Reckoning

This last week was the kids' spring break. It was also our oldest boy's birthday and Dad had taken the week off so, we decided that we would go to a nearby resort hotel and have some family fun together.

We went to Great Wolf Lodge (GWL) in Colorado Springs. If you aren't familiar with GWL, let me give you a "little" run down. (I say "little" because there isn't anything "little" about this place.) For starters, they have an indoor water park. It is exclusive only to their guests, which is really nice. In addition to the water park, they also have miniature golfing, a suspended ropes course, a rock wall, bowling, an arcade, a little mining station for kids, a scavenger hunt, several activities for the kids throughout the day (kids yoga, dancing, shows, etc. etc.), and this interactive video game called "MagiQuest". I decided I would leave my FitBit at home because I didn't want to lose it taking it off and on to get into the water. BIG MISTAKE! I SWEAR I walked at least 40,000 steps during our 2 night stay there. My feet and glutes hurt SO bad when we got home! Anyway, in addition to over stimulation for the kids, they are also equipped with several places to eat. They had an eatery inside the water park, a breakfast and dinner buffet, a pizzeria, a nice sit down restaurant open for lunch and dinner, a Ben and Jerry's, a candy shop, vending machines, and a Dunkin' Donuts. And they are smart about it too. You come down from the rooms and you immediately see the sit down place and off to the left is the buffet. Then you start heading the direction of the water park and you HAVE to pass the Ben and Jerry's, candy shop, Dunkin' Donuts, AND the pizzeria before you get to the entry to the park. Sheer brilliance. We did have fun though. A lot of exhausting fun.

Going on vacation used to be an "excuse", if you may, to eat whatever you want. "I'm going to eat this because I'm on vacation.", "It doesn't matter because I'm on vacation and I can do what I want." We made it a priority to stick to the plan during our stay. We made sure that our waiters knew that we were dairy free. They were VERY accommodating. The chefs would even come out and walk us through either the buffet or the menu and let us know what had dairy in it. If something had dairy in it that we wanted, they would then make us a special batch and bring it to our table. For instance, the first night (and first meal) there we went to the dinner buffet. They had salmon there that they had put a chipotle ranch on. We asked if they had any that hadn't gotten dressed yet and they didn't think so, BUT they cooked up a special batch of salmon just for us, and it was DELICIOUS. The next morning when we went down for breakfast they had scrambled eggs that they had cooked with butter. They scrambled a batch of eggs just for us without the butter. They really made it quite easy and I didn't feel like I was being picky or a nuisance. The unfortunate thing though were their French Fries. They. Were. Good. I might have eaten one or two......too much.

After our stay I mentioned to my husband how I didn't want to weigh-in because of all the food I ate. I didn't over fill myself. I don't ever recall feeling like I overate, but I knew that some of my choices weren't necessarily the best. He called it the "day of reckoning". How appropriate that is. I did it though. I weighed myself this morning and was pleasantly surprised. I only gained .2! I KNOW that all the walking I did helped with that. (I seriously walked all over that stupid place at least 100 times.) And also making sure we stuck to being dairy-free. When I logged in my weight I looked back over my weigh-ins from my past blogging. The same thing happened my 4th week in when we had gone to Utah for a family vacation. I gained .2 then and I gained .2 now.

There should be no excuse for making poor choices, vacation or no. Taking health seriously means just that, taking it seriously. My sister has lost an amazing amount of weight and she told me that when you go out you need to have a "plan". That you shouldn't deprive yourself of going out and hanging with friends or family because you don't want to "fall off the wagon". Have a plan and STICK to that plan. We had a plan. We stuck to that plan. Yes, I might have had too many French Fries and now I'm seeing the results because of it, but I'm proud of us for sticking to the plan.The day we got home I had a birthday cake to decorate. (I decorate cakes as a business.) There was no food in the house and I was NOT about to make dinner. (I was EXHAUSTED as were my kids!) A local southwest eatery sounded EXTREMELY good to me and when my husband called to ask about dairy-free items we found out that there was more dairy in things that we realized. It wasn't a LOT of dairy, 99% dairy-free, but there was dairy. Broke. My. Heart. But, we still stuck to the plan. We didn't go get food. My husband cooked some pasta and we topped it with what we wanted. It didn't hit the spot like the other food would have, but it did the job and he was my hero for making it. (Thanks again honey!!)

Vacations are about having fun and making memories, not regrets later. Take your health seriously. Have a plan. NO EXCUSES!