It has only been two months since I stopped my daily diet blogging, but a lot has happened in those two months.
Immediately after finishing our 100 days I headed off to Thailand for an amazing adventure and the next week I left for a quick trip to Tennessee to spend time with my grandson and celebrate Halloween with him. I did NOT stay Keto on my trips, but despite that I only managed to gain back a few pounds, which I quickly lost again. I did wonder if maybe some of that weight gain was due to retaining water after several long flights.
Peter and I have both been a little lazy in our adherence to our low card lifestyle. I think we both needed some time off for good behavior, but we both want to continue to loose weight and it is clear that the low carb lifestyle is the most effective weight loss method.
After all my travels I was excited for November to return to a sense of normalcy, and despite the fact that I have not made it to the YMCA, I was getting quite a few daily steps thanks to working at the Botanical gardens and my other part time job. I was trying to get back to the stricter Keto eating habits, but then unfortunately I picked up a nasty cold.
Having a cold was both good and very bad for my weight loss. I did not maintain Keto. I felt like garbage and just like my mother had taught me I ate, or at least tried to eat, chicken soup and drank as much juice as I could manage. I was also using cough drops that had sugar, so I am certain my carb count was way beyond the Keto limit, however I did loose weight due to the fact that I just did not feel like eating at all.
My cold lasted almost a week, but finally, mercifully, right before Thanksgiving I began to feel much better, which was not necessarily a good thing for our diet.
Peter and I had already discussed that we were not planning to remain Keto for Thanksgiving. This is one of those dieting minefields, and for me, not being able to enjoy Thanksgiving would make it way too hard to stick with any diet. We were invited to my brother’s house for the holiday and we gave ourselves a ‘free pass’ to eat and drink anything we felt like for the day, and it was interesting that we both ate far less than we had in previous years. All that dieting has really changed our overall eating patterns.
The only major hiccup is that I volunteered to make pies for dessert, and I actually had lots of fun making the pies, but my sister-in-law sent several pies home with us – so there was some extra carbs for the whole weekend and yes I did regain the few pounds that I had lost while I was sick.
Peter and I are back to low carb foods this week and hopefully we can get back to a healthy level of exercise too. My goal is still 3-4 times per week, but fortunately with my job at the garden two morning a week, that does provide a great deal of walking, especially when I am scheduled as the lead guide so I walk even more plus carry all the supplies out to the trails so I don’t feel the need to do a visit to the YMCA on those days.
I know that we “fell off the wagon” when it comes to our diet, but that really isn’t a big deal and as long as we remain aware of our weight, it is okay to make a choice to indulge for special occasions. We just have to make sure that ‘special occasions’ aren’t just an excuse for bad eating behavior.
We have several weeks to get fully back on track before the Christmas holiday is here.
The path to our long-term weight loss will never be a straight line, but as long as we keep moving in the right direction we will be fine.
