I knew that traveling with my husband to his childhood stomping grounds would mean a weekend that REVOLVED around food, but I think I underestimated just how strong those childhood memories and food associations were! Fresh made fudge at The Fudgery (where his grandma used to take him as a kid and he actually recognized the worker who was there 20+ years ago!), amazing St. Louis BBQ at Pappy’s Smokehouse, a lunch time meal with his closest childhood friends at Bailey’s Range (after having breakfast at the sister restaurant, Rooster, where we had the most fantastic crepes and bloody marys)… I mean, the food went on and on! Even at Ann’s wedding, they didn’t do a traditional sit down meal (it was a 7pm wedding), but the appetizers and desserts went on for days! From fried raviolis (a big STL thing) to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, they had the food bases more than covered. It was awesome!
Suffice it to say, I might have overindulged on food (and drinks) on this trip.
#soworthit
On the upside, we also walked a TON. We spent half of Friday in cars and planes, and I still ended up with over 12, 500 steps for the day. We even walked to the wedding ceremony at WOW, and Ann’s local friends thought we were nuts. We figured it was a 10 minute walk during daylight hours, so why not? Granted we might have seen a crack deal go down (something along the lines of “put THAT shit in your pipe, man”)…but ya know, it was exciting. 😉
On Saturday we walked and walked and walked. Thanks to me pumping every 2.5-3 hrs, our entire weekend revolved around me pumping during the day, and I think it was eye opening to Charlie to realize how often that happens on a daily basis in my life. Our Saturday looked like this. Pump/walk to breakfast/pump/walk to lunch/pump/nap/pump/walk to dinner/pump/walk to drinks/pump/bed. Thanks to all of our trips back to the hotel, we broke 17,500 that day!
Sunday was more low key – more airport travel and car travel, and other than a quick trip to the grocery store on our way home, there was no way a traditional workout was going to happen, so I only got 7,700 steps on Sunday.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with my food choices. I definitely ate more than I would normally, but because of how active we were being, I didn’t feel too badly about it, and Charlie had SO much fun eating all of these old nostalgic foods.
Last Friday morning before we left for the trip I weighed in at 157.5#. On Monday morning I weighed 161.6#. Ouch. Granted quite a bit of that was bloat & water weight from air travel & beer, but still! Then I was sick the last two days (literally couldn’t get out of bed until about 9pm last night), so I haven’t done a workout since last Thursday, but at least I was back in the 150s this morning at 159.6#. Even though I haven’t gotten to my goal of 150 yet, I have to say I am pleased with my progress, especially while still breastfeeding, and I’m so much happier with how I look in pictures already. So much better than when I was 10# higher than this and not working out.
A girlfriend of mine wrote this post in August about what she did to get in the best shape of her life finally, and I just had to literally laugh out loud as I nodded my head and read along:
STOP DENYING IT STUPID! I used to look at every picture anyone posted of me and pick it the fuck apart. The lighting was bad, the angle was bad, my shirt made me look fat, I didn’t turn my head/body/shoulders the right way. I looked fat in every. single. picture. And one day, I finally realized it was because I WAS FAT. Is reverse body dysmorphia a thing? Because I swear I had it. I would look in the mirror and see a super model and look at photos and wonder why the fucking geniuses at Apple couldn’t get their cameras to stop making me look fat.
I know it sounds conceited, but I’ve always been a photogenic person thanks to having a photographer for a Mom, and when I kept looking fat in pictures, it TRULY took me awhile to figure out it wasn’t just because of the lighting or the angle – it was because I had gained weight, even if I was in denial about it. It sure is a good feeling to be coming out on the other side of that journey and not feel the need to pick every picture apart. All of this health and fitness stuff is so worth it. 🙂