Trip Eating

I fully expected to step on the scale and find horrors after this last week of being away from home. There were a lot of foods eaten that don't fit within the healthy guidelines we've tried to set for ourselves. A couple of standouts include three different pie binges bordering on a half a pie each - that's just my consumption - and the Costco muffins that found their way into several meals. That all of this was preceded by my birthday feast day caused me to expect the worst.

However, the scale reading did not suffer much. I was only up a pound from the reading of the week before. And, oddly, my body fat was down. Now, I did/am still suffer/ing from other effects...tummy trouble, hot flashes and ongoing cravings. My stomach feels bigger - perhaps there is bloating? But, the scale isn't alarmed.

I attribute this to a few things. One is that I ran or did another cardiovascular workout every day except our driving days in addition to a couple of sessions of yoga, general stretching and walks. Another is that, the above mentioned large indiscretions aside, I did make good food choices many, many times.

I'd say that at least half of my meals were healthy by my standards. Plus another good quarter were almost totally healthy with small additions of not so healthy selections. I made my apple cinnamon two different mornings, with enough for leftovers for Davan and I on two additional mornings. I made my African Bean Soup on the first day we were there and had it as leftovers for two more meals. I made huge batches of each recipe so that there would be enough for my extended family to partake, if they desired. I made orange/spinach smoothies two different mornings. When we were going to be out of the house and I figured we'd get hungry, I packed up snacks from the house - some or all of the following - this being what we had on hand: apples, carrot juice, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, Lara bars, Cuties, pita bread, hummus, waters in bottles (we really don't care for the tap water in CA).

I went shopping with my grandma the first day we were there to insure there would be food on hand that we could eat. In addition to the above mentioned foods, I stocked up on pomegranates (which were great for seeding while sitting around chatting, especially when others were eating things I didn't want to partake in), spinach, Superfood (maybe not the best ever food, but with some greens), and broccoli. We ate the broccoli raw, steamed and in the soup.

We only ate one meal out, which was dinner on they way home yesterday when the food I'd scrounged to take along was gone.

I decided where I wanted to splurge, which was mostly desserts, other than stuffing and mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving, and avoided splurging in other ways that would be less enjoyable for me.

All-in-all, considering the circumstances, I think I did okay. I'd have liked to have been even better, but I don't feel too horribly about my choices.

Anthony, on the other hand...well, his scale reading is less forgiving. He chose to indulge a great deal more than I did. Will that change the choices he makes for the next trip? I don't know, but we'll find out soon.

We leave for WDW on Saturday. This trip will be different, though. We're flying, not driving. We're flying first class, thanks to Mom and her frequent flier miles, so there will be food on the flight and we've already decided to eat it rather than pack food. That will be a check in the not so great column. That will be on both the way there and the way back. We have one scheduled Disney dinning experience, which will be a serious indulgence. There was supposed to be a wedding...but that's not going to happen, however, there will probably be a family get together the day that was supposed to be the wedding and, if so, I'm sure that will involve food.

Tallied on the "we could make good choices here" side, we'll be staying in our own place with a kitchen and we will have a rental car. We can shop and keep only good foods on hand. We're planning on packing in lunches when we go to the parks and eating breakfast and dinner at "home." I won't have all day to be making food, so food won't be the same as at home, but there are some fairly quick things that aren't too difficult to make. I am also seriously thinking of packing some food from home for insurance.

I plan on having on hand - apples, bananas, other easy fruit, baby carrots, natural peanut butter, healthy canned soups, broccoli, salads in bags, brown rice pasta, decent marinara sauce, pitas, bread (preferably sprouted), hummus (which we use as a travel food rather than as a staple at home), Lara bars, Boca burgers, and...I don't know. That's all I've thought of for sure.

It could go well, food wise, or it might be very difficult. I'll give you the report after!