After spending six days in Minnesota with my family for my brother’s wedding, today’s weigh-in shows the result of lots of eating out, way more wheat than I usually eat and the consumption of alcohol 3 of the 6 days we were there.

HOWEVER!  This is not TRUE fat gain.  I’m sure a pound or two, MAYBE three is actual weight gain but the rest is water weight.  In order to have actually GAINED 6lbs I would have had to have eaten an extra 21 THOUSAND calories than I normally eat– based on science. (1lbs of fat = 3,500 calories)

I did eat very differently than I normally do.  The continental breakfast was donuts and biscuits and waffles and muffins and toast and English muffins with some fruit, craptacular yogurt, sugary cereals, sausage gravy and reconstituted dehydrated eggs.  Sure I could have eaten a banana with some (sugar-laden not-so-natural) peanut butter each morning but I didn’t.  A couple mornings I had “eggs” with sausage gravy and a biscuit, one morning I had a waffle and another morning I had donuts and coffee.

I ordered a salad…ONCE while out to lunch, and didn’t eat the chips that came with the pulled-pork grilled cheese that I had at the wedding but beyond that I ate whatever I wanted.  I enjoyed my donuts and mimosas and I savored the local beer and pizza.  I even indulged in late-night nachos at Denny’s with my favorite aunt and uncle.

But you know what?  Tuesday morning when I woke up at home in my own bed, I went downstairs, made myself a rice cake with peanut butter and got right back to my routine.

This is what’s different about my life these days.  My vacations, celebrations, special occasions and other splurges do not spill into my REAL, everyday life.

And because of that, this weight gain is not a reflection of my EVERYDAY REAL LIFE.  My everyday life WILL be reflected on the scale in the weeks to come– just like it has for the majority of weeks for the past 22 months. Period.