Days 3-7

Hey everyone - apologies for the protracted radio silence but just returned from a very nice break from reality.  Alaska was as advertised on all fronts - the terrain, the wildlife, the vistas, the company (there with college buddies), and the fishing - in this case coho (silver) salmon.  On the way there, I was concerned that the trip could result in an early derailment to the project and that the years of bad habits would be too difficult to shake - how could i know what i would 'normally' eat when the typical fishing trip involves high quantities of snacking on junk food, hearty meals, and more libations than normal - moreover, what would constitute half of that, and where would i work out?  In reality, it wasn't that bad.

Lets just say the meals at the lodge probably keep the local cardiologist busy.  We generally had an early breakfast buffet - in my case, spoon of scrambled eggs and 2 pieces of toast - and left  left for the river(s) between 530-630 am.  Most of the day was spent either hiking in full regalia or fishing.  The lodge was kind enough to pack us lunches (a roast beef, salami, or bologna sandwich, a root beer, orange or cherry soda, a small bag of Doritos, Cheetos or Frito's, and an assortment of bite size candy bars) and I ate only a half of the sandwich and passed on everything else.

Although there was a larger dinner menu, our dinner options were typically the same every night - a rib eye, new york strip or t-bone, baked potato and veggies with salad bar (strangely - both the new york strip and t-bone looked like the rib eye and we only had halibut for one night, as it was end of the lodge's fishing season and they weren't really interested in re-stocking) - so, rib eyes it was.  I managed to eat a very small salad and half of everything else. For the beers, I had much less than what I thought would be half - still probably too many but it was on my conscience.

For the workouts, i endured the heckling of friends and fellow fisherman, and powered through the jump rope and workout every night (only missed one set of sit ups as the cabin floor wasn't too good on the tailbone) when we returned from fishing.  Didn't get the day 6 workout in until arriving in Seattle at midnight last night and followed it up at 5 am this morning at the local red roof inn.   (side note - if you haven't bought a jump rope yet, get a good one, i bought the cheapest (plastic) one and it didn't do so well in the cooler weather)

Strangely i didn't feel overly hungry the whole trip even we were walking 4-5 miles and i was eating very little during the day.  My friends were  kind enough to see there were no scraps and that i couldn't go back for another bite of the apple or rib eye as the case might be.  Still, I actually thought i would be hungrier, but found i really wasn't during the days.    I also thought the food i was eating would make my trip break even in terms of weight at best and was (pleasantly) surprised to find I am 3kg lighter this week.

Am now considering my options for the last night of food indulgence in advance of starting the diet tomorrow.

PS - fishing was awesome...