Oh Mamma Mia!

That's how you say omg in Italy - mamma mia.  OMG would be Oh Madonna.

That's how I would describe vacation. 10 days in Italy ... mamma mia.   It was our honeymoon (we delayed it so we had vacation stored up).  Oh Madonna!

Seven of the 10 days was a wine tour.  We got to pick grapes and watch them go through the "turning into wine" process (well up to the point where the fermentation has to work).  We had 2 or  more wine tastings per day (PER DAY!!) which included appetizers at a minimum or a meal depending on the time of day.  We had 4 course dinners most nights.  We had pasta and pizza and dessert! Oh the desserts (mamma mia) !

Definitely not IP protocol on any phase :)  But I knew that going in.  That's one reason I wanted to be on Phase 4 before we went so it wouldn't be such a shock to my system.

I gained 10 pounds...in 10 days ... Oh Madonna!

But there is good news in all of this.

First - it was expected :)  I was going to enjoy myself and I did, immensely!  I was hoping all the walking we did would offset some of the weight gain ( and maybe it did :))  but I wasn't going to restrict myself on my honeymoon.  It was like a cheat week and a half instead of a cheat day or cheat meal :)

Second - I went back on Phase 1 the day after we got back (we got in at midnight on Monday so it was Tuesday morning).  I had my weigh in and Lindsay and I talked about getting the weight off.  So far (its now Thursday) I'm down 4 pounds by my scale at home.  This is SO encouraging to me because it tells me this program really works!!  When I have been on other programs and gained some weight (which really is inevitable), I couldn't get it off following the program.  It just didn't work a second time for me.  Not sure what I was doing differently but whatever the reason I still failed consistently to maintain a weight loss.  And now the first time out, when I knew I would gain weight, its coming off the second time as easily as it did the first time.

That makes me happy!

I figured it would take about 3-4 weeks to lose what I gained in Italy.  It may be faster than that at this rate.  But whatever the time frame, I am confident it will be gone in the near term.  I have never in my life felt more confident that I could lose weight.

Thanks Ideal Protein (and Lindsay) for this success!

Now that I'm back to reality I'll be posting recipes and thoughts on a more regular basis again.  I've got a few recipes I really want to try (Spaghetti Squash mac-n-cheese among them).  And I've got 2 new cook books that I need to work my way through :)  They will mostly be Phase 4 recipes, but some will be Phase 1 friendly as well with little to no adjustments.  I also really want to look into soups and crock pot meals to make things a lot easier in the evenings.