Click My Heals...I Wanna Go Home!

Ok, so as I have said...so far so good on the Medifast plan. My family and I planned a fun vacation in March. It was a Texas Road Trip consisting of many stops in and around the beautiful Hill Country. I can tell you that I was really nervous and feeling anxious about doing well during the trip. I took the time to plan far ahead and figure my meals. I had my pre-mixed drinks in the cooler, and all my own dry goods packed and ready for the trip...I was as prepared as I think I could have been being fairly new to this program.

From the very first day, I felt off my game. I wasn't as confident as I had been in weeks past. I just wanted to succeed and stay on plan the entire trip..It is a bit scary when you get into a zone and everything is clicking along and then it changes up on you. I figured I had to learn sooner or later so why not now. We headed out on the trip and the drive up went well..Our first stop was to a Dude Ranch..What fun that was! A really neat experience. Of course part of our package included a Chuck Wagon Meal. Right off the bat, I had to figure out how to eat dinner and stay OP. I was hungry because it was my normal eating time..they took us on this cool wagon ride to the riverside where we had a BBQ meal prepared for us...It was BBQ Beef, Chicken, Sausage, and Ribs plus Beans, Potato Salad, Cole Slaw, and Corn on the Cob...oh and did I mention Cornbread too!? They had pretty much nothing I could eat..so here is what I did...I ate some Chicken and some dill pickle slices and one bite of coleslaw. I don't know if that was close to be good, but I needed to eat something..It would be hours before they took us back to the camp..Again, I could have carried a bar or something with me..but I though they would have Salad and a Lean Meat...I did have my Salad Spritzer in my backpack..The next night on the Ranch was not much better other than I was more prepared with an extra MF Meal. Again no fresh veggies or salad was served. Breakfast offerings were not much better...but I was able to get a small egg white omelet made..I almost forgot about the campfire sing-a-long each night. There was of course Smores being made that I had to miss out on...That was a tough one...not even a single marshmellow. After two days on the dude ranch, we got back on the road. I had put stuff within reach to get me thru the next few pitstops. All in all it was going well, but as the week progressed, dinners got harder and harder. I felt out of control and had no idea how on plan I really was. We had planned to eat Lunch and Dinner on our own. Breakfast had been pre-planned to have free at every hotel. The guys could eat and I could have a shake. This way I would just have one of my meals to worry about. Each evening, I would prepare food that could be put in the cooler for the guys..like sandwiches.

When I would get to each restaurant, I got the menu in my hands and would start to look..left, right, up, and down..I would examine the entire menu trying to figure out what I could have or how I could put together a LG Meal....ya know what I found? There are very little LG options in the restaurants today. Everything I found required modification. No wonder America is fighting with an Obesity issue. Local eats serve what sells rather than what is good for ya. I was so angry. I got so flustered the first evening that I ordered a basic dinner salad thinking I could not go wrong w/a grilled chicken breast ...When it got to the table, the chicken looked like it had some kind of grease all over it...not typical for grilled food...and the salad came swimming in cheese and croutons.. I never thought to ask what was on the dinner salad because usually a basic is just lettuce. I spent the next 10 minutes picking everything off. Back in the day I would have asked for extra of it. My dinner was not going well and my stomach was in such knots. I was not a happy camper. Reality Check...Meltdown...My first chance to proove I could do this and was failing. I ate the food, but in my gut I knew it had not been prepared the way I needed it to be. I should have asked for something else or said something, but I felt uncomfortable about being a burden and just ate it. I had no idea how much the piece of meat weighed, no idea how much veggies I had eating....and to top it all off, I had to do this for 6 more nights. No telling what was gonna happen with the scale after this trip. I almost wanted to head home at that very moment.
They say at the end of every storm there is a rainbow. My week was pretty much the same all the way threw..stormy. The snacks and Lunch parts went pretty well...but dinner time was rough for me...It was as if the Menu was heavier than I was! Maybe there were healthy choices and I didn't want to see them deep down inside...but I swear everytime we sat at the table the Menu was horrible and the choices were equally as bad. I walked out of many of those eating establishments thinking I was never gonna get to eat out again. My social life had just ended. But as I said, there is a rainbow...I did things on this vacation that I have never done before and even my kids and hubby got a kick out of seeing a me with tons of energy and ready to go! We had went and played Tennis, Basketball, walks, rode horses, and more....heck I even got on the exercise equipment at the hotels...I never knew they existed before now...but I knew where the free food was! LOL...My biggest accomplishment was when we went on a 3 mile hike to go see these falls in Colorado Bend State Park...called the Gorman Falls...I would have never walked that far...heck I was climbing rocks to get to the falls...I DID IT! and it was well worth it because the falls were simply breathtaking...see what I would have missed. Another rainbow!

In the end the hardest thing I did was eating out...I will have those days where I can do that again, but for now I need to avoid eating out. It is safer that way. I will get to do that again..just not now. Overall, it was one of our best vacations ever and I survived it being OP, or at least attempting to be OP.. You just don't know how the food is prepared, and what they cook things in. But I was able to counter that by getting in alot of exercise which is what saved me that week... I did lose weight that week...but very little.

My favorite movie growing up was the Wizard of Oz...Growing up after losing my Mom, I felt alone alot even when I was surrounded by alot of people who loved me...The movie always reminded me that no matter how bad things got, there was no place like home...I wanted to click by ruby slippers together so many times on that trip and just be home, but I toughed it out and I learned what I need to avoid for right now. Next trip, I think I will hit a local grocery store and just buy things...or pre-make some turkey burgers or something like that...I won't make the same mistakes twice. This entire journey is a learning process.

On my next blog, I am gonna take you all the way up to my latest milestone...Wait till you hear where I am at now in my journey...I know it wont all be perfect, but for now, I am having the time of my life and enjoying getting the weight off. I will be current after the next post and all caught up..I can't wait to be up to speed in my blog...Thanks for reading!