The golf weekend is finally over. I was really quite tired by the end. There were some successes and many, many failures. The real successes were in the eating department. I did really well in resisting the avoid foods. They served chicken the first two days. So, I stuck to the salads and vegetables. The third day was a lovely roast beef. I knew they wouldn’t do chicken all three days. Did not eat any of the breads that were offered. The only naughty things I ate were the croutons from the Caesar Salad on Friday, and I did indulge in a snack-sized bag of chips on Saturday and a couple bites of the chocolate dessert. My reward, I suppose, for being so good. Oh, but then did I wake up in the middle of the night with a stuffy nose? Yes, of course I did! (It was the chips, silly woman!)

The actual golf itself was abominable. Unfortunately, my partner and I landed very last place in a field of 30 teams. It was quite a struggle. Usually, if one is going to have a bad day, then the next day is a lot better. And usually if you have a partner, she can bale you out when you are having trouble. Not so this weekend. We were both playing our worst golf ever – and for both days. It was a very, very long weekend.

So, at least I can start the new week without any added poundage to worry about, and can continue to work on little improvements here and there. Some day I would like to unload this last eight pounds that are hanging around my tummy.

Maybe I'll spend some time on the driving range!

To quote Jesse Jackson: “If there wasn’t a Right Wing and a Left Wing, then the dove couldn’t fly.”

Hopefully that will be all the political commentary I will make during this United States Election season. I can tell it’s going to be a long one, too.

Just don’t get me started.

Any-hoo. Food has been my friend these past few days. I have been compliant. I have been exercising. And it finally looks like those dad-blasted Holiday pounds have finally come off for good. I can’t believe it took six months to reset my set point! Now, I have to be careful the rest of the summer to stay the same. I have a food challenge this next three days. It is the annual member/guest tournament at our golf club. So, there will be many treats to resist. There will be pastries set out in the mornings. There will be snacks to take on the golf rounds. There’s no telling what the luncheons will consist of, but you just KNOW there will be desserts. I will try to be strong. I will refrain from alcohol consumption in order to keep my resolve.

I will report back Sunday about whether I was strong enough to resist.

(Resist! Resist! Resist!)

I decided to flip the calendar over to July today. I guess I’m just not ready for a new month already. And we’re three days into it. I might as well get with it and join the party.

The week went by too fast. I managed three Pilates sessions and two rounds of golf. Played well enough yesterday to win five dollars off the girls. Eating has been fairly compliant. Grazed for two days on a huge tuna salad that Hubby made. Other than that it has been the normal yogurts, cottage cheese, salads, vegies, turkey and beef. Haven’t had any beneficial lamb in awhile. I’d better do something about that.

The family wants spaghetti tonight. They want one of our rare carb feasts. I will give them what they want. I have a box of spelt pasta on the shelf, so will cook that on the side for me. I can just feel my mouth and eyes swelling at the thought of all that wheat!

The weekend was full of discoveries. This was the longest motorcycle ride hubby and I have been on so far. We discovered that 450 miles is too long to ride in one day comfortably. I discovered my feet were really swollen after riding for all that time. We stopped every 1-1/2 to 2 hours to stretch and stuff, but by the time we got to where we were going, we were pretty pooped and achy. We discovered some new friends. Most of the folks there were single guys, or if they weren’t single, they didn’t bring their wives. There were just five women and about 25 men. We hooked up with another couple for our Saturday ride. We only did 200 miles that day and rode along the northern California coast and through the Redwood Forest. It was just beautiful. And those trees! They are so huge! We even saw a brown bear lumbering across four lanes of Highway 101. Deer and raccoons I was expecting. Not a bear! We also discovered a gravel trail for about four miles. That was pretty dicey riding, especially on our big touring bikes. It was definitely a dirt bike kind of trail. But we made it okay due to the amazing skills of our husbands. We dreaded the long ride back on Sunday. It took just the same amount of time to come back the 450 miles as it did to get there. But it was fun. The weather couldn’t have been better, either.

I didn’t do too badly on the food issues. Snacked on jerky, fruit and Boomibars on the way down. The restaurants, once we got to Crescent City, were really bad. I think they all used the same distributor. You couldn’t order a piece of fish that wasn’t breaded. The first night I had sturgeon with a horrible raspberry sauce, salad bar and vegetables. I scraped off the sauce and breading and ate the fish. At least it wasn’t over-cooked. The motel we were staying at gave free breakfast with the price of the room. I stuck with the scrambled eggs, half a little sausage and just a tiny dip into the hash browns. Lunch was a spinach salad. And for dinner I ordered a prime rib instead of breaded fish again. The only avoids I ate were a piece of bread and a cup of clam chowder. We may have had a bit more to drink Saturday night than usual, but it was such good company and fun!

So, now I’m waiting for my poor feet to get back to normal. Hopefully by tomorrow most of the fluid will have moved on out. I’m drinking lots of lemon water to help it along.

Hubby and I are getting ready for a long weekend trip. We’re going to motorcycle down to Crescent City tomorrow and meet up with some other BMW enthusiasts from this part of the country. We’ll probably do some riding around the Redwoods on Saturday. Then we’ll ride back home on Sunday. Mapquest says that it will be 442 miles to Crescent city and it will take a little over seven hours to get there. We haven’t taken long rides like that for a long time. I hope I can stay awake. I tend to doze off sometimes on the back.

Of course, along with a change in routine will be all the eating challenges that go with it. I bought some beef jerky and cherries to take along. I also will take some Boomibars. If I can graze on those, then hopefully when we get to restaurants I will be able to make sensible food choices. There won’t be any chance for exercise while riding on the back of a motorcycle, so I’ll want to watch my portion intake.

These are my plans......I can’t promise that I’m going to follow through with them, though.

I’ll get over it.