China Update: My Food Obstacles Report

Wow!! The last three weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. I feel like I need to sit down and catch my breath before I can really being to process our trip enough to share it with you. I have close to a thousand pictures that I need to sift through. God has been doing such great things and I cannot wait to share them with you.

First, let me start by saying a huge THANK YOU to everyone who wrote guest posts for me while I was gone. That was such a huge help to me, because I did not want to leave my readers sitting around doing nothing for three whole weeks. Thank you so much for sharing the things you did.

Next, I want to thank you for all of your comments and well wishes while I was away. I am so glad that you enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane and looking at my wedding pictures for three whole weeks. You’re comments were so sweet and encouraging.

You will probably get tired of me saying this, but China was incredible! However, I really did not follow the Weight Watchers plan while I was over there. I followed principles of the plan, but I did not write down everything I ate. The first day we arrived I tried to keep track of what I ate, however their food is so different that I really was not sure if anything was accurate. So, I opted for plan B which consisted of practicing principles of the Weight Watchers program.

Whenever possible I went for fruits and veggies. Every morning Jon and I would walk to his parents apartment.

Along the way are several fruit markets, so whenever I ran out of fruit I would stop to get more. Some of the fruit was different then what you can get here in the U.S, but it was so good.

When we ate out at restaurants I would make sure that I filled my bowl with vegetables before going after everything else.

We walked everywhere. I kid you not. In Weight Watchers meetings they always tell you to move more, especially when you are on vacation. Well this was not a hard thing for me to do while we were in China. Jon’s parents live in an apartment on the fifth floor, yes as in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5! Several times a day we would make the long hike up and down five flights of stairs. We did not have a car, so we walked or took the bus everywhere we went. I am not kidding. Jon and I stayed at an apartment that was a 15 minute walk away from his parent’s home. This was one of our many daily walks.

Eat until I feel full. This one was a tricky one, because with Chinese food you always seem to be hungry 30 minutes later! However, to the best of my ability I practiced this principle.

Those are some of the good things I did. However, there were many challenges as well.

Food became a comfort. While we were there our schedule was very hectic. As a result food became a way to keep myself awake. I would eat to help myself stay awake for the next thing. Food also became a comfort, because I was stressed by various things that took place on our trip. I ate in my room a few times when I was stressed, because I did not want anyone to see me eat the entire candy bar.

Travel food. On the way to China I did very well at eating the snacks I packed. However, by the time we were ready to come back I had run out of those standbys. So I did my best to find snacks in China to travel home with. I think I have eaten more fried food and soda in the last three weeks then I have in the last two years!

It has been good to recognize the areas that I need to work on. I am forgiving myself for my pitfalls and moving on. I got home late Friday and as soon as I went to the grocery store on Sunday I was back on plan. Weight Watchers is my way of life and it has been very natural to slip back into my healthy eating habits.

Thanks for all of your encouragement. Overall I think it went really well, but only the scale will tell. My first weigh in of the year is tonight!!