The Vacation Challenge

I'm back after a two-week vacation, and while I've missed two weeks of posting, I haven't stopped following Shirley--for the most part, anyway.  I did stop writing down what I ate, which is not recommended, but I didn't stop trying to stick with the plan as much as possible.  But considering that in the past a vacation, especially with a road trip, was my chance to overeat, I think I did pretty well.

During the trip there were two birthday celebrations, complete with trips to Olive Garden restaurant and cake and ice cream for dessert.  I had some fairly fattening restaurant meals, and did have one piece of cake and a serving of ice cream each time.  But I didn't go back for seconds on cake and ice cream, and I ended up taking home leftovers from my restaurant meals, substituting them for other meals on subsequent days.

Trying to save money, John and I ate in the hotel room most of the time, which left us limited in terms of what meals we could make, since our room didn't have a microwave.  But I didn't overindulge in snack foods, as I might have in the past, for the most part keeping my snacking to veggies or yogurt in small quantities with the occasional handful of potato chips or small piece of chocolate. There were a few meals eaten at restaurants, but again I tried to choose wisely and saved the leftovers.  I also ate with my mother a few times at her nursing home.  Though the food there was not gourmet, it was good and mostly nutritious.

I prepared for the trip by taking my scale and measuring devices, though I didn't always use them. And we exercised as much as we could, with cleaning and moving work as well as walks when we had the chance, so I think that I didn't gain any weight, though I probably didn't lose any either.  I'll find out tomorrow, when I do the weigh in.

My most important achievement on this trip is that I didn't fall off the diet wagon, going on a binge or abandoning the eating plan.  I did the best I could, given the challenges, and I'm completely satisfied with my overall performance because a diet disaster was avoided.  I turned what would normally have been an occasion to overeat into two weeks of normal eating, or at least how I imagine people without eating disorders eat on vacation: little indulgences here and there, but mostly not making food the centerpiece of their trip.

So all and all, a successful two weeks.  Now I'm back at it, and looking forward to an ordinary week of following Shirley!

Week 10: Re-Discovering Life's Other Pleasures

Week 10 was a fairly standard week, though I did help with setting up a Cinco de Mayo nachos lunch for our employees.  Though I would have eaten my share of nachos in the past, this time I didn't partake at all, finding that nothing we were serving was on my diet.  I must admit that as I was making the beans the night before I sampled them several times to make sure they tasted okay, and didn't account for that extra.

The second challenge I had this week was to eat a corn muffin, made from Jiffy Mix. I made some meatball chili last night and decided to make the corn muffins to go with it.  I had one muffin with my meal, eating slowly, and didn't feel the desire for more.  I counted it as a weekend treat, an extra two breads, one of the choices on the Controlled Exchange program.

I had not been indulging in the weekend extras because I felt like I've been eating enough and didn't want to jeopardize weight loss by eating more.  Since I didn't lose any weight last week I think that's a real danger.  But I wanted to try it once, anyway.

One thing I've noticed this week is that no one seems to be hassling me about not eating.  Of course, my colleagues wouldn't, since they're a polite lot, although one person did express sadness that I didn't get to eat any of the nachos I had so nicely prepared for others.

I've often heard that view over the years, especially from people who like to eat: eating is one of life's pleasures, so why deny yourself?  Shirley Simon would say that such a statement is a subtle example of the Good Time Charlie subterfuge: "happiness comes from eating.  Unfortunately, this pleasure, like all good things in life, carries with it a high price tag.  But [GTC's] rationalization is that in order to get something of value you must be willing to give something up--in this case, good looks, good health, a sense of dignity, and a host of other expendables" (30).

There are other pleasures in life besides eating, as I'm re-discovering.  It was pleasing to me, for instance, to present a nachos lunch that everyone liked.  And I really didn't miss the fat, salt, and calories.

I plan to continue to assign eating a less important role in my life.  Thanks to Shirley and my husband, I'm hopeful I'll succeed.