The joys of losing weight

I never thought that the joys of camping and losing weight could go hand in hand.


First off when you talk about the joys of camping, that is just an oxymoron. It seems like whenever I think about past camping experiences it is always because something has gone wrong. I can't even remember a camping experience where it has all gone through without a hitch. Yet, I still get excited at the prospect of getting away from it all and getting out in nature to do nothing but relax and eat. Well, I usually end up doing one thing and relaxing is not it.


There is just something so magical about eating food cooked over a fire. The fresh air just brings out the joy of eating for me. For someone of my size food is an important factor in my life. So here I am, the thought of hot dogs over the fire, marshmallows, chips, potato and ham packs sauteed in butter, hamburgers; muffins and cakes for breakfast...


Well, I think you can imagine how a gal like me would be in all her glory, but alas...I am on a diet.


What to do, what to do...well knowing that I am going camping I can start planning. Since I am following a certain diet plan where you calculate points I decide that I will save all my extra points for the weekend. Good plan.

Next I start thinking about ways too be able to eat all my favorite foods without all those guilt ridden calories, so I start buying low-cal foods and low-fat foods. The second part of my plan is complete. So far, so good.

Now I am at the campground; I realized a long time ago that when I get stressed out I want to eat, so with that in mind and knowing that every camping excursion has always had some problems rise; it stresses me out.

I want to eat! I don't want to have to write in my food diary, I don't want to have to control my food portions, I don't want to think about the low cal foods while everyone else is eating candy and chips and beef hot dogs. I want this part of my camping adventure to be a pleasant one because lets face it, I have already had to run all over the place trying to get my cabin unlocked; I had to sleep in my car in 30 degree weather because of unpleasant sleeping arrangements and now I want the fun part to come and I want to eat.


Well, I did stick to plan 1 and plan 2 and then I even watched my portions, filled out my food diary and didn't eat the high calorie foods and I am happy to say that I got through the weekend.


Now I am up to Monday and I am at my TOPS group and wondering how I did for the week. I did go over in my weekly points but not by a whole lot. Ohhhhh the anticipation.


I step on the scales, which still has to be altered so I can get weighed, an 'lo and behold I have lost 6 1/4 pounds.


My message I wanted to get out is this...it can be done, with a little planning you can have you camping and eat too.


Have a great week and until next time, I hope to lose nothing but weight and gain nothing but knowledge. (Thanks to Carol B. for that line)