I wrote this last week but forgot to actually hit publish (oops!) so technically this is old news but it’s still worth a publish so here ya go!

So…for the most part I’m sticking to my plan. I feel GREAT which was my biggest concern since I did NOT want to spend two weeks feeling bloated and uncomfortable from too much wheat and sugar, too much alcohol, too much food in general and too little exercise. So YAY me! HOWEVER…

I have definitely eaten out, or at least not eaten at my mother in law’s house where we are staying, as much as I had planned, but that doesn’t mean it’s all gone to shit. So YAY again!

We’re in Phoenix for two reasons…

1) to meet my new nephew who is only a month old!

2) to visit with friends and family that we haven’t seen in over four years.

Both of those reasons involve lots of food and festivities, especially in an Italian family like mine! Seriously, four out of six days we had “family dinner” that included pizza night, burger night (and pizza), Chicken Fingers and Fries night (and pizza), and Pasta with Salad night (and pizza). I’m not kidding about the pizza. We HAD to have pizza (from different places each time) because “what if someone doesn’t like (burgers, chicken fingers, pasta, etc)?” My family is kind of crazy and apparently even more-so about PIZZA!  Oh and dessert too! You can’t have family dinner without DESSERT!

Now I’ve never met a pizza I didn’t like, and rarely do I turn away dessert, so having it four times in the last six days was certainly not a disappointment to me, but it did require some balance.

As I said in a recent post, there’s nothing wrong with eating for pleasure as long as you can do it without feeling bad- physically, mentally or emotionally.

I learned a long time ago that food remorse is not productive so I never eat anything if I don’t think I can eat it without feeling GOOD about it. As I’ve gotten healthier, physically, mentally and emotionally, I have created a much healthier “relationship” with food. It no longer has power over me to feel like I MUST have it or that I should EVER feel guilty about eating it. So this week I have exercised those skills.

Although I have eaten WAY more pizza and dessert than I normally do, I also ate lots of fresh fruits and veg, lean protein, salads and made food choices that fueled me so I FELT GOOD ENOUGH to be active and not feel swollen or lethargic and completely unmotivated or just plain old crappy.

Speaking of being active! In addition to the pizza and dessert for pleasure, plus the fruits, veg and protein for fuel, I’ve also gotten in a few workouts including a hike in the beautiful White Tank Mountains and dancing in my brother’s living room with my mom. I’ve also done a few workouts in my MIL’s living room (and have the rug burn on my elbows to prove it!) Oh and there was also the I’mperfect Life workout in the park with other “Lifers” from the Phoenix area! (I didn’t take a single friggen picture…GAH!) That was SO much fun and also included a meal at Whole Foods where we sampled Dim Sum and chatted about life and “stuff.”

Oh! And Brett and I celebrated our “8 years since we met” anniversary at the restaurant where we had our blind date. We even sat at the same table, too! Aren’t we so cute?

That indulgence prompted me to write a post about the caption on that picture. You can read all about it HERE.

So all-in-all, even though I have certainly eaten more of what I don’t usually eat, I’ve also eaten enough of what I do. That coupled with the activity has made the first week of this vacation a great one!

Coming up we’ve got dinner with in the in-laws (x2), Happy Hour with high school friends, hockey and beers with some of our favorite people and several other lunch and coffee dates scattered throughout. We’ve also got a couple more hikes planned and I’ve got some more 20 minute @home workouts planned so all is good in Andrealand!