Week 6: Back to Reality

I must admit it felt a little strange typing “Week 6” in today’s post title. In some ways it feels like I started this program last week. In other ways, it feels like it’s been two years. I’m not sure what to think of that.

That aside, the most important part of the post title is the back to reality part. Because that’s what this week really felt like.

As predicted (primarily due to my out of town trip) I officially went up in weight this week. That’s a first for this particular go around. It’s not a bad thing. It happens in every diet sooner or later. But there were other things that made this week more “real” than any of the previous five:

• Monday and Tuesday: head-on collision with one Wendy’s and one McDonald’s. This was decidedly outside my basic “cut out the meat and dairy” approach.
• Tuesday Night: ginger snaps. Why? I don’t know.
• Wednesday: a brush with dietary death! I ran into some candy and for some inexplicable reason, I just kept eating it. That’s so out of character too, given how partial I am to the savory side of life. The mini-binge clocked in at around eight hundred calories. The good news? I just stopped eating for the day right then and there. It was already late afternoon and I figured my eight trillion little cellular buddies would somehow survive until the next morning. Total for that day: 1800.
• Thursday: vending machine snacks. Dang it. I haven’t hit the vending machine in five weeks.
• Saturday Night: chips and salsa overload. Never mind the margaritas.

Now any one of those incidents I could easily write off as an anomaly. Even now I can come up with some creative excuse for each one of them. But collectively? Hmmm . . . not so good. It has all the earmarks of (cue dramatic music: bum-bum-baaaaaa) falling off the wagon.

On a positive note, I haven’t fallen off the wagon. I may be up two pounds from last week, but most of it was a vacation week. I’m not using that as an excuse: just an explanation. Things were back on track today and i still feel pretty good about the general direction. Besides, the best part about losing eleven pounds then gaining two back is that I get to use the “ten pounds lost” post twice!