Hey all sorry I've been so MIA this past week. I was so busy getting ready for mom's visit (logically, I know she's not going to judge me for the condition of the veg bins in my frig, but I can't stop myself from scrubbing them!) and then we had a great time while she was here. We did a ton of shopping (the woman is a MACHINE, I think she scared the lady at Chico's), eating (both out to dinner and I cooked), went to the San Diego zoo and just visiting. It was great!
I only hope I look HALF as good as my gorgeous, glamorous mother when I'm 63!
I've been to nervous to get on a scale, but on a positive, my jeans still fit, so I guess I am all set for OPERATION BUSINESS SUIT! I head to Las Vegas tomorrow for my company open house for all the dealers. I have training on Fri/Sat, free day on Sunday and then the show is Mon - Wed.
I had a REALLY ROUGH time last year. All the meals are buffet style and since meals are provided (except for Sunday) we can't expense anything else. I was completely undone by the dessert tables at lunch/dinner, I had to "taste" everything. I may have only taken one bite of everything, but 5 bites at a time really add up! I am proud that I NEVER touched the afternoon snacks - brownies, ice cream bars, candy bars, chips etc etc. I brought my own fruit and nectar bars for snacks.
I think I am STILL recovering from last year's Open House, I never completely lost the weight I gained. I am hoping to do MUCH better this year. NO DESSERTS is my rule. I do pretty well for breakfast (stick to oatmeal and fruit) and I'm going to try to eat salad for lunch.
I'll probably be posting a little at night - hopefully the accountability will HELP.
Um, I dunno if you've gained weight or not, but you look pretty darn skinny. In fact, I would say you look thinner than I remember!
Good luck in Vegas. For stuff like that, I just try to remember to have reasonable expectations and to mitigate the situation as best I can (using the gym/lots of walking/swimming and getting a great breakfast and planning for bigger dinners). Check in
Thanks guys Going to take off in a few hours. I'm going to use this thread as my personal accountability. Anything I eat, I have to write down!
Junebug - I'm actually up about 6 lbs from my lowest weight! My face is thin, all the weight went right to my stomach/hips/thighs! I hate it when my clothes don't fit right. I'll take workout gear, but the show schedule is truly brutal - 8-7 one day (standing in a business suit on concrete) so I don't think I will have the fortitude to work out. Last year, my back/hips/feet ached so badly at the end of every day, I chugged advil and curled up in bed, whimpering!
Breakfast - Trader Joe's fat free Greek yogurt with honey, half a carton of strawberries
Snack - the other half of the carton of strawberries
Lunch - I was supposed to have salad, but my salad had frozen in the frig. Frozen salad is GROSS. I had some pasta sauce and pasta I had made for my boyfriend to eat while I was gone. It was WHITE pasta - how weird! Heh
S - Cliff Nectar Bar (in the car)
S - tall skinny cinnamon dolci latte (much needed caffeine stop in barstow!)
S - cut up apple
Dinner - ordered room service. I got a house salad (which was huge - just a big pile of spring greens, a couple of tiny pieces of cucumber and 2 grape tomatoes). They didn't have any low fat dressing options, so I got balsalmic on the side (I forgot to get more of my packs of kraft low fat Italian, I brought 3 with me, but saving them for the show next week). I got a shrimp cocktail and a bowl of chicken soup. The soup came with a big basket of bread, I ate two pieces. And an iced tea! Not too bad, considering the room service menu rates about a 2 on the healthy scale (tiny menu, mostly pastas, burgers, hot sandwiches and steak).
Friday
B - first buffet! got oatmeal and added my own dried blueberries (my coworkers must think I am nuts), some fruit, one sausage (just love buffet sausage for some reason), cofffee with cream
L - no snacks, made it all the way to lunch! Got salad (which is JUST GREENS), a little dressing I put on the side of the plate, I took a part a ham sandwich (no turkey!) cut up the ham and used it for protein for the salad. There were some hot veggies (mushrooms, artichokes, snow peas, tomatoes) so I got a scoop of those. Passed my first dessert challenge and skipped.
S - banana
Dinner - ordered room service again. Got the side salad, dressing on the side but asked them to add grilled chicken to it. Chicken came just as plain as possible (and ice cold, ugh, I am not a fan of cold chicken!). I got a bowl of french onion soup and peeled off the 2 inch thick cheese layer, heh. I learned from last night and asked for NO BREAD (since I was apparently unable to resist it). Iced tea.
Not too bad for my first day in Vegas!
I am in training all day today - so 2 more buffets to face down.
When I was stuck in Vegas for a business meeting, I actually commandeered a taxi & went to the Trader Joe's & brought back food to keep in my room. (We were staying at the Rio in suites & I had a fridge, which was a godsend.)
I find that I end up eating a lot of fish when traveling on business. It's often me & a table full of men who want steak & alcohol to blow off steam from the day's PowerPoint presentations. I'm the chick at the steakhouse with the hunk of salmon on her plate.
Thanks all (especially for the comment about my mom, Robin!)
I had a frig in my room last year, and I would have loved to keep more stuff in my room! I did bring oatmeal (I was surprised my room does not have a coffee pot (for hot water for oatmeal) but luckily, oatmeal is on the buffet everyday), dried blueberries, oranges, apples, turkey jerky and nectar bars, mainly to help me fight off the delicious snack temptations. Today, for snacks they had: differnet bags of popcorn (including caramel corn - my fav), chocolate dipped rice krispie treats, petit fours (including cream puffs, which I love), fruit, chips. Luckily, I was still really full from lunch, so I resisted!
Saturday
B - buffet. I had oatmeal (and didn't fill the bowl all the way, a nice, reasonable serving) I forgot my dried blueberries, so I added golden raisins and cinnamon. I had a couple of watermelon/pineapple slices.
S - no snack!
L - they actually had a decent salad bar. I had greens, chopped chicken breast, mushrooms, cucumber, carrots, chickpeas, a tbs of bacon. They had an absolutely delicious tomato bisque, I had two small cups. I also had half a croissant to dip in the soup (bad) but I completely skipped the desserts (good!). Cup of coffee with cream.
S - too full!
D - we are going to Al Dente's at Bally's. I intend to stay out of the bread basket, skip wine and order iced tea and get something reasonble (scallops maybe?) and no dessert. I will report back how well I stuck to this plan.
Edit to add dinner
We did go to Al Dente. I had iced tea (but I wanted wine). I had a salad with mixed greens, walnuts, blue cheese, red grapes and gorgonzola dressing. I remembered to ask for the dressing on the side, but forgot about saying no cheese. Luckily, it came with very little cheese (yay bad economy!) so it was okay. It was actually a very good salad - walnuts + grapes = winner. I didn't stay out of the bread basket. I had one piece of bread, dipped into pesto. I got the scallops for dinner. It came with three scallops (for 24.00!!!), one crispy polenta cake (pretty small, and delicious), some finely diced veggies and red sauce. I was very very tempted by the molten cake with liquid pistachio center and vanilla bean ice cream, but I passed!
I have been known to call down at the front desk & ask why my room doesn't have a coffee pot. But, Glory, I'm finding that since some of the big hotels that are dependent on convention business now have coffee shops within them (there are Starbucks at all the places owned by the owners of Caesar's & the Rio & etc., whose name I forget) they often take the coffee pots out of the room to ensure they make $$ in those shops. Thus, no hot water for our oatmeal or the herbal tea we bring with us. :-(
You're doing very well. Keep it up.
(Since I've got a big bunch of grapes in the fridge, you're inspiring me to do something with them in my salad today. Red grapes must have at least a little reservatol in them, no? I'm always looking for salad ideas.)
I did bring tea bags with me! The lack of a coffee pot in my room was a surprise. I didn't think to ask the front desk for one! I will truthfully be out of the room for 12+hours at a time starting tomorrow, so it's not worth asking for it now. But next time!!!
Red grapes definitely are a good source of resveratrol Hope your salad turns out, I'm definitely going to use them in the future!
Off to Vegas tomorrow!
sorry I've been so MIA this past week. I was so busy getting ready for mom's visit (logically, I know she's not going to judge me for the condition of the veg bins in my frig, but I can't stop myself from scrubbing them!) and then we had a great time while she was here. We did a ton of shopping (the woman is a MACHINE, I think she scared the lady at Chico's), eating (both out to dinner and I cooked), went to the San Diego zoo and just visiting. It was great!
. Really, Glory - you look fantastic.
