Summer vacation has come and gone…The kids are back at school and things are getting back to normal. I noticed during the summer break that I strayed from a lot of my rules and lost sight of my goals. I fond myself eating later at night, eating junkier foods and eating more. I stopped tracking my calorie intake and just pretty much gave up. It sounds pretty bad huh? Well, not really. I noticed that even though I didn’t eat the best food or always make the best choices, that I did make better choices and eat better than I used to. I also maintained my weight and dropped a few pounds as well. The biggest thing that made it hard for me was having the kids home from school.

The days just go so quick and before you know it, dinner time has come and gone and you are trying to figure out what to make that is quick and easy and can feed everyone. It seemed more often than not we ended up ordering out. That was the first of my issues. I think we ordered out more times int he past three months than we did in the previous 8 months. It was just all around easier. No prep time, no pots and pans to clean up and it was easy enough to find something everyone liked.

Another problem was dealing with old habits. Having lost 100 pounds int he past year. I found myself wanting to do a lot more this summer than I have wanted to do in the past 5 years. Good in many ways including getting out of the house more and spending a lot of time with the kids and family. I also exercised a lot more this summer. From working in the yard to hiking in the woods with my son. I spent the summer moving and it was really nice. Bad, in the fact that it resurrected old habits like summertime barbecues, drinking and eating things like ice cream and junk food. Barbecues aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Unless you are in the habit of cooking enough food to feed a small army. I used to go all out to feed the family and a few friends. Making enough to feed 12 people when we only had 6. That meant a lot of leftovers to eat. And, I do mean ALOT! I had to get that in check this year and for the most part, I did pretty well, although we had a few days with lots of leftovers and more to eat than I should have. I need to keep working on it. The foods of summer are torture.. Ice Cream, smores, sausage, burgers, etc, etc… It was a rough summer filled with temptation. I slipped a few times with some ice cream here and some cheesecake there, burgers and sausages a plenty. I had about 10 too many smores when I took my son camping in August. All in all thought, I kept myself in check, even when I was eating the not so good foods and that seems to be the important part. Anyway, you gotta have a little fun.

Drinking was another problem. I like to drink. Beer and wine are two of my vices. I pretty much gave up for awhile because after 1 or 2 beers I would feel lousy. Well, this summer was a bit different. I wasn’t feeling bad after 1 or 2… and had 1 or 2 too many on several occasions. Not to the point where I was rip roaring drunk. But, too many when you are trying to lose weight. I have decided to try and stay away from alcohol for a few months and focus on healthier eating habits during the winter months. In the end it was a pretty good summer. I got to enjoy it a lot more than any sumer in recent memory and even though I strayed off course, I still managed to lose a few pounds. I’m looking forward to the next 3 months to see if I can get myself back on track and where it will take me. Hopefully next year when summer comes around I will have a little more wisdom to take with me into summer vacation.

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