Hello and good morning!  apparently I haven't 100% figured out the 'how to lose weight while in Chicago' (traveling) thing.  There's still room to level up so I'm not upset about it - just more curious than anything.  I guess I'm a little bummed that It wasn't as simple as cooking in my room.  to be fair, even though I wasn't eating out I was still eating some things I don't have when home... so, as I said, room to level up and I go back in two weeks so... I get to try again

This week I'm going to Phat camp.  I 'think' I've managed to get over most of my 'fear' for the weekend.  Ready to relax and just see what the event brings.  I'll have the experience I was meant to have.   In other news I've decided it's time to really get serious about triathlon training again.. so I SHOULD be running 3 days a week - doing some biking 3x a week as well as some cross training.  10 years ago I was doing tris nearly every weekend and loving it.  I want to get back to that habit. I also didn't order any prepped meals this week so I'm going to spend more time cooking then I normally do - because of that I spent more time doing weekly planning then normal.  Im going to give this a try and see how it goes.  I expect I'll be back to at least a few prepped foods - but maybe not every night like I've been doing.  We'll see it's all just my n=1 experiment.

So, gained 3.5 pounds this week.  Wasn't a perfect week - wasn't even an 'almost' perfect week - but I plan to learn all I can from it.  I have reinforced that I need to work on a better system for planning on the weekends and for even more structure around Chicago visits.  I have a few ideas to try - one of which included writing a more specific weekly plan that I fall back on if I don't write a daily plan for that day.  I've also been feeling better about pushing a little into 'uncomfortable' some days.  I'm not talking about being HUNGRY... but about saying 'no' do extra carbs - drinks etc.  I think a lot about making weight loss easy and honestly it DOES get a lot easier when I'm not funking up my blood sugar with carb bombs.  ((mentally it can get 'harder' but we all know how to handle the mental stuff right?)) What's held me back from falling into this full force is my determination to  'lose it like I'll live it" and I haven't been able to get past this block of 'what if I never had a piece of bread again" (sounds extreme but it's the kind of thing I need to answer if I want ANY change to be a lifetime change) I've been thinking and writing about this almost daily and feeling closer and closer to making a 'shift'  I've at least gotten to the point that my wild child doesn't have a FIT every time I think that thought... as I said, progress.  In truth, low carb here at home is pretty easy.  I just don't bring that kind of stuff into the house much.  But it's when I go out - other peoples homes, restaurants, to Chicago that stuff starts to find its way into my daily eating.  Do I want to live the rest of my life eating salads 3x a day? NO - but can I start to picture myself eating bread and sugar no more than 1x a week... maybe... working on it. :D . In the meanwhile I'll keep planning daily, and trying small level-ups.