Tripped Up

Highlights of NYC:

- Being carted to and from NYC a-la the Metro-North Railroad. Gotta love going from Point A to Point B with minimal effort, especially with trains leaving as late as 1:49am (unheard of to this Bostonian!)

- Purchasing a new outfit @ H&M ten minutes after entering the city

- Fitting into H&M clothing (!!) to begin with

- Walking 2.5 miles from Grand Central Station to the East Village for Ethiopian food. The downside? The restaurant was closed. No surprise there! The last time Finn and I were in NYC together, the same thing happened. It’s how we roll.

- Walking another half mile to our ‘plan b’ restaurant where we had the most amazingly delightful food I’ve had in a very long time. Doro Wat 4 lyfe!

- Changing into my new outfit after dinner and LOLing at how completely ridiculous it was for my friend and I to purchase new outfits for the sole purpose of changing into them before the concert that evening. I’m pretty sure the waiter thought we were clinically insane. He was right.

- Stopping at one of the most authentic Italian bakeries immediately after gorging ourselves on a delicious lunch. I decided on a miniature vanilla cannoli and enjoyed all two bites of it!

- Accidentally walking the 2.5 miles back in search of Halloween costumes. No costumes were purchased, but many a-hat were tried on.

- Bumping into local friends who were in town for the same concert. How do you ‘bump into’ someone approximately one block from Times Square?

- Enjoying a spin on the Ferris Wheel at Toys ‘R’ Us in Times Square

- Seeing Tegan & Sara front-row center

- Running seven blocks to catch the 11:22 train back to Milford after the show. There’s just something about running through mid-town with bags of clothing and a full bladder that made this trip one to remember.

- Stumbling upon a dead bug in my bed on Thursday night! I spent a good thirty minutes in bed plucking my eyebrows before I found the bug. I had put my glasses away in my bag after plucking even though I clearly needed them to watch TV. I got up to get them and saw bug parts peeking out from under my pillow. It. Was. Gross. I called the front desk and asked the bumbling gentleman for a sheet with ‘less bug parts‘. My friend and I were cracking up so hard. We ultimately moved into a new room and I am happy to report that we did not encounter any more bug parts of any kind.

- Surviving the free (and endless) continental breakfast both Friday and Saturday morning. No donuts or Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches for me! I had a slice of wheat toast with one teaspoon of butter both days. I had tea on Friday and coffee on Saturday. I also had half a waffle and two tablespoons of maple syrup Saturday morning before hitting the road. Delish to the max.

All in all, I did pretty well in the food department while in NYC. Outside of the breakfast, Ethiopian food, and mini cannoli, my friend and I shared a grilled chicken sandwich at some random Irish pub before the show. In addition to the sandwich, I subbed salad for fries and washed it down with a vodka soda. Before finding ourselves there, we ducked into Tequaillaville for a quick happy hour margarita and capped the night off with a final drink a few short minutes before the show with some of Finn’s friends who also made the trip to NYC.

The whole trip was very awesome and very effortless. Life is just so much better when you’re not thinking of ways to minimize your triple chin or wondering if the chair you’re about to sit in is going to hold you. Even though my legs were incredibly sore from standing/walking/running for the better part of eight hours, I couldn’t have been happier even if I tried.

Seriously, if you’re still fat (in that ‘I can’t even bend over to tie my shoes’ way), the time has come to get un-fat. All logic aside, it’s just something you need to do. Sure, counting calories isn’t glamorous and setting aside a few hours each week to exercise won’t always be your first choice (at least at the beginning), but doing these things is so fucking worth it. Not only will you prevent your heart from giving out at a ridiculously young age, but you will feel amazing from sunrise to sunset — guaranteed. If I’m saying this as a 5’2″, 185-lb individual, you can only imagine how good this shit is going to get! It’s time to grow up, cut the crap, get to work, and come join me as a permanent resident of Cloud Nine.

Anyway…

As soon as Finn dropped me off at home, The Girl and I headed up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. What’s another 2.5 hour drive, right?

We arrived at the Mount Washington Resort just before 4pm and spent a good chunk of time checking out the digs which included a candy shop (where I bought two milk chocolate coconut cups), an arcade, a full-service spa, a heated outdoor pool, a heated indoor pool and hot tub, and various nooks and crannies spanning four floors.

After we familiarized ourselves with the goods, we ordered $50 worth of room service in the shape of two 8oz Angus burgers, one garden salad (since they refused to sub my fries for said salad — bastards), and a piece of chocolate cake (for The Girl, of course). I ended up eating my hamburger, my salad, half of the girl’s cheeseburger, and five or six of her potato wedges.

And a bite of cake.

And a coconut cup.

And a few pieces of beef jerky.

And 32 ounces of water.

The verdict?

I spent the next four hours feeling uncomfortably nauseous. At one point, I was doing jumping jacks in the middle of our room in an attempt to use some of that ‘yummy energy’ I had just consumed. I was so full that I literally could not drink water even though I was parched to the gills and back. If that wasn’t enough, The Girl beat me at The Game of Life and I really think it was because I was on the brink of vomiting throughout the entire game. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

What made me eat The Girl’s dinner in addition to mine?

The price.

There was just no way I was going to let a $50 dinner shit the bed.

Really?

Eleven months into this thing and that’s the best I can come up with? What a joke. On the upside, I can honestly say that I will never do something like that again. You can’t pay me enough to endure a four-hour belly ache like that a second time. I ended my day around 2,300 calories which included 1/2 of a Cliff bar and one fruit bar eaten at 2am (while still in CT). Every good choice I made earlier that day definitely saved my ass in the end. Whew.

I managed to get my act together long enough to sail through the full-service breakfast buffet this morning. I grabbed 2.5 slices of crispy bacon, two scrambled eggs, two slices of toast with one teaspoon of butter (on one slice), three small red potatoes (otherwise known as fancy faux home-fries) and two slices of pineapple. I washed it all down with eight ounces of freshly squeeze orange juice. Nicely done!

Too bad my intentions went to shit this evening over a bean and cheese burrito, my other milk chocolate coconut cup, and two Reeses cups. Total calories for today: 1,691. Not too bad, but I definitely could have done better — especially in the quality department.

Even though I ate a few questionable food items and made a couple of poor decisions, I managed to create a calorie deficit each day.

And that’s what counts.