Episode IV: A New Hope

Back from vacation and full of new resolve. I am groggy with time changes. My journey home involved being awake for 24 hours straight (that hasn't happened in years) with flight disruptions and all. I went to bed at 1 am, which by my body clock should have been getting up time.  Ironically, it is actually likely to help me adjust faster - I was able to sleep in till seven this morning because I was so tired.  The trip was a wonderful and magical time out of real life, to one of the few true wildernesses left on the planet. It was, however, a luxury tourist excursion, not a polar death march, and pretty much a diet and exercise disaster.  I haven't visited the scale yet, but I downloaded my magical exercise tracking device and verified my overall activity level was about equivalent to the low side of normal life here. Hard to get all the steps in on a very small ship unless you go to the gym - which I did do twice, hooray for me.  The food and drink was good, and I just went with it.  I drank more alcohol last week than the previous year altogether.  Almost entirely in the form of beer, which was what I was feeling. Ice cream as well every day. Dinner portions were small, but the rest was served as a buffet and that didn't help moderate my consumption of the good tasting food. But it was was it was, and now I'm going to re-focus back here.

During my seven hours in Newark airport yesterday, I went ahead and signed up for Weight Watchers on-line. I'm studying the meal suggestions, and getting ready for my first shopping trip. Every new diet seems to start with buying food, oddly enough.  This time, it's fruits and vegies, baby.  This is the right time of year for that!  One of the things I dis-liked about WW last time was the emphasis on highly processed "lite" versions of things, as opposed to eating lower on the processing chain. Now, I think the fresh fruits and vegies, enhanced with leaner versions of meat and dairy, will work for me. Nuts are more welcome now than before, too, I think, which works for me.  

I had done weight watchers on-line a while ago, and they still had my login information - I think it was 2002 when last I checked in..  I like tracking and counting, etc., and in the pre-phone app era, WW was the best on-line experience I found.  Don't remember how long I stuck with it.  They now have specific apps for the iphone and ipad, which I'll get a chance to check out soon.  

Right now, clean up, weigh-in, eat something, start unpacking into the laundry, and off to the food store. No work today - a chance to adjust and get ready. I'll scan the hundreds of work emails later today.