Post-Holiday Debriefing

Well, I have officially maintained through the Holidays. Huzzah!

I stepped on the scale this morning, and I am actually a couple of pounds down from just before Thanksgiving. Yay! Now, to be fair, there were ups and downs. I seemingly gained about 5 pounds over three days surrounding Christmas, but I'm thinking a lot of that was water weight, given all of the salty food I ingested (tasty, but salty), because it dropped right off after a couple of days back on my normal routine of diet and exercise.

I quite enjoyed the Holidays, and I can say honestly that I do not feel like I missed out on anything at all. I got a helping of all of my favorite foods, and I even had some sweets. I balanced the heavier eating with more physical activity (and I only ate "heavier" on a few of the days, most of the time, I stuck to my routine diet ) Instead of filling my time off with lazy days on the couch, I enjoyed San Diego with my husband. We went on several beautiful long walks and hikes along the coast and we went to Disneyland a couple of times. If you can avoid the junk food, Disneyland and the area surrounding it provides a nice place to walk around and get some exercise on a day off. It did rain quite a lot, and I went to the gym on those days and did Zumba or got a workout on the elliptical.

There were days when I went over my calories, but I didn't beat myself up. I think it is important to learn how to weather days when your diet and exercise routine doesn't go like you had planned without feeling horribly guilty. Hey, it happens. Learn from it and move on. My attitude is that tomorrow will be better. I have successfully gotten rid of all of the excess weight from 20+ years of terrible eating and exercise habits, one day is not going to kill me. That said, the second part is important too - learn from it.  I don't beat myself up, but I try to take note of what went wrong, so that I can avoid it happening again.

Example: I went on a really long walk (17 miles) on one of my days off. After the walk, I had some pizza, WAY too much pizza. It was delicious and I enjoyed it. Had I stopped at 1 or 2 pieces, it would have been perfect - but I could not get full, I was absolutely famished and I had 4 pieces (blushing) of pizza. ouch.  Okay, so crud...that was not the most healthy or productive thing I've ever done. I think my problem was that I did not have a proper lunch because I knew I was going to have pizza, so I didn't pack enough food for my little picnic lunch at the half-way point of my walk.  I just had fruit and a half a cup of cheerios. Um, yeah, not enough sustenance, I'm lucky I didn't hurt myself.   Next time (1) I will pack a proper healthy lunch, with appropriate nutrients (2) I will have a few veggies BEFORE consuming my pizza to help alleviate some of my hunger and to start to fill my stomach before I dive face-first into said pizza, and (3) I will drink a good amount of water with my pizza (or with the veggies before my pizza) to help me feel full faster. These things should help in the future, on the rare occasion that I decide to treat myself to hideous junk food after an intense, exhausting day of exercise. In the end, my calories were not so far over the goal I set, but calories are not the only thing on which to focus. I consumed WAY too much salt and the cheese and pepperoni are not great for my cholesterol. So, lesson learned. Am I going to deny myself pizza forever and ever - no. But, I'll be more reasonable next time I decide to treat myself. This weight loss thing is all a big learning process...and I'm still learning and adjusting.

Happy New Year!