Scale Surprise
These past couple weeks have been super super busy, which has made it really hard to stay on track. The weekend before last, I was in Philly from Saturday to Sunday to run the Broad Street Run with my sister, and then I went directly from her house to a staff retreat for my day job on Sunday night. I was at the staff retreat through Tuesday, and then back in the office Wednesday and Thursday. Friday, I took a vacation day from work and drove up to Woodstock, NY to see my family for Mother’s Day Weekend, and didn’t get back until after 10pm on Sunday night. Whew!
The staff retreat proved the hardest part of the past couple weeks for eating. We had it in an old farm house, and it was fully stocked with sour watermelons, M&Ms galore, chips, dorritos, skittles, party mix, cheesy poofs, sunchips, chocolate, pretzels… you name it. And that was just for snacks!
In addition, we had the meals catered and since we were in a pretty remote area, they were made by two sisters who cooked comfort food out of their home. Most of the food was heavy – think mac and cheese, spinach lasagna, cheesy pasta, pulled chicken, coleslaw, etc. I don’t do well having all that tempting food around me constantly, so I overdid it pretty badly with the snacks and the meals alike. I also won a crab eating contest and picked and ate 17 crabs on Monday night, so that didn’t help much either. 
The weekend at my sister’s house in Woodstock was a lot better health wise, because now all five members of my immediate family are following Weight Watchers, even my dad! This is HUGE and something I never thought I would see. He is the one who initially inspired me to try Atkins because he had such success on the program without having to use moderation, so for him to adopt a program based around moderation has been so awesome. He and my mom have lost over 8lbs each in just a few weeks on the program!! I am so happy for them.
Anyway, since everyone was trying to be on track, the meals were pretty healthy throughout the weekend, though the wine and booze were flowing from dinner on both nights. Each of my sisters took on two meals, while I was in charge of Mother’s Day brunch since I’m the only female non-mother. Though, my 4 (and a half!!) year old niece Claire did ask me, “Auntie Beth, Do you hope to one day be a mother?” Oh, kids.
The biggest saving grace during the past two weeks of busyness has been that I have been REALLY consistent with working out, and for that, I’m proud! I got in four solid workouts both weeks despite traveling quite a bit, and you can see what I’ve been up to workout wise here, but I’ve basically been running a couple times a week, doing strength training, and using the stairmill for cross training. I even got an 8 mile run in with my sister on Saturday in Woodstock!
I already tried to take control of the meals that I could. When I was home/not traveling, I stuck fully to my PointsPlus for the day and prepared healthy meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Even while gone, I tried my best to start the day with a healthy breakfast, and then made sure to get in a lots of fruit and veggies throughout the day. I also tried to keep hydrated and drank a good amount of water throughout those two weeks. In short, I did the best I could.
So, I honestly wasn’t sure WHAT to expect when I stepped up on the scale yesterday. When I did, and found out I was down 1 pound from two weeks ago, I was actually really pleased!
The last time I weighed in and lost a pound in one week, I was a little disappointed because I had tracked EVERYTHING I’d eaten and didn’t have that many obstacles that week to get in the way of losing weight. This time, I had a lot of things going on and didn’t track completely the whole time, so I am really proud of that pound.
That means, two pounds down in 3 weeks back on the program and I am feeling good!