My first visit to Minnesota was in 1991 when I went on a bike tour with a crazy bunch of high school and college aged folks. It was a ten-day tour through the southeastern portion of the state. I barely made it into the Twin Cities, but from that moment, I was in love.
Maybe it was the magic of a new place; I hadn’t traveled much outside of the state of Michigan in my fifteen years of life. I dreamed of moving and going to college there (my desire to apply to the University of Minnesota was shot down by my parents). I made a trip again the following summer (another bike tour) and in the subsequent years to visit friends, go to youth conferences. It was a dream, a nice idea, but I knew it would never come true.
Little did I know that fifteen years after my first trip to Minnesota that I would go back, this time to visit my boyfriend’s family for the first time.
I feel lucky to be able to take a few trips to the cities a year for holidays, the occasional summer visit, and hockey trips (if we’re scheduled). This trip wasn’t a social visit, or I should say, wasn’t a happy fun social visit. Scott’s mother is in the thick of a battle with stomach cancer and a host of other surgery malfunctions. We wanted to say hello and take the baby to cheer her up. Two months in a hospital with (most likely) a few to go isn’t exactly a recipe for a fun time.
It was good to see Scott’s family; we haven’t seen them since Easter. I spent most of the time chasing around a screeching toddler.
Balloons were a new discovery this weekend. They are awesome.
In the land of Baby Jesus, aka Joe Mauer:
Weekly Weigh-In
Week Eleven Weigh-In
Previous Weight: 129.0 lbs
Current Weight: 129.0 lbs
Change: 0.0 lb
Total Weight Lost: -18 lbs
I should be happy, not disappointed. I should be happy I didn’t gain weight last week. Road trips are never easy for me, even when I have the best intentions.
Scott’s dad loves IHOP. Who am I to resist? I did feed one egg to the child and didn’t drench the harvest grain pancakes in butter or syrup (I took the butter off). I also gave Scott my piece of bacon. I did eat the sausage, though, and it was delicious.
Oh, and there was a stop to Wong’s Kitchen. Great food (Scott’s favorite fried rice place).
I am not going to claim plateau at this point. I know my calorie intake has been high for the past few weeks. I’m hungry all the time. Maybe it’s the increased mileage with the marathon training? I’m running an average of 25 miles a week at this point while breastfeeding (at least half time) a toddler. I still need to eat. I seem to do better when I force myself to eat every few hours; it makes for less binging later on in the day. I also do better when there aren’t piles of baked goods in the house. Thankfully, we’ve cleared those out and I haven’t baked anything in about a week.
We’ve got one more weekend trip, so I don’t expect to be sitting in a room eating baby carrots all weekend. I’m going to have 24 hours in Chicago and I’m going to enjoy at least one nice meal while we’re there. I’m still determined to make this new way of eating work for me, even when my day to day life isn’t exactly normal. And another thing: so what if I count these past few weeks as maintenance weeks? If I can learn to maintain, this is also a good thing.
And finally…
It’s the last week to enter my $100 giveaway. Comments are closed on August 2, so head on over and make sure you take advantage of all eight (8) chances to enter.
