The post vacation weight-gain routine…

Well, I’m home safe and sound from a fantastic, and at times, frenetic trip to Phoenix, AZ. It was so great to see so many people I love and who have had a major impact on my life in one way or another.

My family is very spread out but for the first week that we were in town, I got to be with my closest relatives as we celebrated my new nephew, my brother and sister’s birthdays and Brett’s graduation from college. (If you haven’t read about all of the pizza that was consumed during that ONE WEEK, you can read about it HERE.) The second week was spent catching up with old friends which was a total blast!

Having moved over 50 times throughout my life, and having gone to 14 schools growing up, I have many groups of friends who I rarely get to see. Many of which I had lost touch with over the years but have recently reconnected with, thanks to Facebook. (I <3 Facebook) So it was friggen awesome to get a chance to spend time with SO. MANY. PEOPLE!

Of course, almost all of those reunions included food and alcohol because we’re grown ups now and we can do things like that! (we’re all pushing 40 so we’ve been grown up for a while but not necessarily all together) There were happy hours and coffee dates, parties, wings and wine (with one of my new friends, Erica from Celiac and the Beast– LOVE HER!), there lunches and dinners and BBQs. It was a full-on, non-stop food fest. It was AWESOME.

There were also four hikes, four at home workouts, one workout in the park and lots of other walking and activity. It wasn’t quite enough to balance out the number of calories I consumed but the activity was enough to help me feel GOOD!

So what was the vacation weight gain total?

Well, it’s hard to say because I’m not exactly sure what I weighed when I left but I’m guessing somewhere around 8lbs which is pretty standard for a 7-10 day vacation for me, so I’m pretty happy about that. I’m confident that some of that is water-weight from flying and just general inflammation and I’m even more confident that it will not take me long to lose it. I’ve been home about 12 hours and am already back to my normal routine of veg and protein (eating a Jimmy John’s Unwich as I type this!) and will be leaving shortly to get in a good workout.

I also feel stronger, which makes me even happier!

Remember how last month I was unable to do a single modified push up? Well last week during one of my @homeworkouts (more on that coming soon!) I pumped out over 40 modified push ups and even through in a few standard (military) push ups too! Who’s a bad ass?

So regardless of what the scale says today, that doesn’t mean that’s what it has to say tomorrow or a week from now. And even if it does, that doesn’t mean I screwed up, messed up, fell off the wagon or any other negative phrase one might attach to a gain. I never stress about my gains, not even the 20lbs gain from a couple of months ago (the one I’m still working on losing). I refuse to stress over a number on a scale. I’m more concerned with living my life, being happy and healthy– physically, mentally and emotionally. CHECK, CHECK, CHECK!

I hope you are too! <3