HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN...

...Jiggity Jig! My vacation was amazing, outstanding, and too soon at an end. My brother and sister-in-law are fantastic cooks, the food was fresh, local, organic, and delicious. I gained no weight in the entire week. And I ate heartily. And drank several G & Ts. I even tried sushi for the first time - and it was delicious. Who knew? Just about everyone, apparently.

I’ve made some really good progress so far. If I just lived with my brother and his family all the time, I’d be fine. But now I’m home. Back to the grind. Back to the stressors that make me want to eat. Back to life. To New England. To DUNKIN. I do confess, as soon as we got off the plane we found a Dunkin Donuts and I got a medium (good for me!) coffee. It was so sweeeeeeeeeeeeet! Only one sugar. (Of course, if you’ve ever seen how Dunkin employees prepare your coffee, you know a ‘Dunkin one sugar’ is actually a quarter cup rapidly sprayed into your cup with a huge spoon, crystals sparkling like new snow.)

So, to keep my momentum, guess where I’m going tonight? The Washington County Fair. Nothing says you will gain ten pounds today like a trip to a real country fair. There’s so much to see, the 4H barn replete with artwork and photographs, the dahlia competition, the concourse full of booths where you can buy jewelry, clothes, tattoos, plants, leather goods, etc., and the animals: mighty draught horses, a giant sow with her fiftyish adorable piglets, sweet-faced cows, squawking fowl of all types, pretty sheep, ducks and ducklings, clever little goats. There are rides for the kids and rides for the flirting teenagers (and brave adults). But let’s be honest, these are just pleasant distractions from the real reason you’re there: booth after booth of greasy, fattening, glorious food. Chili, 'sawsidge and peppahs', ice cream, doughboys, corndogs, clam cakes, anything and everything you can dream of. The smell assaults you as soon as you park your car a half-mile away in the dusty lot, and all the way to the entrance your mouth waters as you think what will I eat first?

I’ve been without my glucose testing strips for a week, and while I was with my bro I didn’t worry about it because I knew I was eating just what I should be. But I think I’d better go pick them up before I leave. If I know I have to go back to testing my blood sugar first thing tomorrow morning, it might help me exercise some self-control tonight.

But let’s just put it out there. Tonight, I’m going to eat some stuff I shouldn’t, and I’m not going to feel guilty about it.

Tomorrow I’ll be back to my healthy routine. Tomorrow I’ll break out like a teenager. Everything has its price.