All it took was one painfully delicious meal ~Jully

Before my trip to Hawaii, I was very concerned about falling off the wagon, but I am very proud to say that I did ok.
Tuesday 1/6, I spent the day going from airport to airport and I had salads! I didn't get tricked into adding the potato chips, cookies, and all other things that "seem" harmless. I did good that day.
Once in Hawaii, things were starting to look troublesome. For breakfast, I got macadamia pancakes with fried rice! Oh, this thing was SO ABSOLUTELY bad, but SO good. For lunch, we had a nice salad at a spa, and for dinner we went to Allan Wong's (from Top Chef) restaurant. Each and every dish had an element of surprise and it was AMAZING. For my entree, I chose to have the beet salad, but that too was incredible. We had 3 sets of deserts, AND after that a piece of birthday cake.
The next morning, I felt incredibly gross. My friend and I agreed that we would have to split meals from this point forward, and so we tried.
All it took was one painfully delicious meal and I was all set for the rest of the trip.

I didn't use my pilates bands once, but on the first 2 days I did do the "hundreds".
I made sure to do an activity almost daily. I ran about 3x, hiked, surfed (or tried), swam, walked (the mall), and danced.
I truly believe that I was able to do all these activities almost painlessly because of pilates. My body was strong. I snorkled for 1 hour and didn't get tired at all. The "swimming" exercise did come in handy for surfing to thread water. The day after I was expecting my arms to hurt, but nothing.

This trip was very good for me. I am liking myself more and more. While shopping, if things didn't fit me, I didn't beat myself up. I just moved on and said, well not everything was made for me, right? While mingling at bars, I was able talk to men with more confidence. I didn't doubt or even question why would they even be interested, which is something I'd always assume.
I met some great people throughout the trip. It could have been because it was just Hawaii, but in any case, I was open and was excited to meet so many interesting and NICE people.
I am more sure of myself and have started to learn about my limitations. Well, I learned that I really can jump off a rock (1), snorkle in the deeper side of the shore (2), and venture to a deserted mini island (3).

(1)


(2)


(3)



I met an amazing hula teacher and during her lesson she told her students "You don't know your body, you don't know yourself. You have to introduce yourself, TO YOURSELF!".

My friend said that she's noticed a change too. "It's a new you", but we agreed that it's not a brand new start, it's just been a continous path to get me here.
I cannot wait to my pilates session on Saturday. I'm sure Shannon is doing push ups off her pinky finger by now.

Aloha!