Vacation redux

Weight: 307.6
Total Weight lost: 42.4 pounds

Wow, can it be possible that it has been over a week since my last post here? For shame it is! I guess being on vacation sort of scrambles all my regular activities, but part of the problem was that since Thursday I hadn't had sufficient internet access to allow me to update, travelling to and being in New York City for four days. (Yes, I've heard of internet cafes etc., but really? I was way too busy to even think about blogging.)

I had a fabulous time. My whole vacation has been fabulous, really, and refreshing and totally making me not want to return to my working life, as A-OK as it is. My NYC trip was no less than life-changing in many ways, but I will focus on the stuff I reserve for this blog for consistency's sake. ;)

You remember how my scale's lifetime battery bit the dust and I hadn't been able to weigh myself for almost two weeks? That was interesting. I found that I was less restrictive, less careful with the food choices I made, and that I even stopped logging my food intake at The Daily Plate like I have been doing. However, I was still mindful in a way. I certainly kept up the physical activity, and my runs are now up to 40 minutes straight, and I am able to cover just over 2.25 miles!

To give you an idea of how into running I am now, I actually brought my running sneaks with me to New York. Good thing I did, too, because my regular shoes gave me big blisters on each foot (nothing new for me, it's a New York tradition!) and my sneakers cushioned the pain a little bit. (I wore flip-flops on the 9+ hour train ride home, which allowed my poor dogs to breathe!) Really, though, I brought them with the intention to run, whether at the hotel fitness room or on the street or wherever else seemed fit.

I did in fact run/walk on the treadmill the first night I was in town, on a fairly archaic model which kind of kicked my ass. I got a good 30-minute workout in, though, and that was it for the weekend. The rest of the exercise I got was purely natural, beating the sidewalks faithfully and sweating my ass off. I had the privilege of visiting New York for the first heat wave of the year, in 90+ degree temperatures. And I'm someone who basically refuses to wear short sleeves no matter what. I sweated, and sweated, and sweated. Buckets. I also could not get enough water. It's all I drank, aside from some wine and Mojitos, all weekend. Probably gallons and gallons, no exaggeration. How the hell do all those Sex and the City type of women do it and still look their brand of good? Seriously.

I kind of watched my eating, or was at least semi-mindful. I found that whenever I did eat, I didn't eat a whole lot in one sitting. There was so much going on that eating became a footnote in a way. I did have brick oven pizza, a few salads, steak and scallops (a birthday dinner with my dear friend Sherri -- me today and she tomorrow, btw, Happy Birthday, Sherri!), and then mostly finger foods that were served as part of the seminar stuff I was there for in the first place. In short, I wasn't really concerned about it, especially not with all the running around I was doing.

So, when I got home last night (my train was almost two hours late getting in, so C. was at the station picking me up at quarter to one in the morning!), I saw that the scale company had finally sent the replacement battery and that I could weigh this morning again. I had no idea what to expect, to be honest. Part of me felt that I must have lost something, and then part of me was fearful that I'd be back up to 320. It was real pleasure to see such a low number appear on the readout, as you can see above. In the past twelve days or so, I've lost about five and half pounds, which is great. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, today having been, ahem, my birthday and therefore an opportunity for pizza and movie popcorn (we're going to the drive-in movies later), and maybe some ice cream. Amazingly enough? I didn't go crazy on anything. I think my stomach is shrinking, no lie.

I alluded to the fact that it's my birthday today. It is! I'm now 38 years old and really, really happy and proud of all the things I am doing. I don't resent getting older at all and feel bad for people who do. Life is a learning process that I embrace, and I see the vitality of so many others who are around my age, totally living it up like rock stars, totally NOT the age their driver's license claims them to be. This is the way to live, on your own terms as much as possible, with as much reverence to the lives and bodies we are so generously given to care for however long we're on this earth. I am thankful for all the opportunities I've had, both given to me and created for myself. I am thankful for all those who inspire me in one way or another, or in many ways. I am thankful for each day I have to try, try again.