Reunion Recap

All the goals I set for my reunion, went casually out the window last week, which was my last week to make it happen.  What is up with that?  I felt like I was already in celebration mode, and my inhibitions were fairly low.  I had a lot of unclean food during the week, despite continuing with my two-a-day workouts most of the week.  By Thursday, I was starting to feel really overtrained, completely exhausted and walking around like a zombie, unable to maintain a decent level of body heat.  The extra fat and carbs I ate helped me feel a little more alive, not that I am recommending that.  On Friday, I took the day off from working out, and had two cheat meals, the later one being with my family at our favorite restaurant.
Saturday I kept things clean to start out, knowing that I was about to completely destroy my diet.  No matter what else happens, I can always stay on track for my breakfast, it's my favorite meal I eat all day.  When I got to my hometown, my friend and I ate lunch at Applebee's, where I had a chicken breast smothered in Jack cheese, and some fried potatoes.  It was delicious, of course.  Even though I gave myself a free pass to eat whatever I wanted for the weekend, my body was not liking the excess salt I was giving it.  I found myself wanting to eat things even when I wasn't hungry, just so I could hurry up and get in the indulgences before I had to get back to eating clean. 
The reunion went pretty much how I expected.  My friend and I sat at a table by ourselves, with a few people drifting over to say hello from time to time.  It was good to see some of the folks I hadn't seen in a while.  For me, it was a case of recognizing the faces, but not being able to recall the name, as the majority of my classmates were people I didn't talk to back then.  I got to dance a couple times, and bumped into a good friend I'd lost touch with over the years, but most of the time was spent reminiscing with my buddy and as always, we had each other laughing so hard I was wiping the tears away.  I felt really good about how I looked, and knew I was right where I was supposed to be in life, that is priceless.

Me and my friend at our 20 year reunion

At the hotel, we had a few drinks, I drank the better part of a bottle of Plum sake, and despite having just eaten an awesome protein wrap for dinner, I found myself eating while I was drinking, just to help the acidic burn dissapate.  By the time we went to bed at 2:30am, I was feeling so very bloated and over-salty, and just generally uncomfortable.  I woke at 7am, unable to get back to sleep, so I enjoyed a make-it-yourself waffle with a little syrup drizzled on, and a cup of coffee, before heading to the pool/whirlpool while my friend caught up on some extra sleep.  The pool and whirlpool were in a sunroom, and I had them to myself, so it was so peaceful.  I sat in the whirlpool for a bit, then eased into the pool and did some laps.  Getting the blood flowing felt really therapeudic, and at first made me feel so awake, yeilding to a relaxed sort of euphoria.  I lounged on a long chair in the filtered sun, closing my eyes and letting the hum of the ducts above lull my into a deeper relaxation.  Then I realized, I never get to do this, just lounge in complete peace, with no distractions or demands on my time or attention.  I revelled in it for about twenty minutes before becoming bored, and went up to the room to see if my friend was awake. 
The rest of the morning consisted of a continental breakfast with my friend, and we hit the pool a bit more, this time with a bunch of kids splashing around, then a bit more lounging before checking out, catching lunch at McDonalds, and heading back to Green Bay.  My stomach felt horrible all yesterday, so much so that I couldn't bring myself to eat until seven hours later, and then, just some toast with ginger, to help calm my stomach.  It didn't help that one of myself had a sick belly and felt like he was going to be sick.  Thankfully, I felt much better when I woke up this morning, my stomach was growling fiercely, and I knocked out some high-intensity interval cardio which made me feel like a human again!
The week/weekend of indulgence brought me back to the realization of how good it feels to be healthy.  My stomach never bothers me when I eat clean, and I can move freely, have energy, and feel young and vital.  I am not in danger of going back to where I came from, because it simply doesn't feel good to live that way anymore.  It's fun to indulge every once in a while, but for me, clean is where I need to be.  When I used to eat whatever I wanted, I imagined making the switch to clean would mean constantly fighting against myself to not eat things I shouldn't eat, and forcing myself to eat things I'm not enthused about.  Now I realize that it's not a chore to eat clean, once your body feels clean, that is how you want it to always feel.  And the beauty of that is, there is no torture involved, I want to eat clean because I feel "normal" when I do, it truly has become a lifestyle change, which takes the work out of it. 
I have some work to do, to get the extra water and weight back off, but now I can begin to focus on the long term again.  I pick up my home gym on Wednesday, I can hardly wait to start training on it.
Well, here goes another Monday.  Hope you all have a great start to your week!