Road to Recovery

One week ago at this time I had just flown home from a work trip to Las Vegas. Gambling is, fortunately, not one of my vices; occasionally I'll play about the penny or nickel slots but the only gambling I did this time was buying a new lipstick from Sephora. Eating, however, is one of my vices, and Las Vegas is a great place for foodies such as myself. I had some wonderful meals out there and tried some dishes that were new to me (and which I am eager to eat again on my next trip).

What a difference a day makes: The day after I returned home, I came down with a stomach bug that I no doubt picked up at some point along my trip. I'll spare you the gory details, but it's safe to say that any excess weight I may have gained from overindulging in Las Vegas was quickly lost. I missed a day and a half of work and spent most of the weekend lying on the couch in recovery mode.

Although I felt a little better each day, today is the first day in a week that I've fully had my appetite back. It's amazing how much I missed having an appetite; feeling hunger but not wanting to eat anything is not a good feeling. And while I hated being sick, I'm very thankful that I wasn't sick on my trip or, worse yet, on the plane ride home. I'm also thankful for my sweet dad doing a grocery store run for me to get me stocked up on Jell-O, lemon ice and fruit, the only foods that seemed remotely palatable to my stomach at the time.

Now that my appetite has returned, the challenge will be reining it in so I don't regain the weight I've lost. We have a big conference and expo coming up next week that's causing me to work late most nights this week in preparation, and today I was too busy to take the time for my usual afternoon snack, so that may be a blessing in disguise. I also have a 5K coming up on Saturday; not sure how well I'll do given my lack of running of late, but hopefully I'll do a bit better than I did with the January race. I'm still planning on racing in a half-marathon in March, so I've got plenty of motivation to get me back to some semblance of a normal, healthy, pre-Vegas diet.