On Plan on the Road?

Does the air up North make anyone else's appetite INSATIABLE?

On Wednesday, my mom rented a van, and I helped her move some furniture up to the cottage my parents bought this summer.

My mom and I have done a lot of moving (mostly moving me around before/during/after university). But this time, we bit off more than we could chew:

Let's back up.

Knowing that we would be doing a lot of driving, and that the temptation to eat all of our meals out would be VERY strong, I did some pre-packing:

I wanted to make sure that any craving my mom and I had would be met (with something healthy!). I had hardboiled eggs, homemade hummus, crackers, steel cut oats (for a cottage breakfast), granola bars, homemade date-coconut bars, red lentil curry (for a cottage dinner), plain yogurt with fruit, and some orange slices all ready to go.

When we first arrived at the cottage, our property was covered in snow (no one has been there since October). We got to work (our plan was to back the car right up to the front steps so we could easy-peasy slide things up and in to the cottage).

Now, I have not shoveled in at least a year. It is HARD WORK. This snow had been sitting a long time, and was really hard to chip away.

We worked and worked and my muscles are still aching, two days later. But I treated it like I was just trying to get a really good workout (and not like I was trying to clear an impossible amount of snow). I tried to have "good form" (what is good shoveling form?) and use my legs and hold my core tight (hey, it really helped!).

By the time we had shoveled as much as we could, it was already dark, so we left the unloading for Thursday morning. Most of the unloading was fine. Then it was time to move the huge (well, normal-sized) pull-out couch. We were not able to back the car up very close to the house (while trying, it got stuck in the mud), and we were not able to totally clear the snow. We had a long path to move the couch along, then a few stairs.

It was the hardest thing EVER. I'm usually very positive, but I kept telling my mom we would NOT be able to do it (I was being a bit of a cranky pants!).

We ended up having to drag it across the snow and mud (with a couple of garbage bags to protect it), then shimmy it slowly up the stairs.

I may or may not have burst into tears at one point.

We finally got it inside and said "never again."

So, what with all the shoveling and horrible couch-moving, I definitely got some activity in. But I also got in a lot of food (I guess my mentality was that I should reward myself for my hard work). I did eat many of the snacks I brought, though, and if I hadn't had them, things would have been much worse. (I like to look on the bright side!)

Let's hope it somewhat balances out and I don't see a gain tomorrow...

In other news, the scenery was very pretty (although it frightened me to see people ice fishing and skidooing on the lakes... it has been a MILD WINTER! I was wearing a t-shirt while moving, and there was open water among the ice!)

I may not be posting over the weekend, because in about an hour I'm meeting one of my best friends (my old university roommate) at the bus station! She is staying with me until Monday, and tomorrow we will be joined by two of our other old roommates for the day. We all live in different cities now, so visits like this are all too rare.

Don't worry, I will still go to my Weight Watchers meeting tomorrow morning--although it will be hard to stay on plan with my friends around... not because they are the type to sabotage me in any way, but just because I'll be in the "celebration" mindset. Wish me luck!

I will report back soon with tomorrow's weigh-in AND Tuesday's booty camp results! I hope you all have a lovely weekend!