Paved With Good Intentions

If you read last week’s blog you know I was on a sunny beach in Jamaica at an all-inclusive club–including all I could eat, drink, and nap.  This was not a good combination for someone trying to watch her weight, and sure enough I came home with a couple of souvenirs and a couple of extra pounds.

So now what?  A little time to de-brief and figure out what went wrong, and then no more regrets–time to move on and fix things.

First of all, there was so much good food.  I did stick to my intentions of having fruit at every meal, and plenty of veggies at lunch and dinner.  I did have fish every day and a few meatless meals, consisting of pasta salads and bean-and-rice dishes.  Something I realized about the third day there would have been helpful to pick up on a little sooner–the plates they gave us were huge!  They looked like platters and filled up easily with three main courses to choose from, cooked sides of vegetables and potatoes, salad bars and dessert bars.  I started using a salad plate to serve my meals on the last two days and quickly found I had probably been taking portions at least 50% larger than I realized while using those large dinner plates.  Uh- oh: I was probably eating an extra few hundred calories at each meal from the extra-large portions.

There was also an abundance of food between meals: pizza and popcorn and nachos and cookies–not to mention the frozen drinks at every turn.  I tried to fill up on the fruited water they had available–a yummy refreshing drink that consisted of a large pitcher of water with melon chunks floating in it.  I plan to whip some up this afternoon and start drinking it here as a change from my usual flavored teas for good hydration.  Nevertheless, the fact is I did have some popcorn and pizza and nachos–and a few pina coladas.  And these were in addition to my three squares a day.  These snacks could have easily contributed 500 calories a day to my intake–enough for one of the pounds I gained.

Finally we come to the third nail in my coffin of weight gain–no exercise.  There was a gym on the grounds and I did visit it once or twice.  But it was next to impossible to get much exercise in during the day outside of the indoor fitness area: the entire property being about the size of two square blocks, there was no way to go for the long walks I’d hoped for; the pools were full of people lounging on rafts with no room for swimming laps; and, of course, the lounge chairs were calling my name most of the day.   Not having my daily walks, or even the amount of moving around I do completing errands and household chores each day, probably reduced my calories burned by 500 a day–there goes another excuse, and another pound around my waist for the week.

So, what would I do differently next time?  I would probably have taken my food journal with me.  I would have started off using smaller plates and serving myself less at meals; I would have kept track of the number of frozen drinks and snacks I had between meals and decided on a healthy limit ahead of time (say, one of each per day); and I would have more seriously committed to time in the gym.

Now what?  Now it’s back to the weight-loss regimen that works for me: keeping my food diary, wearing my pedometer and aiming for 10,000 steps a day.  I’m pretty sure I can get a pound or two off each  week off this way and be back to normal by mid-February.  I’m really hoping for success by the end of next month when I have a short ski-trip planned and have to fit into my ski pants.  They sure are snug right now…  Wish me luck!

photo credit: Caitlinator

Written by Laurie Beebe

About The Author: Laurie Beebe has been a registered dietitian for 25 years and is certified in adult weight management. Laurie currently serves as a diet coach and life coach at www.mycoachlaurie.com

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