Well, it could have been worse

On Friday my weight was 169, after having been 166 on Thursday. Over the course of three days I did not see ONE whole grain, despite my best efforts! And the few vegetables I encountered were waaayyy overcooked, and heavily salted and cooked with fat. Ugh. But today I was 167, so the effect of three days of unhealthy eating was only a one pound upswing. With any luck I can avoid eating badly today, and then tomorrow my weight will be no worse than it is today, which puts me at a net gain of zero for the week (but also a net loss of zero; oh, well).

The family reunion food was worse than I anticipated. I ate the bacon-cooked green beans because they were the only green vegetables on the table. I also served myself some mashed potatoes because I figured they'd be better for me than the croissant-based sandwiches (heavy on cheese and mayo, too) but I was mistaken -- they were a mashed potato casserole! There were bits of things in them -- hard boiled eggs, maybe? They were nasty. So I didn't eat them (as far as I could tell, nobody did -- even Daniel's mother commented on how awful they were, and she's the least picky eater I know). So I had no bread-type foods with the meal. Just a few slices of ham and some oversalted, soggy, fat green beans. I did drink water, at least. But I let myself have dessert and got a little carried away -- I started with a tiny piece of very scrumptious peach cobbler and one cookie, but then I had another cookie and some of the best homemade ice cream ever (but only a fraction of what I could have eaten). Yum. For dinner on Saturday night there were burgers and chips, so I ate a hamburger (no cheese) on a bun (white, of course; I don't think they make whole wheat anything in Alabama), with about four tortilla chips. And a glass of skim milk.

I confess that while I was reading on Saturday afternoon I ate four of the Rolos that were in a bowl in our room. I'm only human.

For Sunday breakfast we had orange juice, scrambled eggs, white biscuits, and bacon. I drank the 4 ounces of OJ offered and I ate one piece of bacon, a very small spoonful of eggs, and one biscuit (well, with a little strawberry preserves, but no butter). I was really trying! I also ate a handful of the grapes that were out for the kids. On the way home we stopped at an exit where we realized we'd stopped several times before because it has a lot of places to go -- and then we remembered that the McDonald's was gross and the Wendy's took twenty minutes to get together a simple order, and its bathrooms weren't clean. So we went into the Subway and walked right back out (really, really gross) and wound up at Arby's. I had a roast beef sandwich and no fries and water to drink -- I couldn't get excited about their salads or baked potato, and figured the roast beef wasn't really less healthy than grilled chicken, though I don't recall seeing grilled chicken on this particular Arby's menu. We're never going to that exit again.

We got home late so we reheated the veal scaloppine for dinner. I ate a small portion of the pasta. It was all very yummy (but not whole grain, and this one was my own fault). I also had a beer (really my own fault).

I got no exercise the whole weekend. I meant to go out for a walk after the reunion but it genuinely slipped my mind. I was annoyed with myself later -- I could have used the exercise not just to burn the calories but to get my body feeling more normal. Eating like this makes me feel so gross even when I'm not on a diet.

Now we're not traveling until Thanksgiving, but at that point we're spending a week there (Daniel has a talk to give at UAH the Friday before Thanksgiving, so we'll be going up for that and just staying through). I am really, really dreading the food. I know I can manage a decent breakfast -- they do keep OJ and skim milk on hand, and there's usually some kind of cereal buried in the pantry -- I just couldn't eat it this weekend because there were planned, everybody-eats-together breakfasts both days and it would have been rude to eat something else when these were supposed to be treats! But during other long visits I've been able to have my usual breakfast, so that will be fine. We'll have sandwiches for lunch most days, so I can probably scare up some whole-wheat bread for those; it's just dinner that will be an issue, and I guess I'll just have to take smaller portions and do what I can to eat reasonably.