Vacation Recovery

I didn't want to come back to work. I knew I needed to, had to. A small part of me wanted to because I do like my job and I like the routine of my work schedule. But as I got ready for bed on Sunday night and laid down my head and started to think about what was coming up the next day... I realized that I didn't want to get up and go to work. The previous 9 nights had been about my brain looking forward to the fun family activities of the next day- leaving for vacation, going on a picnic, a baseball game, whatever. Apparently, my minivan wasn't eager to come back, either. I got the "low tire pressure" notice while driving on the highway in rush hour traffic. Got off the highway and pulled into a service station- 4 new tires, please (I was very due- my treads were very worn and the low tire was one that had already been repaired twice). Jeff had to come and get me and take me to work0 thankfully, he was on his way in my direction already so that made it easy. I didn't pay attention to what I ate while on vacation. Mistake. I was active but didn't exercise the last 5 days. Mistake. I stayed up late watching movies or just enjoying time with my husband. Mistake. I slept until 7 with my kids. Mistake. Not mistakes at the time. At the time, great choices because that's what was best for our getaway/staycation week. But the consequences of those choices are a little tough. Bad eating choices. I didn't go crazy and start wolfing down Big Macs 5 times a day or anything. In fact, I avoided most fast food or at least made healthy-ish choices when we did hit a fast food place. I didn't not ice the impact of my eating until going to the gym today- more on that shortly. I had intended to go to the grocery on my way in to work to pick up cottage cheese, grapefruit, mini wheat bagels, and peanut butter- my main work week dietary staples!! But that tire situation deflated that plan (sorry - had to go there!). No exercise. I had intentions. I was very proud to have gone out and done my 5K run/walk on Tuesday morning. I was relieved when we got to Lake Rudolph and I saw how hilly the grounds were- no way I could have run there!! I had intentions to do Just Dance or Zumba at home but would get distracted or just forget. I never even got around to taking the kids out for a neighborhood walk. I was definitely active- we didn't sit around watching movies. We weer going places and doing things. But no intentional exercise for 5 days. Ugh. Today, I went back to Boot Camp. Our trainer, Bridget, had taken a hiatus from Boot Camp for the month of May. I focused primarily on running in May and did some cross training but not a lot. Today, Boot Camp started back up with the gym's newest trainer- Stephanie. The apce was good and the exercises were good. And I totally failed by the end. I hit the brick wall with full on nauseau, light headedness. Had to quit the workout. Took forever to be able to get to the locker room. Took another forever to get my clothes off. Had to rush through my shower because I was seriously scared I was going to faint in the shower. Went into the little toilet tall to get dry simply so I could have a place to sit my naked self. It sucked. A lot. And I don't want to feel that awful again!! Stayed up late. I don't regret a single moment of the evenings/nights I spent with Jeff. We would get the kids to bed and then watch a movie or sit and talk or whatever. While he and I never "got away" over the past week, I did feel like we really connected and relaxed together. However, staying up until 11 or midnight every night... bad idea!! I need my 8 hours if I'm truly going to have energy to be effective the next day! Sleeping in with the kids. My kids wake each day between 5:30-6:30. Even when we slept in that RV and they didn't get to bed until after 9:00, they were up at 5:50. By the end of the week, they were sleeping in until about 7:00. A nice treat but a hard habit to break this morning. I knew I had to get up and get showered but all I wanted to do was snuggle with my boy (he tends to sneak into our room in the middle of the night) and wake up at our own pace and have playtime in my room before we all crawled out of bed. Back to reality. Back to exercise and training and boot camp and eating right and fueling vs feeding. Back on track. To kick it off, I'm declaring today to be On Track Tuesday. I'm going to photo journal my food today and post the pics here on the blog. Hopefully, that keeps me motivated to be prepared and make the best choices I can. I'm going to share updates about exercise on the Facebook page / Twitter. Today will be a running day and I'm going to push myself while thinking about that frozen hot chocolate and too many smores and not nearly enough fruits and veggies. This evening, I'm going to participate in the FitCity Indy Twitter chat and get motivated to use my Boot Camp experience to my full advantage. I'm hitting the gym 5 days this week. I haven't been on the scale since May 23. Time to find out how things are going- what kind of damaged I incurred. I'm going to weigh in this Friday- June 11. I've made a lot of progress since March 1. I'm healthier and stronger and smaller. But I still have a long road ahead of me. Yes, I lost 30 pounds. I'm hoping I didn't gain a bunch of them back. I still have work to do. I still haven't met my goals. I still haven't been able to completely run a 5K. I still have a gut and an extra chin that need some work. I still need to be stronger and healthier and have more energy and stamina. My progress so far is awesome and I give myself a lot of credit for it. I also know I have more work ahead of me so I have to get out of vacation mode and kick my Healthier Me choices back into high gear. That picture is what it's all about. Those kids. That husband. Getting that current version of me into a healthier version of me. Continuing on this journey so that it truly is just the way I live and not something I have to really work at. Starting today- I'm back On Track. Who's with me?