Phase 2, Days 28 and 29

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Food eaten: Do we have to go there? Let's just say that doughnuts were involved, along with a variety of other fried and sugared Amish treats. And a visit to "Chocolate World" and its agricultural products in Hershey, PA. Do you want to know who the mayor of Chocolate World is? Satan.

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I did not expect to stay on this diet while vacationing. I did go a bit beyond even my planned indulgence. One horrible lesson learned: the Amish deep fry everything in LARD. That means BEEF FAT. I thought the doughnut (and, ahem... the apple dumpling...) tasted a bit weird, and then I figured out what it was. I wonder if I would have even noticed the off-taste a decade ago, when I was a fairly new vegetarian. Now it was obvious: cow-flavored desserts. Bleah.

I did eat one or two healthy things. I had a delicious whole wheat burrito with guacamole, brown rice and vegan chili in a little town in Pennsylvania (located right below an amazingly cool vintage clothing shop called Checkered Past.) And I also had... um... ok, I guess I only ate one healthy thing on the trip. But now I'm back. It's Sunday. Tonight I'll eat something good for me. Tomorrow I'm back on the Beach whole-hog. Maybe I'll even drastically cut grains for a few days, to get back into the spirit of things.

As best I can remember (and I *think* I recall everything), Saturday and Sunday saw me eating a total of about 2000 calories above maintenance. That means that if I get right back tomorrow, and eat like I was eating before, then for this week (Week 7), instead of losing my usual one-and-a-half pounds, I should lose a little less than a pound. So really, I only derailed less than a week's worth of effort. I don't plan on doing this again any time soon, but it's good to know that going off the deep end every once in a while isn't fatal, either to yourself or to your diet.

I didn't have access to a scale in Pennsylvania, and in fact I still won't have access to one until Thursday morning. Since I would be due to weigh-in again for Week 7 two days later anyhow, I think I'll just wait until then. I probably gained a ton of water weight from replenishing glycogen stores and what not, so any measurement I took right now would be deceptive in any case. My prediction: I should have lost 1.5 pounds for Week 6, and if all goes well I will lose .5 pounds for Week 7. This means that by next Saturday, the scale should have me at about 125 pounds, or 9 pounds lost on this diet so far.