Beach Week - 2 Years in the making

Aug 24, 2011

So last week was my families yearly re-union which we usually hold at the beach. 
This year it was almost 2 years to the day of my first meeting with the surgeon who would eventually do both my gastric bypass and my lap-coli (gall bladder removal) and I weigh 230 lbs less than I did at that meeting. 
This year we stayed at my sister's house in Richmond and made an overnight trip to Virginia Beach and a day trip to Pocahontas State Park and Kings Dominion.
This year I am wearing a Size 16 bathing suit- bought from a "regular" store!  I was the healthy active one riding a bicycle up and down the boardwalk. 
This year on our day trip to King Dominion park I rode all of the roller coasters! and I figure I climbed 20 floors of  stairs in the water park.
This year I also gained almost 4 lbs on vacation (too many waffles and pizza) - unlike last year when I was still losing weight.  I did panic for a couple of days but now I'm okay.  My goal is to maintain my weight and maybe lose another 10 lbs over the next year.  Gaining a few pounds over vacation is normal - the test is my reaction to it.  So today, I bought a re-usable mug and walked to the cafe for morning coffee (which is about 0.25mi and 2 flights of stairs), walked 30 minutes at lunch, ate a healthy lunch and breakfast and I am going to the gym tonight. 
I will reduce my daily calories to 1200 and focus on increasing my incidental exercise (using the copier downstairs, printing to the far printer, taking the steps to meetings not the elevator, etc) as well as maintaining 4X to the gym a week until I have lost that 4 lbs and an additional 4 lbs for margin.  I feel much better about this response- there will be ups and downs and I need to be able to cope with them.
In the long run as long as I deal with the weight gain in a constructive not punitive fashion, understand how it did and may again happen and not beat myself up over it then it will become a positive thing and not a negative one.
Two years ago I could not have said that - I would not have believed it.  In this journey I am continuing to grow and change - this is another of those necessary steps along the way. 

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