Alcohol & (candied) Orange Slices

Here's in a bit of learned advice from me to all of you: alcohol and candied orange slices are not the ideal items to consume when dieting.

I don't think that advice was a bombshell or would surprise absolutely anybody, but I got a first-hand lesson in how going crazy one night can have adverse and immediate affects on your diet plan. Not only did I feel tired and sluggish the next day (that could also be attributed to the fact that I didn't get home until 1 a.m.), but I gained .8 lbs. I know, I know, it takes time for food to actually cause real weight gain or loss, something like 3 days, but the scale was the proof in the pudding.

Here's the second thing I learned: Sometimes alcohol and candied orange slices, even with all of their fat and calories, are totally and utterly worth it.

Friday night was awesome. There really isn't any other way to say it. I had decided earlier in the day that it as going to be a cheat day for me. I don't have a weekly cheat day, but I knew that I wouldn't be "good" during the evening's plans. It started with seeing two of our friends, Morgan & Preston at Buffalo Wild Wings. M&P moved away from Vegas in January so not seeing them on a short visit was not an option! We had dinner and chatted for a few hours before they had to make the trek back to San Diego and we had to meet our friends from my workplace.

It's the next set of plans that got my diet into trouble. Mike and I met our friends at Brendan Palms Theater to see "Sucker Punch" in IMAX. We had some, um, "Sucker Punch" fans in our group who thought it was going to sell out so we got there early ... really early. In order to pass the time we went to one of the bars and grabbed a drink. I ordered a vodka cranberry and it was the strongest drink I can ever remember having. Sadly enough, that one drink made me tipsy! I know I'm a lightweight, but that's incredible even for me. By the time we found seats in the theater I was acting like a 15-year-old schoolgirl. Lucky for me, so was The Wizard. Don't worry, by the time the movie started we calmed down and watched the show. Even the guy behind us stopped laughing at our shenanigans.

By far the highlight of the evening was an exchange between The Wizard and Jska:

Jska offered all of us a candied orange slice. Taking one, The Wizard asks "is it sweetened?" Um .... what? It's candied so of course it's sweetened! Jska's sarcastic response was timely and priceless, "No, it's savory."

All I know is that I want to try some of those SAVORY candied orange slices. Just kidding.

The extra calories, the tiredness, the feeling a bit bloated the next day were all worth it because it was a lot of fun. Now, I won't stack several of those days together because it's not good for me or my diet, but once in awhile is definitely worth it.

UPDATE: Since Friday, I've gotten back on track with my eating and tracking calories using my Lose It app. I have also re-dropped that .8 lb.

Lesson Learned: Story of a Saturday Night

Sunday was rough. I'm not going to lie about how difficult Sunday morning was after I stepped on the scale and realized just how much Saturday night's decisions affected my weight, attitude and overall state of mind on Sunday morning. So, having gone over this little hurdle, I thought I would tell you about it.

On Saturday night, Mike and I got together with some friends of ours for games and drinks. Knowing I'd be drinking that evening, I tried to save my calories during the day so I didn't blow my calorie count completely out of the water. Also, while drinking, I try to stick with Diet Coke and vodka since vodka has a fairly low calorie count (at least compared to other hard alcohols, wine and beer). Well, my plan didn't exactly work and I paid the price for it on Sunday.

As the evening got going, I poured myself a couple of vodka-diet cokes and even had a 100 calorie pack of popcorn. However, somehow during the night I switched from vodka to whiskey and became quite drunk. To make matters worse, on the way home (don't worry, Mike was driving and he didn't have a single drop of alcohol) I begged Mike to stop at McDonalds or IHOP. Well, we stopped at McDonalds and I devoured (literally, consumed it super fast) a chicken sandwich and french fries -- the first french fries I've had in almost two months. The saddest part is, I don't even remember eating those darn things, and I wish I did because it would have tasted like heaven!

I crashed as soon as we got home and woke up the next morning feeling awful. I wasn't really hungover or still drunk, and I didn't have a migraine or anything, but I put the pieces of the evening before together and knew that what I had consumed was a killer shark for my previously almost-perfect dieting plan. Bummer!

Sure enough, I forced myself to step on the scale and saw it flash a 214.8, more than a pound higher than the day before. This felt like a stab to the chest, but at least it wasn't 215 -- that's what I told myself for some consolation.

So, how'd I recover? I woke up, drank water, had a Slim Fast shake and went to the gym. I spent an hour and 40 minutes doing cardio, both treadmill and elliptical to burn off those McDonalds and alcohol calories. I also ate very carefully the rest of the day and drank excessive amounts of water to help put my body back on track. It seems that I took the right steps because this morning the scale was down to 214 ... definitely a step in the right direction.

I definitely learned my lesson: careful with the over consumption of alcohol, it does horrible things for your diet!