Round

• Well, I’m not exactly back on the straight-and-narrow, but I think I’m getting back on the path.

Last week’s written food diary served me well for the days I was traveling, although I forgot all about it when I got home. And for once I was home for more than 2 days, 6 actually, and it did me a world of good. I went to the market on Friday and got lots of fruits and veggies, did some cooking for the first time in ages, and generally just relished being home.

I even made it to the gym Friday, Sat, Sunday, Monday AND Tuesday. Skipped the first day I was back, Thursday, mainly because I was unorganized, but I went the other days and realized that with a little planning my goal of going to the gym most days when I’m home will not only be do-able, but will be good for stress release.

I was pleased to see some progress in my cardio capacity too - I’ve bumped the level on the elliptical up from 5 to 6 to 7 now, and do 60 min most of the days I’m there, although 45 sometimes if I’m more pressed for time.

Food is okay but not great, enough to stay stable but not serious enough to lose. Its okay, for now feeling in control is the most important, if I can keep exercising regularly the food part will come naturally.

I’m currently in Germany, am home on Friday, then begin 2+ weeks of travel with only 1/2 day at home, and the month of March looks like 3 days at home will be the max for any stretch. For the next 2 weeks I’m taking gym stuff with me - in London I’m staying in a hotel w a gym (and should have time 2 of the 3 evenings to work out) and when I travel to the US there are almost always gyms, so will do the same.

In the end it’s working out in Germany that may turn out to be the hardest, and I there are a few things I can do for this. Not saying I will, but at least knowing I do have some control helps.

• If I brought sneakers with me I could walk
• If I brought sneakers & workout gear with me I could do exercise DVDs in my room
• I could go to the private gym in the shopping center near the hotel, although this is likely to be quite expensive and not speaking German could be a problem.  I also don’t really have the time to do this, whereas walking or DVD in the room could adapt to the time I do have.
• I could find out about the company gym here in Germany - and would need to put a set of workout gear at the office

So it seems one of the the limiting factors is the workout gear.  I travel with a very small suitcase and my sneakers alone take up a bunch of space, and if I add the clothes… ugh. 

I guess I could look into packable small sneakers - I remember a few years ago Nike had something like this.  And I could buy another pair of pants &  tshirt in microfiber (small to pack) just for travel.

The novelty of the heavy travel has worn off, and with it a lot of the temptations are losing their appeal (Swedish cinnamon buns, German food of any kind,  Russian restaurants in Helsinki, etc).  It was with a similar travel-weary situation that I managed to lose weight years ago, and I’m beginning to feel confident that I could do it again. 

I am doing a little better this week.

My husband gave me an unexpected little gift last week of 3 pretty, thin, colorful notebooks and some nice new pens (the erasable-ink Friction biz pens in copper, silver and black).  I stuck one in my bag as I flew out on Monday morning and acutally used them to start an old-school paper food diary.

I went paper because it’s often worked for me in the past.  I am working like a dog these days and even the fastest computer systems take longer than just jotting it down on paper, some of them MUCH longer.

We made it to the gym on Sunday and I’ll go several times in the coming days, since I actually have several days in a row here in Paris.

It also occurred to me that I need to re-read the book “the path of leat resistance” because that was really helpful to me in the past on multiple fronts, and I’m again in a situation where I am feeling pressure in many areas - weight, feeling out of shape, baby-quest, travel, work… Luckily my relationship w my husband is proving to be solid and strong and neither adding to nor absorbing the stress of my life right now - but I need to continue to make that a priority.

I am barely having time to do anything for myself, so for the time being I’m not reading blogs either.  Most of the time I tell google reader to ‘mark as read’ because the high number of unread posts is daunting, although I ususally do read a few posts first, but I don’t have time to click over and post a comment. Not sure when/if I’ll have time to go back to regularly following you folks - but I’m cheering you on all the same.

That about sums up my current weight situation - UGLY.

I am working too much, traveling WAY too much.  Tired when I get home and not feeling like pushing myself to the gym.

All in all, it’s not good.

I am, however, still keeping my eye on the prize, even if right now I don’t seem to know how to lift my arm to reach out for it…