I survived Thanksgiving!!!
I went into the holiday feeling great and super amazing, but spending the entire weekend in a fabulous hotel with even more fabulous eats… Well, it was a recipe for disaster.
Thursday
I really didn’t feel like working out, but I knew that it was the ONLY way I could minimize the damage. So, I had my own Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day before we left on the plane. That night we had Thanksgiving dinner at the Four Seasons – complete with empty calories like champagne – arrrgh!!! I managed to down a ton of veggies before I jumped into a higher calorie items but still managed to wolf down WAY too many desserts. (They had like 9 different dessert samplers – I took one of everything and went back for seconds on some, when others around me only had ONE)
Friday
In attempt to fight back the unhappiness I felt the next morning on my food choices, I waddled in the cold down to the fitness center – only to find it crowded and way too hot! I ended up doing a small run around town, which ended up to be a terrific way to explore the area. I felt better about myself.
I tried to make better choices that day, but we ended up going to one of our favorite restaurant chains – Mastros. OMG!!!!!!! Champagne again and diving headfirst into delicious food – ending the dinner with the decadent butter cake! Sigh. I knew better, but I could feel myself slipping into my old self. What self-control?
Saturday
The next morning, I woke up upset once again. I went out for another run, this time twice as long as the day before. I came back to the room refreshed and ready to make healthy choices – which did pan out until that night.
Mortons – SO much fun, but my sticky little paws were all over that champagne bottle again. Boozehound! I ate until my stomach hurt – but not before I stuffed some cake into me.
Sunday and days after
Ohhh the gluttony. We came home on this day, but my bad habits didn’t stop there. For days afterwards, I ate like my old self. And even though I forced myself to work out, I felt the laziness set in.
On Dec. 2 I knew I had to do something – it was to either get back on that horse or lose everything I’ve worked hard for. So the next day, I filled my refrigerator with colorful vegetables and fish and waited my enthusiasm for fitness to come back. Amazingly, just after ONE day of eating clean, I felt better and my head was clearer – by December 4th, I was itching to work out again!
I can’t tell you how much of this process is nutrition. What you eat is about 90% of it. After an entire week of nourishing my body with nutritious foods, by Dec. 11 my body was back into Pre-Thanksgiving condition and I’m ready for my cruise next week!
Getting back on the horse also reminded me that while we are on this journey, we WILL cheat and we WILL fail; however, that isn’t the important part. What is significant is when we get back ON the horse. We learn about ourselves when we fail, so let us cherish the times we get back on the road after we stray.
To celebrate this lesson, I put together a before/after comparison:
The before picture was taken in the Caribbean in Dec. 2007 – after dieting for a few months. (I gained 10+ pounds after the pic was taken) When I took the After picture yesterday, it occurred to me that not only is it almost to the day when the Before pic was taken, but I’m going back to the Caribbean next week with a new body. In fact, it reminded me of this woman I saw right after the Before pic was taken: she had the most amazing body I had ever seen in real life – complete with a six pack. She was also a mom to a toddler! I was embarrassed and ashamed of my body; you can see it as I tried to twist in the picture to make myself look thinner. Well no mas!!! This year, I will be the one dancing around proudly in a bikini. :):):)
One-Way Ticket to RAWR-ness 