The Disney part of the vacation was done on Saturday. We started the day in Animal Kingdom and quickly decided that next time we will not visit a park on our leaving travel day. We were pretty well spent from the week and knew we had about a 6 hour drive ahead of us. We ended up leaving the park even earlier than we had originally planned and were on the road around 1 PM.
Our plan for that Saturday was to drive to South Carolina, spend the night and then drive to Maryland the next day. My husband had a conference that he had to get to on Sunday evening so we had no choice but to go straight there. When we originally planned this trip he thought the conference was the following week. So after another 2 days of driving we arrived at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, MD.
Here's the real kicker. Because Mary had to get back home for dance team practices we decided that I would drive from Maryland to PA to meet my parents. Yes, my parents are amazing. Not only did they take our son for 5 days, but drove 3 hours one way to pick them up! My parents took the kids and dropped Mary at our neighbors and took Robbie home with them. I ventured BACK to Maryland to have some quality time with my hubby.
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| One of the only pics I got while at National Harbor |
Once again I noticed some pretty major changes that have happened with my way of thinking. I was very frustrated Monday night because I got stuck in some major traffic on my way back to National Harbor. It was now almost 8 by the time I was back and showered and the only food I had all day was when I met my parents in PA around 1 PM. I was irritated and hungry. We went to Cadillac Ranch and they have these "nacho's" on their menu that are basically loaded waffle fries. Um, yum! In the past I would have easily shared that appetizer with Drew and then also get an entire meal myself. I decided that their Two Apples Spinach Salad sounded really good and it was basically a side salad so it wouldn't be huge. I still had wine and I'm still positive this meal was way more calories than I needed; but the big deal is that I would have eaten a lot more even just a year ago. The other difference is the salad is really what sounded the best to me. And OMG it was good!
So back in 2015 when we went to Disney we actually did the same trip. We went straight from Disney to National Harbor because Drew attended the same conference. That time the kids stayed in National Harbor with us. I really wish that this time Mary and I would have taken the time to recreate the above pic. I actually really loved this pic in 2015 even though I couldn't stand how I looked. It's unfortunate I don't have one from this year to show you.
So during this week I actually think I probably did more "damage" than the week at Disney. I'm not sure that I was eating much more, but I wasn't taking 20,000+ steps a day. I spent time during the days working (since I work remotely and Drew was in meetings anyway) and then in the evenings we would walk to dinner and walk around the harbor for a little while. I did go down to the gym on both Tuesday and Wednesday so I was proud of myself for that.
I ended up buying Mary a shirt that I think I might end up stealing. I was texting her pics of the shirts to choose from and it ended up that the one she liked best didn't have any in XS. The smallest they actually had in that one was a medium; but she decided she liked it enough and would wear it big. This shirt looked quite big to me so I decided to try it on back in our room. I texted her this pic and told her that I might just keep the shirt for myself! I know this shirt is cut big, but I still can't believe I fit into any medium size shirt! I probably will end up wearing it more than Mary will 😆
We got home on Thursday evening and on Friday I stepped on the scale to see my official post vacation weigh in. I was a little nervous because on one hand I had given myself permission to gain weight and as long as I didn't see 200 again I told myself I'd be OK. BUT, I had been feeling like I really did such a good job so I really didn't think I should have gained a ton so I was nervous to see what the scale would reflect. Friday morning the scale read 195.2! That's only a gain of 3.2 pounds in 2 weeks of being away! 2 weeks of eating out for every meal of every day. 2 weeks of giving myself permission to eat whatever I wanted; whenever I wanted. 2 weeks of drinking plenty of wine!
Now here's the kicker and here is where I have always struggled. I decided to let myself continue to have the weekend and just get back to it on Monday. That's a slippery slope because it gets harder and harder to get back on track once you let yourself hit pause for a while. What I will tell you though is that I don't think it's going to be that hard. I have goals. I think I've finally convinced myself that I CAN do this and that I WILL do this this time. I am so proud of where I'm at, but I'm not yet content. Remember how I talked about already feeling complacent last year on my birthday? Basically because I was fitting into clothes that I had in my closet that hadn't fit yet, I was finding it harder and harder to stay on track. Now, I've had to go out and buy new clothes because the clothes I have don't fit; but this time it drives me to continue to stay on track. I have a bag full of size 12 clothes from my sister that I want to fit into.
So getting back on track after vacations has notoriously been harder for me than not gaining a ton of weight when ON vacation. If I look at my weight from some of the other Disney trips we've taken, I usually gain only a couple of pounds.....but then in the next few weeks of being home I gain several more pounds! I went back to weighing myself every day because I do think that for now it has been helping me. Saturday my weight jumped more than a pound, but I didn't panic. I knew that I was going to get back on track on Monday and that I didn't actually GAIN more than a pound overnight. The next morning it went down .2 and on Sunday it went down another .2. By yesterday morning the scale read 196.2 - so another pound up from Friday and 4.2 pounds up from the start of the vacation. Honestly, I was fine with this.
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| Mary and I are the big blue blob. It was raining and Mary and I were sharing a poncho (long story) so we covered ourselves with it for the ride. We were laughing the whole time. |
I never gave myself a number of what I would be OK with me gaining while on vacation, but I think I always had 5 lbs in my head. I wanted my weight to be 195 so that I'd have that 5 pound buffer. So I think that's why the 4.2 pounds didn't bother me because it was still less than 5 and I had definite plans to get back on track. I also know that because it came on so quickly it will likely come off quickly. It's not actual fat; it's water weight and bloat.
So yesterday was the day to get back to it. I hate calling it back on track because I don't necessarily see what I was doing as being "off track". I was consciously not trying to lose weight for those 2 weeks. Anyway, yesterday started another time period of being more "strict" with my food choices. I went back to what worked so well in April. I stayed 100% on program yesterday eating my 3 meals and Enlightened bar to end my day. I ate nothing in between meals and ended my day having used 20 of my 23 points. According to MFP it was right around 1500 calories. I also got back to drinking my water. I have been pretty perfect with drinking a gallon (or just slightly under) of water EVERY DAY. These last 2 weeks I maybe drank half that amount (or even less than half). When I got on the scale this morning it had dropped 3 pounds from yesterday! That means I am only 1.2 pounds away from my pre-vacation weight after just ONE day of being strict.
From April 1st to May 1st I lost 14.6 pounds. I tracked every single day and never went over my weekly points. From May 1st to May 26th I lost 2.2 pounds. I also did not track 9 of those 26 days in May. My plan is to get back to that tracking every day and staying within my points for the next 25 days.
Back to it! I have goals to crush!
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