Normal, Not Perfect

Hectic morning at work. It's the last day before I go on vacation and I'm trying to wrap up lose ends, clean up, leave detailed instructions for my fill-in. Fortunately I'm now on summer hours at work, which means I don't work Fridays, so I can devote tomorrow to cleaning and organizing my house so I have the same thing there. I always get antsy when I go away and I feel so much better when I can come back to a neat, orderly office or home. I just hate coming back to chaos and clutter; then instead of being able to relax and take it easy for a day to recover from traveling, I feel like I have to get to work pronto and clean it.

We wound up back at the Block Party last night, which meant another night of carnival food. I went with the steak and cheese sandwich, split an order of fries with Hubby, then had a piece of pie. I probably shouldn't have bought the pie and eaten it, because I was pretty satisfied with my sandwich and fries, but I knew it was my last night there and probably wouldn't see another piece of sugar pie for the rest of the year. My Grandma Nellie used to make sugar pie for our family picnics, and now that she's gone no one in our family has continued that food tradition. I guess I should track down the recipe and learn how to make it, but right now one slice at a carnival is fine.

It sounds like a lot of excuses -- last chance, family history -- but I decided that this was probably what a "normal" (not perfect) eater would do, too. Even after eating the pie I was comfortably full and not stuffed, and I wasn't interested in eating anything else the rest of the night.

I'm glad to say that this morning I wasn't interested at all in weighing myself and didn't even think about it until I got online and glimpsed at yesterday's post. So while I weighed in sooner than I wanted to, it hasn't triggered any obsessions about weighing in daily or even more than once a day. Again, it feels normal, not perfect.

The closer we get to vacation, the more I start to worry about trying to eat intuitively while I'm in Florida. I think about all the breakfasts and dinners (mostly buffets) Hubby reserved for us, and I wonder if I'll be able to honor my hunger and fullness when surrounded by so much food. I know food won't be the focus of our days -- we've got plans to visit as many of the parks in WDW as possible -- and we'll be doing a lot of walking, waiting in lines and riding the rides.

I keep telling myself that since I'm not on a diet now, I'm not going "off" of anything next week while we're away. So there's no reason to overindulge because when I get back home I have to return to restricting and depriving.

However, thinking once again about "normal" eating, who doesn't enjoy eating new and different foods when they're on vacation? A lot of people indulge a little on a trip, knowing that when they get home they'll return to their regular routine, or perhaps eat a little lighter for a few days to compensate. It doesn't trigger a month-long binge, and it doesn't result in two months of starvation and excessive exercise.

I keep trying to tell myself these things and hoping they'll sink in by the time I get there. All I can do is respect myself and my body, and of course remember to enjoy myself!