Hello, Wednesday weigh in gals! It is the end of week three and time to check in again. If you are just happening upon this site and haven’t joined our little cyber group of girlfriends, don’t fret! Newcomers are always welcome.You can get caught up by clicking on Weight Loss Wednesdays in the side bar.  

How was your week? I was praying for you! And I was hitting my knees for myself too.

You see, it was a week I was pretty worried about. I flew out Friday to Minnesota to speak at a Hearts at Home weekend conference. While I LOVE speaking at Hearts and was excited about going, I also face a lot of food temptation on those weekends: traveling through airports with the many Starbucks and their mocha-mint latte’s beckoning me and the smell from the Cinnabon place wafting through the air; the wonderful food provided for me all during the conference including rich, cheesy lasagna, a huge, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie in my box lunch, and a full, hot, all-you-can-stuff-your-face-with breakfast bar at the hotel.

To top it off, the signature treat at Hearts is chocolate. It is every where! At the speaker tables, in the headquarters room, and backstage. Yep, at Hearts, all the chocolate varieties meet to hold an annual snacking summit: Dark, milk, filled with caramel or tucked inside M & M’s. 

It was enough to make me crazy!

So, I had to decide how I was going to handle these temptations long before they were staring me in the face. I have a hard time saying no in the moment. And my mind plays all kinds of trick on me.

“Everyone else is having it. Especially the thin gals. So it can’t be that bad.”

“Oh, come on! This is a special occasion. Live it up! You can always start over again next week.”

“You just won’t enjoy the weekend as much if you have to say no all the time. You don’t want to be left out.”

So, I had to decide before I boarded that plane what I was going to do; to have a back-up plan and some built in treats along for the ride to help me from getting derailed. Here was my game plan:

• Eat the veggies and salads offered along with any lean meats and pass up the breads, pastas and desserts.
• For a sweet treat, I took some Zone bars in my favorite flavor: strawberry-dark chocolate.
• I brought along some almonds that were lightly seasoned with sea salt for the crunchy, salty cravings.
• And I made up my mind that I would NOT munch on any of the chocolate staring me in the face all weekend.

At least not until the conference was through and I was packing up my book table Saturday night. Then, I would wander over to a chocolate station and pick up two Dove dark chocolates and enjoy every bite.

However, when the conference was over, so was the opportunity for eating dark chocolate. There wasn’t any left!

But surprisingly, I actually wasn’t hungry for a sweet. I wanted a salad. And a salad was part of dinner, so I took a big serving and skipped the yummy looking pasta dish.

And I lived.

So, for my ‘conference is over’ reward treat, I instead chose a Starbucks low-cal, fat-free favorite during my layover in Minneapolis. A tall, decaf, skim milk latte with 1 1/2 pumps sugar-free vanilla and 1 1/2 pumps sugar-free caramel, no whip.

It is 100 calories of guilt-free deliciousness. And though I normally try to stay away from artificial sweeteners, Starbucks syrups use Splenda, not aspartame (Nutra Sweet) and I occasionally will have that.  

So I sipped and savored and had no regrets.

And this morning, instead of lamenting that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy the weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed the scale announcing that I’d lost 2  pounds.

Oh, it was sooooooo worth all of the going without!

Okay, now, your turn.

How was your week? And, how do you plan ahead for success when you have to eat away from home?

I may need your advice. My mom and I have our annual Christmas shopping trip on Friday. I will be out and about from morning til night and will need to eat all three meals while we are wandering around, trying to find the perfect holiday bargains. Yikes!

So, leave your comment and join us again next week. I’ll be offering a opportunity to win a little, fun give-away incentive to keep you plugging away. 

You can do it!!!! Even on those weeks you need to eat out.

Plan Ahead Blessings,