The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

So, our national sales meeting was last week in Las Vegas. Even though our schedule was jam-packed, I did my best to exercise when I could. This usually meant taking the stairs instead of the elevator (18 floors up to my room from the meetings). I walked instead of taking the bus back for one event and walked to dinner the first night. My calves are mad at me for taking the stairs so much. They're sore and achy. I took Thursday and Friday off from the stairs because they were really sore on those days. No pain, no gain.

The Good: Upon my return I hopped on the scale this morning and i was "only" up 4 pounds. Given the types of food that was served, and the sedentary days, this could have been much much worse. I'm please that the gain was only 4 pounds but would have liked it to be less of course. It shouldn't be too hard to get back to where I was pre-meeting. I will get back by walking the dog and eating the way I'm used to eating. No problem

The Bad: The food we ate, while tasty, was much heavier and served much later than my body is used to. For example, our last night's dinner and sales awards presentation started at 8:30. We had a small salad, steak ,potatoes, and creme brule. The dinner was tasty enough, just way too late for me. I like to eat earlier in the evening and get to bed by 10:00. Our awards banquet didn't end until 10:30. I'm just glad I don't eat like this all the time or I'd be a coronary event waiting to happen.

The Ugly: I typically like a good 7 or 8 hour night's worth of sleep and usually get close to that. I believe that the body needs rest in order to function properly during the day. I don't know if they were pumping pure oxygen into my room or what, but I slept like crap. I typically wouldn't fall asleep until 1:00am or later and would wake up around 4:00. This machine needs more than that amount of rest. The coffee helped, but on the last day, I was really feeling the lack of rest.

I'll bounce back. Back to the routine, back to walking, back to healthier food, back to normalcy. Most importantly, it's good to be back with my family.,

Off the Program

I'm not actively trying to lose weight, it is just happening. I am, however, eating healthy and exercising regularly. I am walking the dog almost every night and we usually do at least 3 miles a night. We will mix in a little jogging to boost up the intensity level. This has all resulted in dropping a few pounds.

Next week is or national sales meeting which will be very long days and probably very heavy food. Our days will officially start at 6:30 and dinners will usually end at 9:30 or 10. I will do my best to select the healthiest of the foods available, but I think those selections will be few. The part that really sucks (aside from being away from my family) will be the difficulty in finding exercise time. I planned on bringing my bike and riding in the mornings before we get started. With the early start and the logistics of getting my bike in and out of the hotel early in the morning and the idiot people driving around Las Vegas, it doesn't make sense. I am going to bring my resistance bands and try to do some exercising in the room. I am also going to take the stairs to my room whenever possible. Just for grins, I will try to post my weight on the day of departure and the morning after I get back.

It will be interesting to see if I can gain as little as possible. Right now, it's time to ride the stationary...