Time to Make the Donuts

 Do you remember that old commercial, I think it was Dunkin' Donuts?  The one where the actor was dragging themselves to work and saying "Time to make the donuts"?   Yup, that's me today, dragging myself out of bed and to work because vacation is over.  BOOOO!

As I had said previously,  we were off work for a week but we were not going anywhere.  We were having a staycation and had a few places and things in mind for some day trips.  

We went to Little Buffalo State Park.  It was a decent little park.  It's in the middle of nowhere (quite literally).   It had some historical sites to visit (none of the buildings were open because it was not in season) and some short hiking trails. They allow boating and fishing in the lake and they have a pool for use in the summer.  If I lived close it would be a nice place to hang out in the summer. I am glad we went, but I probably won't go back simply because it was an hour or more drive for us....and since we didn't fish or anything, we probably spent less time at the park then it took us to drive back and forth to it.  But it was a neat place to visit!

We also went to Gettysburg for a day and hit up a new museum that opened in the last few years.  It is called Beyond the Battle and is run by the counties historical society.  It talks about the history of Gettysburg before and after the battle.  It also does include the battle because that is a huge part of Gettysburg history.   We were intrigued with the room that they have set up that you can go in and experience in a controlled manner what it must have felt like to be in a house during the battle with cannon blasts shaking the house, bullets flying around and going through the house.  It was sobering.   I took no pictures at that museum...simply because I forgot!    

We also hit up the Jennie Wade House.  Jennie Wade was the only Civilian killed during the battle and the house where she was killed is a museum.  I had visited this years ago, Jason had never visited.  So it seemed a perfect place to visit.  It was a great tour because we were literally the only people so we had a private tour with the tour guide.  That is always nice!

 We went to Frederick for a day.  We walked through some of our old haunts and favorite stores.  We also walked around downtown.  One day we actually went to the Aviation Museum in Hagerstown.  It's one of those things that it's in your own backyard so you kind of forget about visiting it.  But I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.  It was well done and they have a nice collection of artifacts depicting the history of aviation in Hagerstown (Fairchild).  

We did some other minor things and spent some time working on tasks around the house (the gutters are nice and cleaned out now.........etc)

But alas, the time is over and it's not time to get back to normal.   

SO how did I do with my weight?  Not great!   There were desserts such as edible cookie dough, ice cream, cakes and cookies.   There were lots of dinners out.  There was nothing tracked!   But I usually ate a breakfast/brunch at home and then the dinner out.   So my eating was more limited and I wasn't eating all day long.    I drank next to NO water and drank pop all week long!  Not good!   As I said my weigh in this morning wasn't all that great.  But in reality it wasn't all that bad either!   I gained 2 pounds.   Yes, any gain is not good, but lets be honest.  I have gone on vacation before and gained 10 pounds in a week.  So 2 pounds?   I will take it!!!! (I delayed the weigh in until my first day back to work, when vacation was officially over) 

Meanwhile, I have my water jug/tumbler/container ready to go with me to work.  My lunch is packed.  I have my day planned out.  I've already been for a walk with the dog AND I have already exercised for 25 minutes! I gained two pounds and that's bad enough but I accept it because it WAS vacation, but darned if I am going to allow more to come on now that vacation is over!

Back to the Grind

 It is always a tragic event to go back to work after a vacation.   I don't believe that I have ever said, "I'm ready for vacation to be over and to get back to work!"   No, I may say "I'm ready to be at home again and back to a more normal routine," But not back to work.  Yet back to work I went this past week!

First week Post Vacation

Luckily this week was mostly mundane.   I would rather have been still on vacation, but that isn't the way life is for me.  I must work to pay for the pets!  (Ok, and my mortgage, gas for the cars, food on the table.  You know those little things in life).    

Work was pretty basic.  I got to put together a video 'all about me' for work.   I actually will probably upload it to my YouTube channel, because it just makes me smile!  I will link it here when I do.   But other than that, basic and nothing too stressful.

Outside the weather was crazy.  The last day of vacation it was in the 80's and stinkin' hot.  The next day it was cold!   We even skirted with some frost!  SO with that said, I stripped all the tomatoes from the plants.  I breaded them and froze them for us to have fried green tomatoes this winter.  Jason loves fried green tomatoes.  We also dug up our sweet potatoes.  We had never grown sweet potatoes and we were not sure what we would get from them.   Well we had 4 plants....in 15 gallon grow bags in our backyard (the deer annihilated the 4 plants that we had down in the garden).  We got about 35 pounds of sweet potatoes.  So the problem?   One sweet potato is actually over 7 pounds by itself.  We will be eating sweet potatoes for days with that sucker!  Luckily, I do like sweet potato so will feast on those leftover for my lunches!  We did a few other things in that garden and picked a bit more produce.   Closing down the garden for the year!

I do think the animals were happy to get back to a routine.   Mertz hangs out in my office most of the day and she always spends a fair amount of time on my desk while I work.  She missed out on that one-on-one time with me while I was on vacation. (There is a gate at my office door and the office is off limits to Zoey!)   Zoey also seemed to enjoy being back to 'normal'.   During our vacation we were always here, or in and out and taking he with us places.  Which is fine and good except that she typically sleeps all day long! (and all night too)   Just a normal weekend and she is whipped by Monday and so lethargic and tired on Mondays until she can rest up.  So the 11 days of vacation 'pert near' killed her!  hahaha  So she slept the first few days away!  But no fear, she always woke up in time to wait for her daddy!  Yes, she demands to go outside at least a half hour before Jason gets home and she just sits there and stares!

Weight Loss after Vacation

I returned back to work riding high on the knowledge that I had managed to maintain my weight over an 11-day vacation!   I knew how huge that victory was!  Seriously, previous years have showed much different results!   There was the vacation shortly after I reached Lifetime status with weight watchers, I gained 10 pounds in that week!  Three years ago, when we got married while on vacation, I gained 5 pounds....and we hiked every day!  I could reference vacation after vacation and almost without fail, I gained weight!   But not this time!   So yes, I was proud.  Yes, I was motivated!

I started my Monday riding high.  I started with exercise at 5AM!  I got my water ready, and I guzzled it all day.   I eat my salad for lunch, my banana for breakfast.  I was doing it! I stepped onto the scales on Tuesday morning.  (I have always weighed daily and noom actually encourages daily weigh ins).    My weight was up!  TWO FREAKIN' POUNDS up!   What the what?    I was disgusted.  I was discouraged.  I was angry!  But I didn't let it derail me....

I kept doing what was right.

I wish I could say that I exercised all 5 workdays, but that didn't happen!    But I got a few days of exercise done!   Something is always better than nothing!

I wish I could say that I didn't cave and have that pretzel after work each evening. (Yes, I ate a hard pretzel every day......not huge ones...but definitely not the tiny ones).  I wish that I could say that I ate less bread/carbs.  But I can't say those things.   I also didn't track my food religiously this past week.  But you know what, it's good.  I ate more intuitively and guess what?   The scales righted themselves and I am back to being at a maintain!  So that is a good thing!

I am happy with that for sure!

However, I don't want a simple maintain!  I want to lose!  I want my legs to not ache.  I want to not feel my body is going to break in half when I stand up.... or sit down.  I don't want to take the steps one step at a time like an old lady.  I want to lose...I want to regain my fitness level.  I want to thrive in this thing called life...and right now I am not thriving.  I am existing.  

So, while I'm feeling ok about my last week, I have lots of room for improvement.   I don't have big plans for this upcoming week.  I am simply planning on focusing on the basic things.  Exercise. Water. Healthy eating (which is a combination of number of calories and quality of said calories.)  Simple and easy.     Simple and basic, that's the plan!