I'm BaaaaAck

Vacation is behind me now, perhaps moreso than I care to believe. Now granted, we got back at 2:40 this afternoon and I made an immediate dash to the bathroom having been in a car in the rain for something over 3 hours with 2 coffees and a refill on water under my belt. While in the bathroom, I weighed. Bad move to begin with since I always weigh very first thing in the morning, but I did it anyway. The scales made me unhappy. VERY unhappy. As of about 2:45 this afternoon, they say I gained 5 lbs this week. I won't get really distraught until I weigh in the morning, but I'm bummed!
We were SO good on vacation. I mean, I say "we", but much of the time I did what I know to be the right thing and watched Neil do otherwise. But then there were times too when he'd go out of his way to make things right for me. For instance, in Chattanooga, we stayed at a bed and breakfast. It was NICE, and upscale from other b-n-b's I've stayed at. Their breakfast specialty was hot, fresh croissants the size of dinner plates. I never had one. Some days, Neil had 2. Instead, my usual breakfast from their self serve spread was a pack of instant oatmeal made with hot water from the coffee pot, a bowl of fresh fruit, and a plate of scrambled eggs from the kitchen, which they prepared per person upon arrival always scrambled, and probably the equivalent of 3 eggs if I had to guess. I didn't eat the freshly prepared quiche or the croissants or the yogurt I could safely say wasn't low fat. Ok....so that was breakfast M/T/W. Lunch on Sunday as we left for Chattanooga was Wendy's...and it was breakfast too: small chili, side salad with dressing on the side to stick my fork in to before poking salad, and a kiddie sized frostie and water. I saved the pack of croutons in my pocketbook in case I was out and about and needed a snack. I never drank anything BUT water the whole trip and would have the waitress refill my glass 2-4 times in the course of a meal. At night, we'd open a bottle of wine and polish off 2 glasses each, but WAIT...I'm not done yet.

My days run together, so I can't remember what I had for lunch on a given day and what paired up as supper that night, but one day we ate at River Grille. I ordered Chicken Flautas...didn't know they were FRIED, but I peeled the filling out and ate that, and ate the black beans and rice that came with it. Another day, we ate at Blue something....I ordered a jumbo shrimp cocktail and a side of seasonal veggies, and THAT was lunch with about 4 waters. One night for dinner, it was LATE, and we had taken the sunset river cruise, only it rained. We decided on Mexican food. But even there, we were good! Yes, we ate chips and salsa, but for our entree, we ordered a grilled chicken dish that was served with grilled peppers and onions....no cheese, no rice, no beans...just veggies and meat GRILLED, and we SPLIT it!!! Yes! That's what I'm sayin'! At no time did I let my guard down and do bad!

Once we left Chatt...oh, but wait...there was another meal...our fanciest endeavor. It was at 212 Market Street in Chattanooga. I ordered a half order of their "watermelon and tomato salad with jalapeno and bacon dressing"....OMG! It was outstanding! So much so, I can't remember exactly WHAT my entree was except it came served on bulgar and went straight through me....I think it was salmon, but Neil couldn't remember either. It's written down in the car. THAT's how committed I was to doing good. But the "salad"....it was 2 slabs of tomato and a same sized round slab of watermelon in the middle, served on a long skinny rectangular plate. Over that, they let arugula leaves land where they may, and then on top, I swear, was no more than 2 T of dressing, albeit creamy, there wasn't much, but it was packed with fresh flavor of herbs, jalapeno, and just a bit of bacon. It will stand out in my mind forever as something I wish I could duplicate. Another meal in Chattanooga...see, it's all coming back to me...we went to a place the river cruise lady suggested. It was like a summer fish camp fish fry, but I ordered the grilled salmon salad, again with dressing on the side to fork. The salmon portion was small and probably just right. This was the night I had set aside to be my dessert night, but when I looked at the menu, my options were a hot fudge sundae, a slice of key lime pie, or something else...none of which was what I had hoped for so I didn't order any dessert.

Ok, so we left Chattanooga and headed for Gatlinburg. Breakfast was my usual from the b-n-b. Lunch was Wendy's: small chili, side salad, dressing on the side, but this time, a side of mandarin oranges instead of a kiddie frostie. Once in Gatlinburg, we hit a grocery store for supper and breakfast preparations. We bought a ready to eat tray of veggies with veggie dip included: brocolli, tomatoes, carrots, and cauliflower. We bought a similar tray of fruits, also with dip: pineapple, strawberries, grapes, and melon. We bought light string cheese and oatmeal. Supper the first night was grilled porkchops and boiled corn on the cob, no butter, and we grazed from the fresh trays. Supper the second night was baked salmon pinwheels, prepared at the grocery store: no more than a portion of salmon pinwheeled with a spinach and feta stuffing, more spinach than anything. We also bought a prepared thing of macaroni and cheese to go with it, but we made sure to get the pack that had 2 single servings since mac-n-cheese is something we both love way too much. Again we grazed from veggies and fruits. With our fruit each night, we had a serving of angel food cake as dessert. Now, let's see...lunches in G'burg...we did bbq one day. I ordered the pulled pork plate, no bun, and had green beans and a baked potato for my sides and only used 1 pat of butter of the 4 she brought me, and a spoon of sour cream. It was there that I cashed in on my dessert I didn't get on my planned night...homemade blackberry cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was big on berry and low on crust, and the ball of ice cream was small, so I was pleased with myself. Another lunch was at The Old Mill Restaurant...think Cracker Barrel. I ordered a cup of vegetable beef soup to start with and had the open faced turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. I ate all the beans, half the potatoes, 2/3 of the turkey, and none of the bread underneath. But here's the kicker, and my only real fall from grace...it must be a TN thing...instead of hushpuppies they bring these fried bread balls...don't know if it's biscuit dough or what, but they're like donuts, just way less sweet. I had 2 of those with lunch. Last night for our last night out we ate at a restaurant instead of dirtying more pots, pans and dishes at the cabin so we could make a quick getaway this morning. Again, it was sort of a Cracker Barrel type place. They greeted us with an Apple Julep....a juice glass of cider mixed with pineapple juice, we think, and mint. That was followed by our choice of soup, so again, I went veggie...not potato or brocolli cheese. Along with that came more of those damned bread balls! Only this time they came with homemade applebutter. Yes, I did. I have no regrets...they were THAT good, and not capable of a 5 lb gain. My entree was 2 8" skewers of chicken and steak with onions, peppers, and cherry tomatoes, grilled. My sides were MORE green beans and applesauce. The skewers were supposed to come on a bed of rice, but they forgot it and I didn't mention it given my dough balls. Lastly was our breakfast this morning. Husband said he didn't feel like he could really say he'd been to Gatlinburg unless he had pancakes since every other thing you saw was a pancake restaurant. Everything else was Christmas shops or bbq joints, or Elvis impersonators. So we plotted to go to Flapjacks...entirely his choice and I was going along for the ride since he had been so accommodating to my food choices every meal, every day. He got the huge trough of fried eggs, sausage links, stack of pancakes, and large juice. I ordered the "Healthy Egg Breakfast"...a serving of scrambled egg substitute, 2 multi-grain pancakes sprinkled with pecans, and a banana. I removed the scoop of butter from my plate, sliced the banana on my pancakes and used half as much syrup as I ever would have. More water and black coffee. Every choice I made all week was well thought out and calculated. Whenever I thought I might have to cross the line, there was always an alternative and I was in the right frame of mind to make that choice.

What I haven't mentioned is the EXERCISE!!! When we got to Chattanooga, we parked the car and didn't use it again until it was time to leave, with the exception of the last night dinner there that was about 15 miles off the beaten path and required a gps to get us there. Our b-n-b was 12 blocks from all the cool stuff to do. That took us to the river's edge. Then there were 3 bridges crossing the TN River. One was strictly traffic, one was pedestrian and traffic, the last was strictly pedestrian. They told us at the visitor's center if we walked the ped/traffic bridge to the other side and walked down to the ped bridge to come back, we'd cover 1 mile alone just walking the bridges, and that didn't even take into account the 12 blocks we walked to get there, the 12 blocks we needed to walk to get back, or all the walking we did in amongst the 12th blocks left and right to take in the IMAX theater (twice), the aquarium, the restaurants for lunches, antique shops and gift shops, OR the things we walked to once we crossed to the other side! Ironic that I literally crossed a river while waiting to cross the illusive one on the scales. We estimated that on our "longest" day, we walked 4 miles round trip, and it was 97 degrees.

Another thing worth mentioning, somewhere along the way, we stopped for gas and I was hungry. I bought an apple and a banana in the convenience store...paid too much, but I was always thinking and making good choices for least fat and best calorie bargains. I kept the apple in my purse until the sunset cruise and ate it then instead of buying Doritoes or M&Ms on the boat. I don't see how I gained. I'm not even going to say I gained 5 lbs...not until I weigh in the morning like usual. Until then, I refuse to own it. This is the first trip EVER where I didn't order the richest, fattest thing on the menu every meal, every day. We didn't keep cookies around, we didn't buy fudge, everything was clean, fresh food. The only exception was the dough balls and our nightly glass or 2 of wine. We'll see what morning brings.