Semi-successful in Atlanta

Hey guys, how is everyone?  I am back in Albany today after spending the past two nights in Atlanta for work.  I actually published my ode to Albany from miles and miles away.  Go figure.

I was a little nervous about how I would fare eating and exercise wise while on my trip because traveling is always hard for me.  I had indulged over the weekend and was hoping to get back on track. I will say that I did pretty well, but I could have done better.  I tried to remind myself that the meals were just meals... not a celebration or special occasion and tried to just stick to eating what I needed to.  I didn't take any food pictures, purposefully, because I didn't want the trip to be about the food.  But rather, about the people I was with and the conversation.  That was why I was traveling.  Not food.  I'm hoping it will help me to make this distinction in the future.  Sometimes I am going out to eat for the food or traveling and looking forward to great meals.  But this trip was for work and not food.  I did my best to remember that.

So, what went well?

• I didn't have alcohol at dinner either night
• I didn't have pre-dinner bread either night
• I exercised both days while I was in Atlanta and today, after flying back (5 miles!)
• I ate a lot of fruit as snacks
• I didn't eat the delicious Biscoff cookies on my Delta flight
• In fact, I didn't do any flight-related anxiety eating at all
• I stayed in control for breakfast, lunch, and snacks both days
• The first night I didn't have dessert

I can be a pretty anxious flyer at times and one of the things that makes me feel better when I am feeling anxious is... you guessed it, eating.  I have at times binge eaten on planes or in the airports to just feel better about the whole flight process, so it was good for me to get through it without any bad eating!

Something kind of interesting that helped me get through it was that sitting in the aisle next to me was a woman who got really anxious right before we took off.  She actually asked the flight attendant if there was any way she could get off the plane easily because she was feeling really anxious.  The flight attendant said it would delay everything, and the woman seemed uneasy about making everyone else wait. She was actually really sweet and I could tell just a bit skiddish.  So I started talking to her.  I told her that I have anxiety problems as well and knew what she was feeling.  I asked if she just wanted to talk because that usually helped me to distract myself.  She said sure.  During takeoff and then again when we landed I just talked to her the whole time.  Asked her questions about where she was from, what she did, her travels, and essentially anything in life besides the airplane :)

I know how terrible anxiety can be and it was nice to be able to hopefully help her out just a little bit.  She did have a connecting flight, so I hope she made it there safely!  She doesn't know it, but talking to her helped me to feel more comfortable as well and kept me on track.  That feeling of being needed and that you are helping is sort of addicting to me.  Is that weird?

Anyways, back to travel eating... where could I have improved?

• I didn't have to go to the dessert station on the 2nd night
• I could have worked out a little harder (2 mile run & some weights on Monday, some weights on Tuesday)
• I made good choices at dinners but didn't stop when I was no longer hungry, I continued to eat because the food was good
• I broke my soda-ban and had a can of Diet Coke ( my 3rd soda since the beginning of April)

I had a bad moment last night when post-dinner, our group decided to take team photo.  I ended up on the end, which, as my close friends know, is NOT my ideal group photo location.  I did my best to skinny-arm it up and try and use some of the tricks I know to look as lean as possible.  But it just ended up being totally awkward.  I knew it was going to be a bad photo as soon as it was taken and I was pretty depressed seeing what I looked like.  Even though I knew I'd gone over with points, I had been feeling okay about how I did eating wise on the trip.  After I saw the photo was when I started going through the, "Ugh, I should have done better," mental spiral and got pretty bummed.

But, I'm back in Albany and back to counting points in my lovely little (mostly) controlled environment.   I stocked up on fruits and veggies today, and stayed on track with points.  Plus, got in a 5 mile run!

Some of my eats today included some whole wheat toast with peanut butter and banana, along with some tea and carrots.

And, later on I had this ginormous bowl of berries.  I am totally going to be going overboard on berries over the next week and I'm kind of excited about it.

And although I didn't take any pictures of the food in Atlanta, I did take a few pictures of one of the restaurants.  We ate at Murphy's the first night and Canoe the second night.  Both were great, but Canoe had this gorgeous outdoor area right along the Chattahoochie River (that's fun to say!)  Totally gorgeous!

Happy Wednesday everyone!