Not Quite Dead

It's great to be home after a wonderful week in Washington State. We flew to Spokane last Monday afternoon, spent Tuesday touring the city and visiting my husband's childhood haunts, drove to Seattle early Wednesday morning and spent the rest of the day and Thursday morning there before heading over to Mt. Rainier. We got back to Spokane around 1:30 AM Friday morning, slept a while, then went to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for the afternoon. We flew back to Chicago Saturday afternoon and finally arrived back home around 2:30 AM on Sunday. It was a whirlwind trip, but it was wonderful visiting with family and friends and we saw a lot of beautiful things. Traveling with both of our daughters and different members of my husband's brother's family was a real treat.

I packed a lot of Medifast meals for my trip, but my plans to use them for most of my meals fell by the wayside. My experience reminded me of a story the late Paul Harvey once told about a fantastic encounter with a kangaroo.

"The Italian sailing team was in Australia for the America’s Cup and, finding themselves with some free time, decided to rent a Land Rover for a jaunt into the Australian outback. The team had been outfitted by the designer, Gucci, so they ventured into the bush clad in their Gucci jackets, wearing their Gucci watches, and carrying their Gucci bags.

As they were driving, a kangaroo bounded out in front of their Land Rover. Unable to stop in time, they hit the poor animal. Climbing out of the four-wheel drive, they figured they would at least capitalize on the sad event by getting some close-up pictures of the kangaroo. One of the team members had the brilliant idea of putting his jacket on the critter for a fun photo.

As they got the jacket on the animal, the kangaroo revived and bolted off into the bush—with the jacket, the car keys, and the team member’s wallet!

The moral of the story? Sometimes what you think is dead is not quite as dead as you thought!"

You may be wondering what on earth that story has to do with me, right?

Our trip showed me, once again, that although my old eating habits have been dealt a deep wound over the past two years, they aren't quite as dead as I'd like to think they are. Just when I think I've gotten this whole thing down pat, I'm reminded again that those old habits are just waiting for the right moment to roar back. Without going into a lot of details, I'll just say that I slipped into pretty mindless eating over the past week, and now that it's over (and it IS over), it wasn't worth it. I'm back from vacation feeling sluggish and my size 6's are definitely feeling more snug than they were a week ago. Ugh!

The good news is that last week's vacation wasn't the start down a slippery slope that would inevitably lead back to my starting weight. I've upped the number of Medifast meals I'll be eating for the next few days and am cutting out all the extras - time to keep it simple!

There seems to be an ebb and flow to maintenance for me and I'm still working to find a more steady rhythm for myself. I'm not sure if I have unrealistic expectations for myself or if my most recent experience just points to my need to stay a bit more vigilant. I know I feel better physically and mentally when I'm vigilant, so right now I'm more than a little frustrated with myself for being so mindless last week. I'm just thankful that I know what to do to bring things back under control. Before I went to bed last night, I made sure that I had a Medifast meal, so I ended my day on plan :-).

I'm committed to an on-plan day today - how about you?