Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Another summer of depravity survived

I just got back from vacation to a hurricane (actually, not metaphorically).

Vacation was great and totally helpful.  Life is crazy, and sometimes I need to force myself to sit still for a period of time and get needed rest and thinking time.  I find it much easier to think about the long view when I'm not running through the rapid-fire paces of regular life.  

From a health and wellness perspective, here is how the vacation went...
  • Breakfast:  good.  On plan.
  • Exercise:  hit the local gym and got in some good miles on my bike.  I also managed to get in about an hour of walking just about every day.  
  • Lunch:  surprisingly good.  I ate at the house or packed a lunch most days.  I had lots of fruit around, so I never felt the need to pack a bag of chips.  
  • Snacking:  well...  too much dip makes Dave a weak-willed boy.  There was some minor binging here.
  • Dinner:  not terrible.  
  • Dessert:  I was definitely a little weak-willed here as well.  
Interestingly, I kept feeling like I was being terribly gross and slothful.  Yet everything I went back over the day, I realized that I was actually making pretty decent choices.  I find it interesting that when it comes to my own self-appraisal, I'm guilty until proven innocent.  

We got in Friday night to the threat of impending doom in the form of some ill-tempered woman named Irene.  She was a very unpleasant sort, spewing rain, wind and calamity everywhere she went.  She came and went.  My little town in CT was hit fairly hard as was the case with much of my state.  Lots of flooding (I'm on the coast) and seemingly infinite power outages.  More than half of CT was without power by Sunday night, a sad, new record.  Over the weekend's ravages, I found myself performing day-in-and-out of manual labor, slugging around bags of sand, hauling big, dead branches and shifting around lots of outdoor furniture.  [Sadly, I couldn't help but think about all the Activity Points I was picking up.]  We made it through in one piece, un-flooded and still with power (we were among the lucky 30% in our town).  

Now the weather is strangely beautiful and I'm back in the office.  It's fall!  Well, technically, it's still Summer, but it's Fall to me.  I always see this as a great time of year to really get back into a good routine and focus on Program adherence.  Summer always deals a minor weight gain, and this one is no exception.  Getting back on routine is a great way to nip it in the bud.  I'm off to a good start, and I hit the gym Monday and Tuesday morning with a furious vengeance.  I'm also throttling back mindless snacking, which is a feat made easier by being a lot more busy.

Adding more to this post for the first entry yesterday (Tuesday):  I'm now on day three, post vacation and post-hurricane (it's Wednesday).  As noted, I always feel like my vacation/summer time feels a little out-of-control and overly mindless.  I have to say that it really does feel better to be back in the flow of things.  Indulgences are down significantly, exercise is up, and frankly I'm feeling great.  I sometimes forget how good it feels, physically and emotionally, to be fully back on plan.  I'm liking it!  

All-in-all, it's good to be back!

How was your summer?

Cheers,

dk

6 comments:

  1. I too survived this weekend's hurricane, though I evacuated the island of Manhattan in favor of beautiful downtown Jersey City. We didn't get hit quite as hard as Connecticut. Kept our power but used the rain as an excuse to not go outside for 48 hours. Wound up drinking too much vino and eating too many carbs, but I was also able to rest and sit still like you said. This made me all the more ready to start fresh on Monday with tracking and hit the gym harder than before. Heck, now that the weather's cooled off I can even run outside again! I'm in a good place and determined to lose the last of this weight! (80 down 20 to go!)

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  2. This weekend was the perfect weekend for emotional eating. High anxiety!I also had plenty of time to think and I realized that even though I have lost 31 pounds, (35 more to go) I wasn't truly committing to changing my lifestyle.
    So I managed my stuck-at-home eating and lost 1.6 lbs this week. Super happy about it...

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  3. Welcome back. For some odd reason, when I was watching the Weather Channel's Irene coverage I wondered how you fared. Glad you and yours survived. And that you came through vaca like a prince. I'm in a tourist town and as much as I love seeing the people enjoying themselves and, yes, that my job depends on them, I will be glad when they are gone. Mostly because, one, I won't be smelling the fried zucchini from across the street all day and, two, once the tourists leave the weather here turns awesome and the locals get to enjoy! The only thing I miss about summer leaving is the abundance of fruit. The cherries and nectarines have been outstanding this year! And they are FREE!!

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  4. Dear sir -

    Not sure if you saw this picture I tweeted to you yesterday about a discrepancy with Smart Ones packaging:

    http://twitpic.com/6g3z3l

    Just wanted to make you and your company aware!

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  5. Hi Dave,

    As is often the case with your blog, I related to an issue of your perception vs. reality- I too imagine I'm being much more damaging with my food choices on vacation than I actually am. Have just returned from 3 weeks in Provincetown ( the ideal place for everything except a hurricane ) and in spite of nightly ice cream and daily calamari I am slightly down on the scale. The answer - as it often seems to be for you as well - is a borderline fanatical relationship with exercise. I know for myself that exercise, particularly intense cardio, not only burns off the extra points, but also re-calibrates my relationship to binge foods. Somehow - and this probably has to do with endorphins or seretonin released during exercise - I'm less interested in emotional eating once I've worked out. I'm satisfied with the small cup of Ben and Jerrys. But the perception that I've gone wild with high-Points foods remains.

    Thanks for the great post, once again,
    Jonathan

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  6. Welcome back from vacation, Dave! Good to have you back and reading your blog again. Welcome to our world of hurricanes: Florida! As a native New Yorker now in Florida many years, it is amazing to watch the northeast and how they handled the hurricane issue. It is still summer weather down here, and I'm still enjoying the summer fruits: strawberries and honey dew are my favorite. I have found the longer I am on plan, the more I enjoy the nutritious food and feel more satisfied. I've been at Lifetime just about three months now and am doing fine - the hardest thing in my life is maintaining and staying at goal--a different mindset! Our leader informed us many times the hardest thing would be maintaining and staying at goal - and boy, was he right! But, it is so worth it! I still go to the meetings every week even though it's not necessary - love our leader and the motivation and support. Structure is good for all of us - vacation is good but being back to the routine works well too in many ways (work, food, exercise). Take care.

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