Well...that's no good.

You know that it's problematic when you have to log into Blogger.  That whole "stay signed in" thing apparently only works when you visit every once and a while.  Guess I haven't been on here in a bit.  Nine days, in case you were wondering what the exact-o number was.
I have a piddly defense though!

I was on vacay.  And, unlike my blogging heroes the Petersiks, I'm not much of a "planner" so I don't prepare a bunch of blogs to post while I'm away.  I also don't get paid to blog, and there aren't thousands of people perusing my little corner of the interwebs either.  So, there.

What did I do on vacay? you ask.  Well, I gained some weight.

How much water and "PUT DOWN THE BAGS OF CHIPS AND CHEESE WHIPS" weight?  The world will never know.  And, again in my even more piddly defense, I don't actually know if it's totally true.  I'm just going off of what the scale at Mom and Pop's place said the day after a particularly Original Lite Beer-filled night.  Sometimes chowing all that sodium and drinking fewer than my usual 64 ounces of delicious water makes me mad bloaty.  Then the next week (since I weigh myself no more frequently than once a week), after being pretty conscious of how bloaty and disgusting I felt, I'm down more than I was before the gain.

Something tells me this will not be the case with this little spate of possible weight gain, though.  I did NOT do well (thanks, support network!  I kid.  Sort of.) while on vacay.

What went wrong:

• Too much temptation!  At mi casa, there's really not much outside a jar of pistachios and some 80-calorie string cheese to trip me up.  We just don't have junk sitting around.  Sure, there are a couple of bags of chips leftover from various parties, but they're all nasties - run-of-the-mill tortilla or ripple chips.  Nothing that I'm going to run out after.  Throw some Loaded Chili Lays and a tub 'o' Top the Tater my way though, and I'm a ravenous beast.  GIMME.
• SNACKING.  Yet another thing that I never do.  I don't snack on a regular basis.  I have breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Sometimes I'll have a little something after dinner, but that's just not often.  The (very) occasional pudding snack, a handful of pistachios with my Coke Zero, etc.  Not really anything that's gonna break the carloric bank.  But this past week?  No way, man.  Free. For. All.
• Abandoning The Plan the second we started with the vacay.  Jessica and I spent Sunday evening over a couple of sips planning our meals for the week.  We knew what we were going to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  We were going to go grocery shopping and get exactly what we were going to eat and we weren't going to deviate from the plan.  Until we did.  Immediately.  I don't even know if we opened that bag of carrots.  Losers.

Things I could have done better:

• Portions.  The chips and dip from Heaven might have gone over better, had I actuall portioned it out.  Sure, it would have been less than the free-for-all (and thus less awesome), but it also would have been fewer calories.  More manageable.  Nothing to feel guilty/bloated about later.
• Holding myself accountable.  Not letting me blame the Lays on being there, but keep myself in check with them there.  That would have solved the snacking issue, as well as the planning issue.  If I believed in myself as much as I say I do, I would have done it.  I would have been able to hold myself accountable for my eating habits and be more firm about food.
• In the same respect, I should have relied more heavily on my companions to do the same - hold themselves accountable and help keep me in check.  While I did the same thing for them, naturally.  The other two ladies of the week don't have anywhere near as much extra stuffing to lose than I do, but that doesn't mean that I should let myself slip into the "if they do it, I can do it" way of thinking.  That's just foolish.  I know better.

In the end, I definitely learned first-hand what can happen on a vacation when one is trying to be healthier.  It doesn't always end well.  But, that doesn't mean that it'll never end well, or that I'll never learn how to handle myself in these kinds of situations.  This was just really my first time off since starting this adventure, so I'm not going to be too hard on myself.  And, while it's seeming to take some time to get back into my old habits - I still feel hungry all day and just want to snack all the time! - I know I can do it.

I guess I not only gained the weight, but a new perspective.  And perhaps a new determination.  It's almost August.  Tessa's going to be picking out bridesmaids dresses any day now.  And I'm going to fit into one, vacations be damned.

Tomorrow:  Grateful list!