What the @#$%

I had a wonderful few days up in Gatlinburg, TN and the Smokey Mountains visiting with my family, who was vacationing there.

I have a horrible history of going on vacation or getting out of my normal schedule and letting my food choices slip and exercise go to the wayside.

The past 3 days I thought I had really kept a handle on what I was eating. Sure, I had things like ice cream and while my daily calorie intake wasn't at my 1750-1900 goal, I kept it between 2,000-2500. I tracked my food using Spark People's mobile site.

I wasn't sweating the 2500 calorie days because 1) at just over 300 pounds, It would take over 3400 calories a day for me to maintain my weight, so to gain I would have had to be eating well over 3400 calories a day. And 2) we did ALOT of walking, touring, sightseeing. Thursday we were going, going, going from 9am till well after 10pm and Friday was the same pace for most a good 8 hours.

Sure, I ate some things I normally wouldn't have at home, but we ate a lot of meals at the cabin. I ate 1 homemade chicken fajita when I would normally have 2; I had one biscuit and gravy with fruit on the side when others had a plate full of 2; I left food on my plate when we went out to breakfast; I had fresh fruits and veggies every day and I drank at least 64 oz of water every day (usually more).

We walked up a half mile vertical incline to the highest peak of the Smokies and did more walking around town than I have done in weeks. I was sore at the end of each day and I felt good about it because I had spent my two days of mini-vacation being active and enjoying it.

But something still went wrong...this morning the scale showed an 8 pound gain from my weigh in last week.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

I know, I know, everyone tells me it is fluid. I was slightly swollen from the high altitudes, walking so much and being in the car a lot (it was a 30-45 minute drive into town one way...we did a lot of driving back and forth).

But I am still so frustrated. By consoling me by saying I'm just retaining fluid means you don't understand the situation at all. I've never been able to control my food choices or portions on vacation before. Never. And this time I did - and still nothing changed. I have nothing to show for it. I might as well eaten 4 fajitas, 3 biscuits and gravy and drank margaritas all day long. I would have had more fun.

All that aside, I'm still beginning Carb Lover's tomorrow. I'll post my starting weight for the kickstart week in the morning and will blog every day during kickstart to see how it's going. I will share how satisfying the food options are, the difficulty of fitting it into my lifestyle, the cost of following the plan and of course my progress. Stay tuned!