Vacations and Weight . . . Oh My

As soon as school got out we went on vacation, pretty much. We headed out to Yellowstone and then to Montana to visit with Damon's family. I did pretty well at Yellowstone. I might not have done fabulously with eating, but the first night we got there I went on a walk with my dad (we even jogged--just for about thirty seconds, but STILL) and the next day we walked around at Yellowstone. So I figured that even if diet hadn't been great, at least I'd done SOME exercising.

In Montana however, I didn't do so well. My diet was WAY worse AND we didn't exercise all that much.

I was afraid to weigh myself when I got home. As a matter of fact I did some unhealthy things when I got home. And I took a couple of days to weight myself. When I did I was NOT happy. I had gained. Almost back to 190. Over the past week to two weeks? or so I've done better--well not better. If I know I'm going out to dinner that night and my calories will be high, then I don't eat until that time. It's the only I way I know how to manage the calories when I know I'm eating out.

Although I haven't done that very often I have done it. Anyway, my exercise hasn't been very good either, BUT, somehow I've gone back to around 184-185. Which makes me feel slightly better. I'm still trying to get down to that 182.

Here's the deal though. We go back on vacation July 10th and we are basically gone until August 10th. The first place we're going to--my friend Hilary--she has a treadmill and access to a sweet swimming pool so I can get myself exercising. BUT, the eating? Yeah, that won't be so great. And then off to New York and then North Carolina and I have NO idea how exercise is going to work out with that or eating.

OH, and my extended family is dealing with some SEVERE issues and there is a LOT of stress in their lives and by extension--mine. HUGE issues. The kinds of issues that we'll be dealing with for years to come. Divorce, mental breakdowns . . . just some really big things. And that has made my life at home very busy. So exercise is going by the wayside and I have to admit, because my stress levels have gone so high, they're beyond comfort food--we've actually entered the realm of the 'upset stomach' stress, so it's been really easy to not eat very much or well. Which isn't good either because that also messes up the whole metabolism thing.

All in all, things are bad right now. But still. I'm determined to not let myself go. Even if I don't get to lose this summer if I can maintain this weight range from 184-185, or even get down a couple more pounds, I think I'm going to try and just be stable. It is so hard to gain that weight back and have to start the cycle all over again. I do NOT want to do that. I don't. So even though things are hugely stressful, and we're having a huge vacation this summer, I need to take control and be in control.

So if I'm eating out, I'll eat really slowly and when I'm full, even if the food is delicious, I'll stop eating. Even if the plate is still half full, it's better to waste that food then to gain weight. And I'll try to do some exercises in my hotel room. And if that hotel has a place to exercise or swim, even though I hate exercising in front of people I'll try and do it. I know I'll be walking a LOT in New York, which is great. I can take control. I can maintain this weight even through all of this stuff. And eventually I can start losing again.

We can ALL do this.