So, as of yesterday at about 10am, I am officially on Christmas break

WHOO!

As per usual, I gave myself the rest of the day to do whatever I wanted…meaning nap and read Harry Potter   I also decided that it would be ok to ‘treat myself’…meaning breaking into the Chocolate Orange that my dad gave me a couple of weeks ago and that I’ve been saving for a special occasion.  I have to say, although yesterday definitely could have been a healthier day, I think it was the right thing to do.  I didn’t force myself to do anything, got lots of rest, still managed to eat reasonably healthy, and even went for a jog later in the day and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I definitely could have gotten more exercise last, but being the Christmas season and all, I had a party to go to   But now I can say I’ve given myself a good full ‘rest’ day, and can be productive for the rest of my vacation.

Which brings me to today.  I must admit, I am a little bummed that I’m at work today, which is dampening my ‘excited-to-be-on-vacation’ spirit.    Considering that it’s my first real vacation day, I would much rather be at home cleaning/sewing/dancing around the house…but unfortuately school costs lots and lots of money, so I need all the shifts I can get.  However, so far the day has actually been pretty good.  I’ve spent most of the morning reading Harry Potter, went for a little walk to stretch my legs, and helped a few people.  I am a little disappointed in myself that I indulged in a  small Hot Chocolate (220cal, 4.5g fat, 41g sugar) while I was waiting for my shift to start…and acually, looking at the nutritional info there…that will definitely be my last ‘non-homemade’ hot chocolate for a while…wow…41 g of sugar…huh!

Ok, so except for that little slip up, I am determined to have a healthy holiday.  I’ve definitely gained a few pounds over the end of of the semester, and now’s the time to get rid of it.  And I realize it will be harder this time, because I don’t have a gym membership this time, and it will be harder to get outside with all the cold and snow.  I do however, still have the elliptical in the basement, and there’s the bonus that they built a sidewalk connecting my subdivision with the neighbouring subdivisions so I  can go walk in the winter without having to be on the highway.

So yes, this WILL be a healthy holiday.  I’m going to use my vacation to exercise, even if I don’t feel like it, because I NEED to lose this extra weight.  And just to remind myself of the reasons…

• My back will not get better until I lose the weight. 
• I can’t go skiing until my back gets better
• My jeans are currently tight enough that I want to wear sweatpants all the time…which isn’t exactly practical.
• I would really like to look great when everyone is home at Christmas.
• I put a LOT of work into losing all this weight the first time around…I CANNOT gain it all back.
• I feel better when I eat healthy and exercise
• I only have one body, and so far I haven’t been treating it as well as I should be.

Ok, so now I’m feeling a little depressed…I know I’ve been gaining weight the past few weeks, but I’ve been so busy that I haven’t really had time to dwell on it…and now I’m feeling a little disappointed in myself…and not really looking forward to all the hard work of getting rid of it.

But I know it’s something I need to do, so I may as well just suck it up and deal with it.  I’m going to lay off the treats, stop eating things I know I shouldn’t (including food that honey makes for himself that I would never think of making, but eat because it’s convenient), I’m going to give up fast food (including dairy queen, honey’s extra fries, and hot chocolate), and implement a sensible exercise plan (we all know what happened the last time I decided to go all out with a new exercise plan…I wound up with chronic back pain).

Ok, I think that’s it for today…

Thanks for listening…

L.L.