Week 10, Day 1: 5.4 pound weight gain

Sigh. I was expecting a weight gain, and I guess five pounds over two weeks is about right.

It's mostly water weight, I think. I hope.

The Los Angeles trip was hard on my ability to stay on the program. Although I had packed apples and Clif bars for emergencies, I had expected to be able to make more food choices that included my usual strategy -- to eat heaps of vegetables. No such luck. Not at the airport, not form room service (except at one heck of a price), not from the food available at the conference.

I didn't find a grocery store within walking distance of the hotel. My order of vegetable curry at an Indian restaurant was long on sauce and short on vegetables -- I saw two pieces of potato, a tiny carrot cube and a green bean. I ordered a plate of steamed vegetables from room service and almost fainted at the $30 tab. Filling out my food diary was a struggle. I took to scribbling what I'd eaten in tiny writing in the margins of the notes I was taking at the sessions. It was a chronicle of a downward spiral -- although I never did break into the bags of fatty snax or candy bars they had thoughtfully left in my room.

By Thursday I had pretty much given up, even on writing down what I ate in the margins. I ate what I wanted at the Thursday dinner buffet -- lots of Mexican food and a big piece of cake at dessert. Oh, and champagne. Friday I ate my box lunch, cookies and all, andwhen I moved to the Hampton Inn my choice was pizza delivery, $15 minimum, so I wound up with a Mexican pizza and a big green salad. I ate the toppings off the pizza and ate the salad.

Saturday morning I had some improbable "fried eggs" from the breakfast buffet, plus a biscuit with gravy because I felt like it. I had a salad entree at the airport, and a Clif bar and apple during the flight (which was delayed).

Riding home from the airport at 3:00 a.m., the car in which I was a passenger was rear-ended on the Schuylkill Expressway. I wasn't injured but I was pretty shaken up, literally and figuratively. I got home around 3:30 a.m., tired and hungry. My husband was in Roanoke. The dog wasn't much company at that hour. There wasn't a thing in the house to eat that didn't require defrosting and cooking except for two small bags of potato chips. I poured myself a big glass of whiskey and ate all the potato chips. The rest of the week I was off-kilter -- jet lagged, sore muscles and a bit of a back-ache, rattling around the house by myself. There were no fresh vegetables and I didn't feel like shopping. I pigged out on beans and rice and cheese.

Today is my first day back on program, although I don't think I did too badly yesterday. We did go to the PathMark and I got lots of fresh broccoli, fresh green beans, fresh mushrooms, fresh zucchini.