Life on the road

I had my first adventure on the road by myself this week for work. The work part started horribly Monday having spent an hour sitting on the runway for a 1pm flight to Richmond that was eventually cancelled. The next one wouldn't be leaving until 9am the next morning. Luckily, I got on a stand-by to Norfolk leaving at 7pm and drove to Richmond. I finally reached my destination just before midnight. The next day would become a series of IT problems, making my day of training miserable. Finally, on Wednesday, things started shaping up and the week ended on a positive note - and an on-time flight for the trip home.

Eating on the road is a challenge. It's extremely hard to plan your meals, but I was able to count on the trusty McDonald's Southwest salads in a pinch. I loaded up on snacks at the convenience store Monday night - some almonds, apples with yogurt dip, a garden salad (that I ate for dinner) and some veggie crisps. Those certainly deterred me from calling in a late night pizza order and raiding the hotel vending machines. I continued to journal my food all week making the best estimations I could. When I wasn't sure, I calculated meals on the high side just to be safe. I was starving Wednesday evening after not eating enough on Monday and Tuesday. My body fights back with anything less than 1300 calories a day. So I treated myself with some wine and dessert with dinner. My only real 'cheats' all week. I can't even remember the last time I ordered dessert in a restaurant. But I managed to eat only half and it was delicious and well worth it. No regrets there. My one regret is not making it to the gym a single time during the week. The one night I was able to, I was sidetracked...read on....

The best part of my trip was finding this awesome mall in Willow Grove, PA on the day of Macy's one day sale this week. I found these unbelievable trouser jeans by Nine West for only $20. I was paying for them and when the lady at the counter pulled them up to fold them, the girl checking out at the register beside me looked me up and down and said, "those look way too big for you!". When I tried them on, I did have some extra room in them, but for whatever reason, it didn't even occur to me that I could fit in anything less than a size 10. But hearing her say that made me wonder. So, I left the counter, returned to the rack, found the size 8's and tried them on. And I'll be damned - she was right. I walked out with an EIGHT, people!! My first size eight jeans that I have bought in my entire adult life!!!!!

Which brings me to another point. I am really struggling with clothes right now, because it seems that I can't see myself as anything but a double digit wearer. Even my bra that I just bought a few weeks ago is too big in the cup size. Now, to my defense, it does have very molded cups, so even though it doesn't fit, it still looks like it does. But I realized this week that I don't even begin to fill out the cups anymore. Sure enough, when I tried on new bras at Macy's, I was an entire cup size smaller. And I'm embarrassed to admit that I bought a 12 petite in a pair of pants (petities always run smaller, so I'm thinking equivalent to a 10 regular, right?), wore them back on the plane Friday only to be able to take them off without unzipping them when I got home that evening. *sigh* It's delightful and frustrating at the same time.

All said and done, I'm happy to report a loss this week. 157 for the week. Down about a pound. 12 more to go to my goal before the cruise leaves August 30th. This is definitely possible. :D