The weekend birthday party (with a picture of me in my bathing suit)

Mark's 50th birthday party was Saturday.  It was a very full weekend. 

His brother, sister, & niece and their families came into town (from Colorado and Indianapolis) Friday night and surprised him at 9:30 pm by ringing the doorbell and singing happy birthday.  Mark was completely surprised and it was fun to pull that off.  Everything went as I'd hoped, and he had a fun night and a happy and surprising weekend.

Saturday at the pool party we had a lot of family and friends come that Mark hadn't seen in ages, so that was very special (about 50 people total, including kids). 

I didn't have to do anything but show up--the club's pool manager did it all, including having the drinks there and ordering the cake and pizza, and she even served the drinks and food!  So I got to mingle and relax.  It was the best way to do a big party like this. And the weather was PERFECT.  We were truly blessed with the one nice day we've had in weeks falling on Saturday.

I was thankful I had been sugar-free and eating healthy for a week and a half before the party, because it made a big difference in how I looked and felt.  I wore my swimsuit for the second half of the party (it was 3 hours long) and felt OK in it. 

I didn't eat cake or pizza, and I felt ok with that, too. 

Saturday, though, was a maxed-out, extrovert kind of day.  Lots of people, all day and all night long.  Mark's brother and his girlfriend stayed with us Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night.  Sunday I was cooked.  I didn't leave the house.  I did a couple loads of laundry, took a shower, cooked a meal, and that was pretty much it.

I also ate a Hershey bar and one mini Famous Amos cookie. 

The chocolate was a big time "after" reaction. The cookie tasted awful, which was weird.  I didn't want anything else after that cookie.  I don't know why the chocolate bar didn't trigger a full blown binge, but it didn't. 

I'm very thankful I didn't overdo it.  It had nothing to do with will power, I can tell you that.  I don't know why there wasn't a binge.  I'm just glad it didn't happen.

I'm trying to get back to normal today. We have a fridge full of healthy food, leftover from food we supplied for Mark's vegan brother & girlfriend.  So that's a good thing and at least something I won't have to work on for a couple of days.

I do still have some "afters" going on today--the "let down" kind.  I'm melancholy and listless.  I have a ton of work to do at home to clean up after the slothful Sunday and after house guests.  Mark's actual birthday is tomorrow, and while we aren't doing anything other than buying cards for him, we are going to dinner tomorrow night at Bonefish and I have to figure out how I'm going to handle that.  Plenty of healthy stuff, but also plenty of pitfalls I need to avoid.

I did run 3 times last week, in preparation for my October race. I only got 2 miles in on Saturday morning because I went out too late and the sun was blisteringly hot. But I was happy I got out there at all.


Much work still to do to be stable.  Week 3 is always the hardest for me.  I get bored with the good-for-me food.  I stop feeling the immediate benefits of the diet change.  I start thinking about how hard it is to be "good" and how daunting it seems to have to do this for the rest of my life. 

So I need to be extra careful with myself this week.  I guess writing a blog post on Monday is a good start.