Not Great, but Okay

I'm back from the trip to Grandma's. The drive up was okay, just really long at 13 hours. On the way back, I got stuck in snow, which was a complete nightmare, and I was very depressed about leaving my son behind.

I took my 6 year old, as well as THE son, but left the 1 and 13 year old with hubby. There was expected upset from my son about leaving his friends but he seemed to rally around pretty quickly and I know that he was looking forward to the attention his grandma was going to lavish on him since she doesn't work and all her time will be spent between him, church and her mom. Its a good situation for him. We got him registered in school and he started yesterday. We now have a standing date to talk on the phone every day after school and I think that will be good for the both of us. He's signing up for track, which is great!

Staying with my ex-in-laws was difficult. I don't know great-grandma at all and I feel like talking to grandma, who is a very generous and warm-hearted person, is still a minefield considering our positions and her faith (which I don't share quite to the extent she does - major understatement). Anyway, it was okay, but stressful.

Food-wise, I just have to say, wow! They eat like it's still 1950 - full fat milk, regular stick butter, white bread with every meal, everything fried and smothered in gravies and sauces. The first morning, we had fried eggs in vegetable oil (yuck!), bacon and pancakes. I ate one egg (didn't want to be rude) and one pancake with a touch of syrup and no butter. And you know, I was full! I didn't feel cheated at all. For lunch, I suggested we eat out and I had a veggie burger and sweet potato fries (which are still bad, but not as bad). For dinner, I ate a tiny piece of white meat chicken and some salad. The second morning, huge white bagels with full-fat cream cheese. I ate half a bagel and a very light coating of cream cheese. Again, I didn't feel like I was suffering from lack of food. For lunch, we ate a full roast dinner because they had visitors. I stuck to my usual plan of mostly veggies with a little meat and potatoes on the side. On the last morning, my MIL offered to make breakfast and I hesitantly accepted. She said she wanted to make something substantial and I was like "yay! oatmeal!" thinking this would be the best meal yet. But, no. I was made frozen waffles fried in eggs and vegetable oil. You read that correctly! And bacon. Urgh! I felt I was eating a million calories with just one but I felt I couldn't refuse.

The great thing was how much I realized my thinking has changed. I know that at one point in my life I would have not thought twice about eating some of these things. I really have had a complete change of thinking and now I SEEK the better choices more than half the time. I also realized how little food I actually need and I never felt hungry the entire time I was there. I had even purchased a 12-pack of diet soda before going up so I wouldn't be tempted to buy a full-cal soda from a gas station or drink it while visiting and that worked like a charm.

The only downside was the fact that I got almost no exercise in 4 days. I went for a long walk the first day we were there but that was it. The rest of the time I was sitting on my behind. And then today and yesterday I haven't exercised. Yesterday I was, understandably, deeply upset by the circumstances and couldn't get motivated to do anything. Today, I just didn't get the chance to. I was planning to go for a good, long walk after work, but then I invited the babysitter to dinner of corned beef and cabbage (heavy on the cabbage and carrots, light on the beef, which ended up being a perfect combo, filling and good). I had a 2 hour window, but I had to run up to the store and then deal with my 1 year old and clean up the house and then it was dinner time. After dinner, I was doing dishes and cleaning up until 10pm (while watching BL of course). So, now I've got a lot of house cleaning done and spent some time being social with the babysitter rather than just giving her instructions, and have given my family a nice meal, but I never got around to exercising and I'm certainly not going to now at 11 pm.

My plan for tomorrow is to get up earlier and exercise first thing in the morning, before I work. This way, nothing can get in the way of my workout. And I HAVE to work out and get back in the groove. Its been...4 days since I've exercised! I hope I haven't lost any muscle.