trippin'

hey, friends.

i just got back from colorado springs.  let me tell you something about colorado springs, i love that place.  hubs and i went to visit old friends who also have the last name of one of my fave cocktails: VDC

anyway, like every vacation i come back from, it's a real bitch getting on the scale.  howevsies, turns out i left 4lbs in colorado springs over 5 days...how the hell does that happen?!

well, i've been wondering that to myself as well so as to live every day as if it were a colorado springs day.

here's what i think nudged the scale in the right direction:

*no sugar: the VDC's have, like, no sugar AT ALL in their house...which is quite impressive.  i didn't think i had a lot of sugar in the house (my pallet is decidedly more salty) until i read this book on the plane:

(and we shall talk more about this book this week)

turns out, a lot of stuff in our house that is "low calorie" and "low fat" also is high in sugars--damn.  the VDC's make a conscious effort to not eat or buy anything that lists "sugar" or "corn syrup" or "high fructose corn syrup" (aka the devil) as one of the top 3 ingredients...if at all...period. this sugar stuff has snuck up on me. seeing as how they were gracious enough to prepare our meals while we were there (shout out to Cathy, my CookingLight confidant!) the only sugar i ate was when we went out to Josh & John's for ice cream.  further evidence that they are really good about watching the sugar was that their tot, hudson, had his first taste of ice cream while we were there and he was not into it...until it hit the bloodstream.

*don't watch a lot of tv
ok, so, we watched a fair share of tv in CO.  there was a packer game, a badger game, and then we unleashed "Mantracker" on them (which was the ultimate hit)  but when we weren't around the tv, we were being productive.  we went for a run, did a lot of walking about town and in nature, and the dudes built a shed while us women folk crafted.  what's the big take away? alison's getting into crafty hobbies.  it's hard to eat when your fingers are crafting stuff and all of a sudden, 3 hours have gone by and there's a pile of cool stuff on the chair next to you. winning.

*don't worry, have a homebrew
my husband makes a damn fine beer.  our friend mike makes a super damn fine beer.  i had two brews and sampled every one my husband tried including the california common that i will dream about from this day forward (nectar of the gods)  i'm just going to go ahead and say that beer actually helped me this weekend...because i ate less and more conscientiously at most every meal to have some budget room for brews and i don't regret trading southwest sliders for a hummus plate and an ipa.

*get a toddler and/or a dog
the VDC's come complete with a 15 month old and a black lab, both of which are pretty active...mostly the tot.  i wanted to put my garmin on the dude to see how many miles he logs a day running back and forth from room to room moving spoons and chairs and finding the dog...easily that kid gets in his 10,000 steps per day...and if you have the privelege of wrangling hudson, you get those steps in pretty quick as well.  

so, in summary, i'm going to eat less of the sweet stuff (especially the crafty hidden sweet stuff in my fave lo-cal eats); stop watching so much tv and take up the noble art of the crafting; and work on getting a toddler.

but it's still vacation...kinda...so i'm going to watch the season finale of True Blood with a bowl of popcorn peppered with dark chocolate m&ms

stay tuned this week for a new edition of a solid read featuring "eat this, not that: supermarket survival guide"