Gains and losses

Last week was my first of 5 trips. 6 if you count Houston.

So I had great intentions in regard to my eating, but I do what i always do when i work 16+ hour days and instead i just ate to get through it. All week I worked like a dog.

Next week marks the beginning of our summer sales meeting, and that means 1 year since the start of my pre-surgery diet. I don't really want to do a bandiversary write up now, but one interesting thing that happened this week was that I saw someone I hadn't seen in about a year, and he was raving about how great i look.

It really took me off guard because although i had lost about 40 pounds, I gained more than half back. So in my mind, I gained weight, but to him, since he hadn't seen me, I'm still lower than i was before and that made me feel good. It was certainly a reminder of how far those compliments go to spur on additional weight loss.

Peru Pics

I just realized that I never shared photos from our trip to Peru. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for exotic, beautiful, inexpensive travel. We were in Lima / Miraflores on the coast and then Arequipa up in the Andes mountains. We didn't at all miss that we didn't get to go Machu Picchu. The altitude would have really been too much for Alex. Someday though. This was his second trip since his Dad is Peruvian. It was my first visit, and I definitely plan on returning soon!

A few highlights from the trip are below. Or see more on Flickr.

Off to NYC

Tomorrow starts the first of 5 trips i have in the next month. Two to NYC, two to CA and one to El Paso. I have mixed feelings about it, but I do know it'll be lots of work.

Usually I stay in a hotel when i got to NYC for work, but this time I'm staying in our company apartment. I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet, since I haven't stayed there before and it's a shared apt. We'll see!

I've decided to do low sugar next week to see if I can A) not get too crazy eating out since I'll be eating out for all my meals and B) increase my energy level since NYC always takes it out of me. Work will be so busy that I think I just really need all the energy I can get. Plus perhaps this small thing will be the boost I need to get back on track with my eating habits instead of letting travel derail me as it usually does.

I dont think derail is the right word though because i'm pretty much as off track as I could be at the moment.

I need to just make myself only eat when I'm hungry because these days, there is lots and lots of snacking going on in my house!

Still here

Just living life. I'm actually really happy in Austin though Alex is having a hard time. Being back in Texas has lead to weight gain which i guess is part of why I haven't been posting. I don't want to complain or spend time justifying so I just haven't been posting. I kind of knew that the whole car, Texas, fast-food lifestyle would equal pounds added. One of the reasons I was so excited to move to NYC in the first place was to be more active.

But in this moment, I'm just loving being lazy and in other ways, I'm just so much more active and social in Austin since I can get around so much easier with my car. I just need to make better choices wherever I am.

I'll post again in a couple of days and see where my head is food-wise. Right now, I'm enjoying the last day of my 4th of July holiday weekend. We're house-sitting for my sister and it feels like a vacation rental with the pool and big screen tvs and "outdoor kitchen/bbq" and movie marathon. It's been a pretty fab holiday weekend!