Day 21 - Saturday

One week later, and I'm half a pound heavier...after having eaten crab, lobster, prawns, steak, desserts, sushi, tempura, more steak, dessert, flatbreads, chicken, foie gras (won't need to do that again), dessert...all I can say is, "thank you, God." I am always up on the scale the day after flying, so I am fairly confident that by tomorrow I will have at least managed to maintain during a challenging week.

The first day of the trip, I went to the closest store where I could find produce (Walgreens on The Strip) and purchased half a dozen oranges and half a dozen bananas. That should get me through two to three days, right? Notsomuch. Everyone at our booth ate it within the first day, and thanked me for thinking to get fruit. Hm. Unfortunately, we were so busy, I couldn't get down to the 'Greens again all week, so I was forced to eat the bananas from Starbucks and the Oranges from the Convention Center as my fruit for the rest of our trip.

What did I do differently from past trips like this? I made SURE I drank a LOT of water. Most of the foods are so high in sodium, I thought that if I continued to drink, I might at least keep the water weight off. My friends from House of Knives made this easier by bringing us all beautiful stainless water bottles with thermal lids to use. I know this contributed to my success, as I had to pee every other hour. Other Boss asked if I was in kindergarten because I couldn't hold it.

I also limited my portions (thank you, Devin...) and only ate about three bites of any course. OB was a little freaked out by the waste of food, but so be it. I was able to get him to consume most of the alcohol that was poured for me as well, thanks to advantageous seating and his willingness to consume. I wasn't able to get out and exercise, as we were at the show from 7:30 am to 5 pm and doing dinners from 6:30 or 7:00 to 10:30 or 11:00, so the shoes and iPod sat useless in my (incredibly dark) hotel room.

On a totally separate note, the hotel room, aside from the lighting which made it impossible to tell black from navy (not good when you only have two colors of shirt to wear), had a fantastic view of the Bellagio fountains, thanks to a little snafu with the front desk. After checking in and heading up to room 3548, I was a little surprised when I used my key card and heard someone from inside shout, "Give us 10 minutes!" Oops. Upon returning to the desk, I mentioned that someone seemed to be "busy" in my room and could I please be moved. They looked up the room and immediately sent security up, as no one should have still been checked in, and I was moved to a Room with a View (just not the kind of view I'd almost had...)

So with many many weeks to go, I'm still 8 lbs down, 17 to go to hit the original goal, and raring to continue in a positive manner. Wish me luck!