Dealing with it on the road....

I was kinda nervous about the whole thing.
Got my first fill on Tuesday and had to fly out bright and early Wednesday for a full week in a hotel and convention center. I figured the only way to deal with it was like everything else I've conquered in life: head on with a plan in my hand.

Step One: Formulate plan.....but first!!!!!! May I take this moment to holler out my first big NSV...non-scale victory....and might I add, I think those are the sweetest victories of all. Sooooo I slid into my window seat on the teensy tiny commuter-type airplane and.......tahhhh-dahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!............buckled the seat belt without sucking in my breath, turning bright red and straining my shoulder to tug the thing into place. It fit!!! With some room to spare!!!!! Ohhhh myyyy GOODNESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Heightened security measures in effect as they are I refrained from hopping into the aisle and shakin' a Happy Nessa Dance up and down the plane but I was dancin' in my heart, I can tell you that!!!!!

Ahhh-hem!!!
So anyway........back to the plan. Step one: Carry water with me everywhere I go. When I carry it, I drink it. When I don't have it in my hand I don't think about drinking it so much. (Curious little side note here, as I boarded the plane at the gate laytex-gloved security agents actually TESTED my water bottle with a little paper strip and some chemical to make sure it was really water. Interesting.)



Step Two:  Focus on things other than food, learning to replace the pleasure of airport pretzels with other things. This was easy, for a couple of reasons. I've had an inner-ear/sinus thing going on for the past couple of weeks. It leaves me feeling like I will tip over all the time....like the little gyroscope up in my head is leaning off to one side, I kind of feel like I have to concentrate to not wobble off-course. Taking decongestants has kind of helped but I really do have to pay attention when I am walking along, especially when I'm away from home, lest I lose my balance and kinda keel over.

Strolling through airports and buildings this past week with all of their architectural anomalies and linear distractions proved to be both a welcome distraction...and a bit of a challenge. I surely did keep my mind off food..........seemed like there wasn't a square corner or parallel line to be found from here to Georgia and back. Fun to look at but...........not sure if this will make sense but combined with my balance problem, I spent the entire week feeling like I was going to fall off the edge of the earth.........take a look........



Fabulous architectural design at O'Hare in Chicago........



But seriously, a girl with a tricky inner-ear thing could have a hard time just staying upright trying to navigate the place. Moving sidewalks get me where I want to go but I already felt like I had just stepped off a merry-go-round.



Hold. On. To. The. Rail.
 Hold. On. To. The. Rail.



And THEN I got to my hotel.
Let me explain, while I have tackled a number of challenges in my life involving great heights.......I don't like them. No I do not like them at all. I don't even like the third step of the ladder in my garage. Anything higher than step number two, I call my sons.

My hotel was a 50-story maze of a zillion structural lines, not a single one of which were parallel. One step into the lobby and I realized I was going to need dramamine just to get to my room on the 25th floor. To my way of thinking that's 25 opportunities for a wobbly lady to go careening to her death just finding her spot to sleep.



My lovely little room had one full wall of glass window. I swear it felt like the floor was sloped straight to a certain death just beyond the sill and knew.....one mis-step in the middle of the night in that dark room should I have to get up and pee and I could end up on the sidewalk in my nightie. I pulled the curtains tight and tried to forget pigeons don't even fly up to the height of my room.



Step Three: Every night I would plan the following day, making note of what I planned to eat.

Step Four: I would incorporate some walking into my daily routine. HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have you ever felt like the Universe or some vigilant committee of guardian angels had such a close watch over you there was just no chance for error? I feel like that and trust me, sometimes they hear me grumble. Like this weekend.....when I realized that I had to walk twice a day, every day, over half a mile just to get from my hotel room to the convention center where I was working. No way around it. My hotel room was Point A and every day I had to get to Point B. And every afternoon I had to get back to Point A.  Honestly? What I had in mind was maybe 5-10 minutes of a brisk outdoor jaunt each day.

What I got was a daily forced march! And now that it's over I can't wait to answer my doc when he asks the inevitable question at my next appointment: are you getting exercise???? Well Mister, let me tell you about a week in January............and by the way.............food went fine. I chew, chew, chewed and drank a river of water in between meals. Never got stuck. No problems. Now that I've had a fill it's kinda weird how food gurgles past the band once I do take a drink...........but no problems.

Anyway. I'm home now and so glad to be here.
Cozy beds with six pillows and maid service are nice for a few days......



            .....but in my book, there is no place like home.