I am not fishing for compliments; I’m not looking for “Lauren, you’re not fat you look great.” And I know I’m not really fat. My weight is generally in the same 3-4 pound range it was pre-kids, I wear a small size…you get it. You may be wondering then what is with the title of this post, well I’ll tell you. It all started this morning. After 10 days in Vermont, I boldly hopped on my bathroom scale. I was well above that normal range, a whopping 6 pounds heavier than when I left! For my body I am fat. What’s semi-interesting about this fatness is that I ate well and exercised while away.
In terms of exercise, I was not running miles a day or locating a spin class in Southern Vermont. I was, however, skiing, snowshoeing or at the gym 8 of the 10 days away, not bad-right? It feels virtuous to report I had a salad every day I was at the mountain for lunch and split pea soup (that I made) on other days. I set a no fried food and no wheat (I don’t eat wheat anyway but not for weight purposes) guideline. I had no days where I had more than 2 drinks (including New Years Eve!!) and no desserts except dark chocolate. And I was surrounded by 2 young boys having hot chocolate, macaroni and cheese and all of the other mountain temptations. If a client gave me this report post-trip I would commend them.
There is a little more to the story though. As a nutritionist I know details are important. Starting with the alcohol, while I never had too much to drink, I also never had a night I did not drink. At home I hover at about 4 drinks a week and away it was probably double. For dinners at home I tend to be the fish and shellfish girl. Although I did manage 3 fish dinners away, there was a lot more meat in my diet. As for “no wheat no fried foods” I was perfectly fine until a run in with nachos on Saturday night. Anticipating the nachos, I corrected with a green salad for my entrée but I cannot lie, there were nachos (and they were good). And finally, on the way home last night we avoided reliving “Fast Food Slaytons” but stopped on the road for dinner. My large tomato soup probably had as many milligrams of sodium as there are people in China.
All in all I still feel good about my eating and exercise over the holidays. It’s just important to remember that pretty good vacation eating can still be very different calorically from day-to-day eating. I know, from weighing clients every day, that the scale will be down tomorrow with one day of clean NYC eating. And chances are by Friday, when I have to go on TV talking about New Year’s Resolutions; I will no longer be fat.
How was your eating over the holidays or while away? Are you fat today too?
Enjoyed your post, and you made a lot of great points.
Youmay think I'm a crazy dietitian myself when I tell you that I usually bring my scale away with me on vacations that last more than a week. Daily weigh-ins are a ritual I've had for years and they have helped me stay on track and maintain a more than 30 pound weight loss. When I weight myself each AM and see I'm up, I cut back slightly that day; if I'm down, I do what I normall do, and eat what I normally eat and don't think much about it.
This past week I knew on vacation, I did not bring my scale; as I went to pack ours in my suitcase, my husband reminded me our hotel room would have a scale–it did the previous two years we stayed there.
Though the scale there said I was a pound heavier, I used it every morning like I always do. I came back weighing the same (sometimes I'm up a pound or two after vacation, and others I'm down a pound or two). I don't use the scale to berate or judge myself–it's just my way of personally staying on track. Everyone has to find the method or way that works for them (for some it's a tape measure, for others it's a pair of pants for example).
As for vacation eating…I like your ideas. I also think people need to think more about how they want to eat most of the time in their life and to try to be as consistent as possible..try to eat similarly on week days, weekends and vacations. You can still have fun on vacation without overdoing it, which is what many associate vacations with. You can keep up some sort of exercise and make more healthful choices if you want to when you're away. Yes, it's more difficult, but it's possible.
Thanks again for sharing this…it shows you too are human and not a food and fitness cop!