Lasagna, Breakfast Bakes, and Saddlebags.

As promised, more about my time with my folks in Florida. Warning: do not read this on an empty stomach.

First, we arrived in the evening and went straight from the airport to a party at their friends house. There was a huge spread of dinner type food and desserts. I limited my take at this party to one glass of wine, a few pieces of dinner-type food, and one dessert. I had a haystack (melted chocolate and chinese noodles, ripped from my childhood memory and placed decoratively on the table of temptation). I may have had one other cookie, but I can't remember if I did or not, which speaks more to my memory than to the cookie.

Christmas day, we had food in front of us non-stop -- all fo it good and tempting. I did a good job of balancing through the day. We started with a breakfast bake -- kind of a baked french toast with bread, milk, eggs, and fruit. I had one tablespoon of the bake, and half a grapefruit. I had a bowl of cereal at around 2 to help stave off the hunger that would come when all the appetizers came out. At the appetizers before dinner, I had a few bites of cranberry cheddar cheese, some crackers, one cracker of spinach and artichoke bake, and one glass of prosecco. For Christmas dinner, we had lasagna, sausage, meatballs, fresh bread from Boston (I guess Florida people can't get crusty bread, so it's quite a delicacy) and string beans. I had string beans, one small piece of lasagna, one piece of sausage, no bread, no additional wine. For dessert, we had a thousand things on the table - cannolis, chocolate covered creampuffs, chocolate covered strawberries, lots of christmas cookies, and cannoli cake. I had one small slice of cannoli cake, one strawberry, and one bite of lemonbar/muffiny treat thing.

The rest of the weekend involved one or two big meals each day. All of which I had one portion worth, no seconds, rarely any sides that could have gone with them. We had another breakfast bake later in the week (a savory one with sausage and leeks - yuuuuuuuuuuum) and chicken pot pie, and lots more temptation of cookies (i had a few over the 4 days).

All in all, I'm happy with how I managed my food, my portions, my general over the few days. Even the festive drinking was all around. One night I had 2 cocktails, but never more than that.

Robert got inspired and ran a 5k the day after Christmas (he did very well, even running in reindeer antlers on his head), but no other exercise existed for us during those days.

A few weeks ago, when my parents asked me what i wanted or needed for Christmas, I said I could use some pants. Boy, could I use some pants. The 14's are long in the back of my closet, and most of the 12s I had are at least roomy, some unwearable. I probably am rotating 3 pairs of pants at this point. So, the day after Christmas, we went out at I got several pairs of 10s and a couple of very-well-fitting 12s.

Because of the ill-fitting clothes, my parents couldn't tell much, beyond my face, that I'd lost much weight at all. It wasn't until Christmas eve night, when I had my pajamas on, when they both saw me at a certain angle and in a certain light, and both finally noticed the weight, and the slimmer bottom half.

My mother announced, "Oh, now I can finally see the weight loss. You lost your saddle bags."

(then she asked me if I knew what she was talking about. Of course I know what saddle bags are. They plague me!)

I'm not sure if the saddlebagectomy is from the dieting, or from the pilates, but I'm giving the pilates credit at this point. I can feel just how much stronger my legs are, and that slimming effect has to all be part of that.

Now we head up to NH, and it's going to be a blizzard up there. I'm anticipating comfort food and crockpot meals and soup and all that kind of stuff. I'll have to continue working at portion control and moderation throughout the weekend if I want to get back to the 14 pounds down I was before the holiday weeks. But I'm looking forward (?) to the Week 20 weigh in, measurements and photos, just a few days away. Still not posting photos (maybe week 30?) but happy to stay focused on that ritual as I go.

Happy New Year to all of you! Do any of you have resolutions for 2010 that involve your health and fitness?

Thanks for reading!