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Whew! Nine days in food & wine country and only 1 pound gained. The damage wasn't as bad as I expected.
I confess I did drink wine, ate artisan sourdough breads and a few bites of dessert a couple of times. But I did practice pretty good restraint and tried to go with the healthy options where I could. Fortunately, there were tons of organic and vegetarian restaurants all over northern Cal. I would LOVE to live there. But who wouldn't. One organic restaurant in particular -- I think it was the Vineyard Inn in Kenwood -- was incredible. The owner is of Basque descent so many of the dishes had that influence. We ordered from the tapas menu -- first time we've tried that and we loved it. Fire-roasted artichoke. Kale leaves stuffed with lamb and rice. Sauteed chicken livers on greens -- all of these things were sort of exotic to us in the way they were prepared, but they were out of this world. This place was recommended by our lovely B&B hostess, who also served us the most wonderful, all-fresh breakfasts of fruit and yogurt, along with eggs from her neighbor's chickens. We were spoiled!
Seattle was also great, but we didn't have as much freedom to explore because we were there for a wedding. The rehearsal dinner was Southern fare... bbq pork, beans, potato salad, slaw, cobblers and mud cake. I had small bites of everything and that worked. We went to Pike Place and were blown away. If only we had something like that here where we live! I'd go every day.
Before we went on this trip, I bought some size 14 jeans and they fit. I was shocked. I brought along some old size 16 dress pants that were in my older wardrobe, expecting them to fit well enough for the wedding festivities and discovered they were unwearably baggy. I was delighted, but it was an inconvenience and I ended up having to wear jeans to the wedding, which wasn't too bad since it was in a woodland setting in Seattle. I like the attitude up there. Pretty much anything goes!
So ... what helped keep us from all-out bingeing on vacation? We had to eat at airports twice unfortunately, but we ate small portions. And we did find ourselves on long stretches of road with nothing but convenience stores. But we never stopped at any fast food places. I picked up peanuts, cashews and bottled water at the c-stores -- never any donuts, chips, or candy. (although we did get some dark chocolate in Seattle that we ate in moderation). At the hotel breakfast bars, I passed on the pancakes and biscuits and stuck with eggs, bacon, fruit, yogurt or oatmeal.
As much fun as we had, I am glad to be home and ready to get back to my predictable healthy menu and walking routine. I'm actually excited about it and not dreading it at all. Healthy and moderate eating used to seem like a punishment and now it's something I look forward to.
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184.4 lb
Lost so far: 27.6 lb.
Still to go: 34.4 lb.
Diet followed reasonably well.
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gaining 0.6 lb a week
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