Please don't hate me...

...but I'm going on a trip with my husband. For a week. With no children. And we're going far enough away that we have to fly there. This is the first time I will have ever been on a plane with him with no kids. This is also the longest we've ever gone away together (breaking our previous record of 4 days, which broke our previous record of 24 hours. What can I say? We don't get out much).

I am really excited about this trip, but there's something about traveling that I really hate: the unknown. I mean, I just don't know what I'm going to do with myself when I have a whole week without having to break up any Polly Pocket-related fights or get excited about anybody's excrement (did I mention that Sam is potty training?), and I'm really afraid that I'm going to sleep all morning every day. Oh, I'm just kidding (mostly), the unknown that I hate is all the stuff that goes with trying to lose weight. I don't know what kind of food I'm going to have access to, don't know when or where I'm going to exercise, don't know how much water I can drink and when (since I don't know when I'll find a bathroom)(or what condition it will be in, for that matter).

So all I can do is plan the best I can. I'm bringing along some portable snacks, exercise clothes, running shoes, and an exercise tube. In my favor is the fact that I never have to talk my husband into exercising (in fact, usually I have to talk him into leaving me alone about exercising already), and with the shoes and the tubing, I'll be able to get walks and modified strength training in, with bodyweight cardio moves to use in case other forms of exercise aren't feasible. I'm also going to try to get some fruit and water to keep in the rental car so that along with the snack I bring, we'll have healthy options available. As for the bathroom thing, I'm thinking I'm just going to have to hope for the best :)

What about you? What do you do when you're traveling? How do you make sure you get your exercise in and have access to healthy food you can eat? Is anybody traveling for the holidays and needs some help formulating a plan to get you through it with your goals in tact? Give me your best healthy-living-whilst-not-at-home tip! Also, do me a favor and try to work the word "whilst" into conversation today.

Smooth Move

You thought this was going to be about Ex-Lax, didn't you? Sorry to disappoint, but it's about my current biggest challenge on the weight-loss front. I'm moving! And homeless! And visiting friends and family! It's the perfect storm for not only *not* losing but for a full-on gaining fest!

We moved out of our house about 2 weeks ago, left California a week ago, and now we're on a prolonged farewell tour before we head off for Africa. Oh yeah, did I mention I'm moving to Africa? But since denial is my favorite coping mechanism, I'm remarkably calm about all that THAT'S going to entail; what I'm having the hardest time with right now is dealing with all the craziness the moving, homelessness, and visiting is wreaking on my attempt to exercise and eat well.

Here's what I've done right during all this:
***Asked my mom not to buy the cookies and sugar cereals she usually stocks up on before we visit--"for the kids"--because I know I can't control myself with those in the house.
***Brought my scale with me. Yes, I am toting a scale around in my luggage. You don't even want to know what the expression on my husband's face looked like when I told him it would be joining us. But see, I know me, and I know that if I don't have a way to consistently track my weight it becomes waaay too easy to fool myself into believing that "I'm doing fine; I can have this half a cake" or "I'm doing fine; exercising is not necessary!" The last time we moved, I was without a scale for 2 months, and in that time I managed to gain 17 pounds. Yes, 17. Granted, I was pregnant, but this was the first trimester! 17 pounds! Two months! So in order to prevent a recurrence of that lovely experience (p.s. NOT pregnant), I brought my scale, and I'm using to keep myself honest. My husband stopped shaking his head at me last week after we got to my mom's house (and I hadn't had access to the scale for a few days). I had just come off of a weekend of less-than-stellar eating and a long day of traveling, and I felt really huge and bloat-y. I was sure my weight was up, and I could feel myself slipping into that Screw It All mindset that tends to hang around when I'm already feeling liked I've messed up so bad there's no recovering and I might as well eat the house. Lo and behold, I got on the scale and discovered that I had actually LOST! 1.2 pounds! Woo! Bottom line is that I need me the accountability, so I'm doing what it takes (i.e. giving up precious weight in my luggage) to have it.
***Laying out my exercise clothes before I go to bed so that I can easily sneak out of the room without waking up the almost-two-year-old-that-doesn't-like-it-when-I-leave-him and get my walk in early before the day gets crazy.
***For almost a week now, I've been working on keeping up with my food journal. This is one of my biggest weaknesses and is almost always the first thing to go on the slippery slope to stuffing my face with crap. Consequently, my eating has been getting better. Perfect is never going to happen, so good and better is my aim.

I know I can do better though. I need to drink more water. My exercise can be more intense. I need to weight train.

Does anybody have some good tips for when you're traveling and/or when your life is just generally in a state of upheaval?