Friday night I met up with a close high school friend and her husband in Annapolis, MD, at a tapas restaurant. We split a half a dozen or so small plates and each one of them was more delicious than the next. It was great to have a few tastes of everything without having to order giant portions. We went on a short walking tour of the city after dinner, and, to my surprise, I hit my 7000 steps for the day before I headed home that night. I knew I would get back to the hotel late and I wasn't too excited about walking on the treadmill for 30 mins after the drive, so the walk around the city really made the difference. It feels like no effort when you are walking with good company.
On Saturday, seven coworkers and I went to Washington, DC, for the day. The weather was far from ideal (rain on and off all day, very humid, I couldn't tell if I was sweating or freezing, but I did know my socks were soaked), but we walked around The Mall and saw all of the major monuments - Washington, World War II, Vietnam, Lincoln, Korea, MLK, Jefferson...I am sure I am missing a few more. Spending the day walking around these amazing monuments is awe inspiring, and I hardly noticed how far we'd trekked. I was able to meet up with some college friends at the end of the day (and well into the night!), and when I plugged in my pedometer at the end of the night, I was shocked to see I had over 21,000 steps! It was a new record for 2012 (even more steps than when my boyfriend and I toured London)!
I went back up to DC this morning for brunch with old friends. Of course, after such a successful day yesterday, I FORGOT my pedometer today!!! One of my friends and I did a fair bit of walking after brunch, but now that I am back to the hotel, I need to get in my 7000 steps for the day. My plan is to walk the boardwalk on Solomons Island later on this afternoon.
It wouldn't be fair to write about all of this walking and success without also including some pretty major shortcomings. I've already mentioned the cookies and beer on Thursday night. While my mornings have all been pretty on-plan (still going through the food I purchased when I arrived), and most meals are balanced (salad on the side of my lunch yesterday), I still struggle at restaurants. When a colleague and I met our customer and his wife for lunch on Friday, I intentionally ordered the broccoli salad on the side of my meal instead of fries. My customer ordered the same meal, but with a modification to his sandwich and fries on the side. When the meals came out, my sandwich had the fries, while his modified sandwich came without. They brought him another basket of fries, but didn't take my plate (with fries!) away. What is a girl to do?! While I would have loved to be able to write that I was good and didn't touch them or only had a couple, that isn't what went down. To be clear, I did not eat ALL of the fries, but I'd estimate there were at least 50% fewer that were cleared from the table than were originally put in front of me. Definitely more than I needed or even wanted. Next time, when my order is incorrect, I will ask that they take the unwanted sides away. (To be fair, they did bring my the broccoli salad with my order, it was just in addition to the fries.)
But even worse than the fry incident was the tortilla chip debacle. Last night at the DC bar, my coworkers noticed something that I'd already known to be true - I am a stress eater. I was waiting for college friends to arrive at the bar, and in front of me (well, within reach), was a basket of tortilla chips. I can't tell you how many I had, but it was enough that a coworker had to take them away - he noticed just how much I was eating while I was staring at the entrance. Talk about having a problem!!! The incident highlighted one of my greatest issues - I eat (mostly carbs) when I am anxious and I don't realize I am doing it until it is too late. I felt horrible after, embarrassed it was so bad that a corner of my table noticed it and was talking about it before they took the basket away. Avoiding restaurants with chips is not the solution. Therefore, this week I will focus on being mindful of my feelings when I eat. Am I anxious? Stressed? Bored? Upset? What are some alternatives to the mindless snacking, and what are ways that I can ask my coworkers (who these days are really friends more than anything) to help me along the way?
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