know the sodium content in that crap. Luckily for me, I can pass on it easily because I hate it so.)

Anyway, temptations abounded in our hotel room and the meals that were eaten there. And I am a weak, weak woman and succumbed to those many temptations. Especially the two cakes baked by my mother-in-law, as they are probably two of the best things that the woman creates in the kitchen.

I cannot blame it all on my husband's family and their artery clogging cooking or food pushing skills. The second morning we were there, my husband and I took the kids out to breakfast at Friendly's. I could have scoured the menu and found the best option for my breakfast, but I didn't. Instead, I had pancakes with apples, walnuts and caramel, topped off with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. And bacon. And a Diet Coke, but at that point, what was the point? The only defense I had in ordering a Diet Coke with said meal is that I can't stand regular drinks anymore, milk makes me nauseous unless it is skim, and orange juice would have been nasty with that meal.

I proceeded to eat what I wanted and as much as I wanted during this entire trip. I did have some smart snacking options, and I exercised those options. But not nearly as often as I indulged in foods so sinful that I am almost certain I heard Satan applauding.

I didn't want to face the scale when I came back from vacation. I knew it was going to be bad, and I dreaded seeing that number. But I put on my big girl panties and hopped on the scale to assess the damage.

I gained 5.4 pounds. In a little over a week. That kinda speaks for itself.

I was very upset and very angry with myself. My husband and I made an agreement at my urging that we would try for Baby #3 when I lost 15% of my body weight. Was all that food I inhaled at the beach worth setting myself back that far? Isn't having a baby one of the most important things to me right now? How in the world could Swiss Chocolate Cake and pancakes with ice cream on them be more important to me than expanding our family?

Humiliated at my weakness and infuriated at the number on that scale, I decided to fight back. I vowed that this week would be better, and that I was going to stay on program. I was going to take out a chunk of that beach weight gain and say adios to it.

The week was not without low points. I had one particular weak moment when placed in a room alone with several dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, I consumed three of them. But I tried my best to compensate the rest of the week to even it out.

My disastrous beach weigh in was on Wednesday night. With my schedule at work being odd this week, I decided to do my next weigh in early. So I weighed in on Sunday night, four days after the post-beach binge weigh in.

I was down 2.3 pounds!

This proves to me that the program works when you follow it! I have been bolstered by this loss and vow to do my very best to stay on track. I know that we all stumble, and that this journey is going to have its ups and downs, its victories as well as defeats, its proud moments and its embarrassing ones. But I'm in this for the long haul, and I have to remain dedicated to making myself healthier and thinner. The power is in MY hands, and I have to take that seriously and stop letting food take control over my life.

So as of Sunday, I have 38.6 pounds left to lose before it becomes baby making time. Weight Watchers says that an average weight loss with their program is 0.5-1 pound per week. If I can keep at it, and stay on the upper end of that average, I could be trying to get pregnant by April. That kind of seems a long way off, but at the same time, it's a realistic goal. We'll see how well I do, and maybe I can beat the average and get there a little sooner.

But the one thing I do know is that I learned a very important lesson during my beach vacation: I cannot eat everything that tempts me in whatever quantity I want, or I'm going to stay fat and just gte fatter. And that while that food tastes great while I'm eating it, the taste of the disappointment that follows is very bitter, and it's a taste I don't care for. I'm stronger than that, and I'm changing my life!