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 Starting weight:  285.2
 Yesterday’s Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):   1928  / 40.0
 Yesterday’s Intake:  Calories & Net Carbs:   Absolutely no clue!
Yesterday’s Exercise:  15 hours of driving
 Weight Before Vacation:  242.0    Weight Today:  236.8  bmi:  44.74 
 Change today::  -5.2 lbs.         Loss-so-far:   48.4 lbs.    
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I’m home!

The cabin in the North Carolina mountains was FANTASTIC!  Even better than the pictures.  We absolutely fell in love with the house!  I was not, however, particularly fond of the DRIVEWAY leading to the house.  OMG I’m such a flatlander - this driveway went straight up!!  It scared the bejeezus outta me every single time I drove up on it (oddly, it did not really bother me on the way down).

Overall we had a very nice vacation getaway and made lots of neat memories.  Overall.  Yes, overall.  We did have some drama during the trip centered around my 18-year-old daughter but then there’s always drama when she’s involved.  *Sigh*  It’s sad because my husband and both my sons did not want her to come along but I insisted that it was a “family” trip and it would not be right to leave her out of it.  She has several challenges (she’s visually impaired, has OCD, ADD, and an autistic-like lack of social skills) and I think she doesn’t mean to make things difficult but somehow she just can’t help herself.  There were definitely moments during this vacation, though, when I wished I hadn’t insisted she come along.

Please don’t judge my men too harshly for not wanting her there.  She really is a handful and can singlehandedly ruin pretty much anything she sets her mind to.  Being her brother or her step-dad or her mother has been a day-to-day challenge for all of us for many years.  Last summer after she turned 18 she moved in with her grandmother (my mom) and life has been quite peaceful and serene for all of us ever since.  I don’t blame my men for not wanting her to influence (and potentially detonate) our vacation trip.

Anyway…  I’m thinking perhaps I should just delete those last two paragraphs.  The drama we all experienced was definitely unpleasant but made up maybe 15% of the whole trip.  The other 85% was very, very cool.  =D

I thought I’d try to recap the days from the perspective of FOOD intake, like food is the center of the universe.  Sigh - isn’t it?!?  Sometimes it feels that way.  During this vacation I went off-plan-on-plan a couple times and worried with every “illegal” bite that I was sabotaging all the progress of the last six months.  If you happened to actually read the stats up above then you already know… WOOOOHOOOOOO I WENT ON VACATION AND LOST FIVE POUNDS!!!!!  LOL, I can’t tell you how EXCITED I was when I stepped on the scale today (praying over and over please-let-it-not-be-over-245-please-let-it-not-be-over-245!) and not only did I see two-thirty-something but holy crap I saw two-thirty-SIX-something!!!!  YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWW!!!

Ahem.  Okay I’m back under control.  Here’s my recap:

Friday, December 26, 2008.  I stayed OP with food as we ran around like chickens without heads trying to get stuff done so we could get on the road.  The plan was to be on our way before dark but that didn’t happen.  We dropped our cat off at my brothers house and headed out of town at 11pm, drove until 4:30 am, then stopped at a hotel and slept for five hours.  Incredibly, at this, the very start of our vacation… my body decides to start TOM!!  Aii-yi-yi!  I was hopeful, though, because usually after TOM, I show a weight-loss.  After twenty-two days stalled, I would do anything for a loss!

Saturday, December 27, 2008.  I stayed OP with food even though we spent most of the day in the van and our eating choices were difficult at roadside-diner-type-places.  We were supposed to go grocery shopping but got to the cabin after dark and I navigated that steep driveway for the first time without being able to see where I was going.  I was NOT going back down and up again.  So Kevin and I ate low-carb food we had with us and for the non-dieters there was a package of tater-tots in the freezer.  Yummm, LOL.

Sunday, December 28, 2008.  We slept in late and managed to get down off the mountain in search of sustenance (we were all pretty hungry!).  The only restaurant we came across was a KFC with an all-you-can-eat-buffet.  Kevin and I decided if we were eating there, we’d go OFF plan for the day.  I had a little bit of fried chicken and filled up on salad and broccoli casserole and mashed potatoes and gravy.  I definitely did not leave hungry.  After lunch we went to my brother’s house (a little over an hour away) and after visiting a while we all went out to Pizza Hut for dinner.  Kevin had pizza (with crust, wooohoo!) and I had their pasta alfredo.  It felt so decadent to eat PASTA!  We stopped at the grocery store on the way back to our cabin and bought more than $200 worth of food!  It was seven days of food for five people - much cheaper than eating out 3 times a day (at least 40-50 bucks a meal for us all to eat out).

Monday, December 29, 2008.  Back on plan!  We had plans to meet up with my brother and his family and go exploring NC waterfalls.  My kids helped me to prepare a big picnic lunch for everyone with lot of choices: ham, smoked turkey, egg salad, tuna salad, and ham salad sandwiches (Kevin and I used low-carb tortillas for ours).  It was a really cool day.  The hiking for waterfall-viewing was a good workout, no doubt!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008.  Spent the day exploring the town of Murphy, NC.  Went to the local historical museum and the library, and strolled the downtown.  Stayed OP the whole day - Kevin and I were SO thrilled that we found an ice-cream shop with low-carb ice cream!  Just 3 carbs per scoop, woohooo!!

Wednesday, December 31, 2008.  Our friends from South Carolina joined us at the cabin (Wendi, her husband and their 13-yo son).  I had promised them beef stroghanoff for dinner and Wendi made cauliflower for us to have ours over (she low-carbs too).  It was incredible!!!  I am now a cauliflower lover!

Thursday, January 1, 2008.  Wendi and her husband brought their own special spaghetti sauce with them to share with us on New Years Day.  While everyone else had their spaghetti (and Kevin ate his sauce in a bowl like chili), Wendi and I had our sauce over cauliflower.  Again, it was a spectacular substitute for starches!  We played card games, talked, laughed, and had a great time.

Friday, January 2nd, 2008.  Wendi and her family stayed for breakfast (did I mention that I made pancakes for everyone two days in a row?  Regular pancakes and low-carb ones - so yeah, I stayed OP!) and then packed up and headed for home.  My family spent a relatively quiet day exploring the mountain our cabin was on.  We couldn’t believe it was the last day and our trip would be over.  I had an incredible workout coming back up the mountain. 

Saturday, January 3rd, 2008.  It took all morning to pack up and clean up.  We all worked hard to leave the cabin even cleaner than we found it (which was basically immaculate).  It was a little after noon when we piled into the van and went down that steep driveway one last time.  Kevin and I had decided the night before that for the drive home we were going off plan.  We stopped at the Cougar Den Restaurant in Copperhill, TN and had the best home-cooking a person could ask for.  I opted for a grilled chicken sandwich that was cooked over fire - it was delicious!  We all walked out of there groaning because we’d indulged in home-made apple cobbler that was hot out of the oven and to DIE for!  OMG if you ever get to that corner of TN, ya gotta eat at that restaurant.  We had dinner at Cracker Barrel - I had a yummy chicken-broccoli-cheese skillet thing and green beans.

We got home this morning at 3:30 a.m.  I slept in until 10:30.  We had a wonderful trip but it’s great to be home!

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