October 14, 2012
For several days prior to my work trip, I was slightly very panicked about how being away from home would affect my daily routine. You see, underneath this cool, calm exterior (ha!), I’m an overplanner and preemptive panicker. Would I have time to work out? How would I prepare my usual meals without a refrigerator, microwave, or toaster? Is the hotel within walking distance of any vegan, or even healthyish restaurants? Does the hotel restaurant have any nutritious options available?
The answers to my questions were: technically yes but I was too tired to do so, I couldn’t unless I wanted to eat peanut butter sandwiches every day, no, and yes. Before I left, I did plan and take advantage of being home as much as possible by getting a lot of exercise in and packing travel-friendly foods like bananas, apples, Larabars, a loaf of bread, and a jar of no-fridge-needed peanut butter. I also checked out the hotel restaurant’s menu and found that they had a decent selection of veganish offerings like steel cut oats, grilled vegetable platters, veggie wraps, and veggie pasta.
But the healthy eating lasted about 6 hours into the first 18 hour day before I drop kicked the plan out of the window of a tall building. I won’t bore you with the details, but I was certainly NOT counting points or calories, nor was I being even slightly veganish. Eggs, butter, cheese, bacon, and turkey were consumed. And ice cream. There goes my streak! I’m not giving it up though; I’m back to being animal-free today.
So what was the damage? I didn’t have access to a scale for my usual Saturday morning naked weigh-in, but when I got home last night and weighed myself the number was scary bad. It was late and I had eaten a bunch; I knew it wasn’t real, so I’m counting this morning’s weight. Four days of double my calories/points and zero exercise:
|
Weight |
Difference |
Total Loss |
| Week 76 |
152.8 |
+4.6 |
130.5lbs |
And back to the 150s I go! I kinda want to blame it on PMS, but considering how much I stuffed my face it should’ve been worse. This test was absolutely, positively, a failure on paper. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m feeling pathetic and down on myself either. Per my week 74 post, at this work conference, I saw hundreds of colleagues for the first time in over two years. I knew that they’d be surprised, but I didn’t think that people would flat out not recognize me at all. Most of them I’ve known for over a decade! Either they’d give me a tentative hug while desperately trying to place me, or sneak a glance at my name tag before realizing it was their old pal Mae.
This is how they remember me, in 2010 (not even at my heaviest):
And this is 2012. Please excuse my haggard appearance. I think this was hour 13 of day 1.
If you’ve never heard of my company, we are a children’s play and fitness corporation (mommy & me, childhood development and socialization, early gymnastics, sports training, etc). The majority of our staff and franchise owners have a fitness background and are generally just healthy and active people. I’m the geeky, technical, artistic, and behind-the-scenes person, so my appearance doesn’t necessarily matter, but I definitely feel like I can represent the company much more appropriately with my new lifestyle. Not that my coworkers (extended family, really) didn’t care about me or love me just as much 130 pounds ago, but I know that they are proud of me and all of the positive changes I have made for myself these past 17 months.
Whenever someone would come up to me and ask me how I did it, I proudly answered, “the old-fashioned way: regular exercise and healthy eating with the help of Weight Watchers.” Some of them actually said they were relieved to learn that I did it the natural way, rather than going the surgery route (not judging, honest!), via an eating disorder or other fad diet. One franchisee even told me that she follows my blog (HI THERE!) and is in the middle of Couch 2 5K right now! That was so awesome to hear. What we do here in the healthy living blogging world can be contagious, in a good way, and that is one of the big reasons I ramble on and on for you all.
Now it’s back to reality, for a short while anyway, and I’m so glad to be home to my own kitchen, dojo, bed, and Bowie. There are two more travel tests coming up, both to New York, and if I can just ace one of them I think I’ll be in good shape. Just four days until I fly out there for my photo shoot! They sent me a LONG checklist of stuff to prepare, and now that seminar is behind me I can get excited about it. And plan the hell out of it.
I leave you with this gorgeous photo of the view from my hotel room. I love Los Angeles.
Posted by Mae in Cravings & Indulgences, Progress Report, Weight Gain, Weight Watchers
