Vacation...Alternately Titled: I Ate My Way Around The Island

This is my happy place...sun and palms and warm breezes

In a minute I'm going to talk to you about something healthy, but first I gotta tell ya about the glorious, decadent, OMG (I don't care if that's uncool anymore: It's a perfectly good phrase to use here!), and drool-worthy food I managed to cram in my pie hole. Lawd have mercy, I ate GOOD!  (Or 'well' for my grammar peeps!)

We usually just pick up stuff at the grocery on the first night, which is what we did this year.  Nothing fancy, just some shrimp and, for me, lemon pie.  Who doesn't love lemon pie in summer?  Night 2 usually brings us pizza from Guiseppe's.  I get an eggplant sub just because I can, but then I pilfer a piece of pizza off some other (un)lucky soul.  After this, it's just a randomness of whatever mood strikes the group. 

After a few "off" years, Hudson's on Hilton Head Island has come back, ya'll! So much so that we ate there twice.  Well, we actually ended up there the second time because the other restaurant we'd chosen was too full, but we all agreed it was even better the second night.  I ate LOTS of food.  Gluttony would probably describe it best:  I had fried green tomatoes that were quite possibly the best ever, and I've eaten my weight several times over in fgt.  Four perfectly sliced and golden fried slices o' tart 'mater perched on a rectangular mound of crispy bacon then topped with just-sweet-enough tomato and onion jam and drizzled with balsamic reduction.  I only ate two, and the leftovers were even better (dare I say it?!) the next day.

My entree was just as good:  Fish coated in a spinach and parmesan crust over a grit cake with roasted red pepper coulis.  I only ate half because I didn't want to totally push myself over the edge, but it was just as awesome the next day for lunch.

Remember that edge I didn't want to push myself over the first night?  Well, I heaved myself over it in a embarrassing display of "this is my last meal ever and I'm gonna do it right, dammit!!"  She Crab soup?  Yes, please.  Amazing spinach salad with goat cheese, spiced pecans, and poached pears?  Sure!  Why not?!  Beer-battered fish and chips?  Bring it on, most awesome server!  Are you done?  Do you know me at all?  Why, yes, I'd love that 6 inch tall piece of s'mores cake with the graham cracker crust and three layers of chocolate and topped with melted marshmallows.  Can you make that a to-go serving so we can pick up some milk on the way home?  That is so sweet of you, server with the mostest! 
So. Damn. Good. 

And now I'm home.  Home where I am certainly not going to be cooking anything like I consumed last week because my GI system is about to declare a mutiny if I even remotely shove another gram of sugar or another drop of gloriously breaded bread deep fried to perfection and slathered in butter. ("Hushpuppies, daddy.")  (You know you just said that all Smokey & the Bandit style.)

I loved eating last week.  Being honest, I don't ever NOT love eating.  What I don't love is how I feel after going all "I'm 7 years old and have $20 to spend at Hello Kitty!!!! WOOOO-HOOOOOO!!!!!" My head hurts and my tummy gurgles and I don't sleep well.  I have brain fog and I am sluggish.  I remember now why I started eating cleaner and exercising:  This feels like the bowels of hell.  

Today I am back to not eating like a teenage boy going through a growth spurt.  I had coffee because, well, coffee.  I had fresh fruit for the first time in a week, and I was reminded how sweet it is and how much I love it.  I had my first Shakeology shake (Vanilla w/ PB and banana) in a week.  I am on the mend, people.

(Don't judge:  There was a REAL French bakery down the street with honest-to-God french pastries and fresh squeezed OJ.  It was even named The French Kiss!! I was doing my part to shop small and local while on the vacay and it just so happened to be in the form of a perfect peach tart for breakfast.  Oh, wait, so maybe that means I did have fresh fruit last week...just wrapped in layers of cream and pastry!)

I drowned myself in all things wonderful about vacation: family, sunshine and food.  I had an abundance of all. (My kids may or may not have learned how to play various types of poker. Future vacations may or may not take place in Vegas.)  But now it is time to drown myself in the things that keep my body running happily and my mind clear and focused.  It's back to fresh fruits and veggies and it's definitely time to get the old body moving.  Time to dust off my favorite kicks and go push play.  

Life is about balance.  When we swing too hard in one direction, it knocks everything else off kilter.  It takes a little bit of this and a little bit of that to make it all work out in the end. Find your balance:  Save the money to buy the bucket list concert tickets; Skip the dessert on Monday so you can indulge with friends on Saturday; Walk up the stairs so you can enjoy the latte with your better half the next morning.  Be your best you.