Oh how I missed Thee, let me expound upon the ways.......

We are back from Florida! It was a fabulous trip and very relaxing. The ocean was gorgeous and the weather beautiful. I missed so many things while we were gone. I missed my goats, my horse Champ, my dogs. I missed my bed, and I missed talking to my sister nearly every day. I missed my weight watchers buddies as well, but there is something that I missed even more than all those things. The thing that I missed the most and the thing that made me the happiest to get back to was my FOOD. Oh whole grains, how you make me happy! Dear lovely unprocessed, homemade food, how I love thee! Our condo had a full kitchen and we went grocery shopping late Saturday afternoon upon arrival. However, most of the things that I fix myself to eat here at home are a bit labor intensive and I didn't want to spend all of my time in the kitchen. Breakfast every day was cereal and toast with cream cheese. I bought whole grain bread (Arnold 100% whole wheat and it was delicious!), peppers, mushrooms, onions, pickles, ham and turkey. That means that every single day we were gone I had a sandwich for lunch. I like sandwiches, but that was a bit much! Supper is what presented the biggest problem. I did by pre-cooked grilled chicken strips and some rice in a pouch that you nuke in the microwave so that sauteed with some peppers, mushrooms, and onions was supper two nights. Two nights we had Pizza Hut hand tossed pizza, one night we had CANNED CHILI (Yuck!), and even though I had turkey chili, it wasn't good at all. One night I grilled me a sandwich and had fries with that. I also drank diet soda for the first time in months! I was craving good wholesome food so badly!!

We worked out every single morning that we were in Florida except for Thurday and then the Saturday morning that we left to come home. I completed week 7 of my C25K program and we walked for miles on the beach, and played in the ocean for hours. It was great! I didn't weigh while I was gone because I didn't have my scale, but when I weighed this morning I was down 2 pounds, whoo hooo! TOM has his toe on the scale too, so I was very very happy with that.

This trip was a gi-freakin-normous NSV (non-scale victory) for me. I was so worried about taking this trip, being away from my good food and my tracker. My entire goal for this Weight Watchers program is to be like a "normal" person. I want to be normal about food. I want to be able to pig out on Thanksgiving or any other occasion, and then go right back to eating normally the next day, like my mom and my sister do. On previous weight loss journeys, I have done ok as long as I didn't fall off the wagon. Once I fell off, the damned thing would run me over, drag me down the street, and then drop me on a train track so that the train could hit me too!! It would take me months and yes sometimes even years, to get straightened back out. I was so afraid to "live a little" on vacation so I was allowing myself to get stressed. However, after a couple days of being gone, I loosened up. I allowed myself to enjoy the pizza from Pizza Hut, and even ate a couple mini powdered donuts of my daughter's. I was thrilled to realize that what I was missing most was my good and wholesome food! I couldn't wait to get home so that I could have whole wheat pancakes (which I made the first morning we were back) and my sweet and spicy chicken pasta! We have been back since 11PM Saturday evening and I have had no desirings to get off plan. I really cannot express how this makes me feel. I know that alot of you will know exactly what I mean! It's a good feeling and a truly FABULOUS NSV!!! I feel empowered and for the first time I truly feel like I can whip this demon for good!!!

Till next time.....God Bless and Happy Thankgiving!

I'm still unTHICKINandsoTHINNIN!!