I'm back from Jamaica

I just returned from one of the best vacations I've ever taken. My husband and I celebrated our 14th anniversary in the tropical region of Jamaica. The weather was in the upper 80-90s and rained every day in the morning, which didn't matter to us because it was still warm and refreshing. The ocean was so beautiful and we walked the beach every day for exercise.

It was extremely difficult to make healthy food choices as there is an unlimited amount of food to choose from. Imagine being at a buffet three times a day for seven days. Some days I had a salad and fruit for lunch, but unfortunately the salad dressing wasn't low fat. I tried star fruit for the first time, it kind of tasted like an apple but not as sweet. I also ate a purple fruit with a white center that our waitress said would stain, which turned out to be sweet with a soft mushy texture. I can't tell you the name of the fruit since most of the food wasn't labeled. We had jerk chicken, sausage, rice and beans from the jerk hut on the beach. It was very good but the portions were large and thankfully I didn't eat the skin.

During our stay, we ate twice at the buffet, twice at the Asian buffet my husband liked, spent our anniversary at a gourmet restaurant called Sir Richards, Japanese another night, and a Steak House that we really didn't care for. I waited in line every morning to make reservations to eat at one of the four restaurants, but by the time I got to the front the early seating was always full so we had to make reservations for 9:00 PM. Luckily after letting one of the hostesses know that our anniversary was on Monday, she kindly reserved a table for us ahead of schedule which I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, and she even refused my bribes. I experienced friendliness like this everywhere in Jamaica, even when we were outside of the resort.

We were at an all-inclusive resort so drinks were free. I liked the rum cream drinks because they weren't as strong as a mixed drink and tasted good while lying on the beach. I tried some other drinks I'd never tasted before, and some were good and some not so good.

I’m not trying to make you hungry while reading this so if you do snack please eat something healthy like a piece of fruit.

We took a chair-lift to the top of Mystic Mountain and went bobsledding through the rain forest. We went full throttle down the mountain, and had a blast! We took the Zip Line-Canopy tour next, something neither one of us had every done before. We felt safe since the harnesses were secured to the zip line with two cables. The view from the mountain was amazing. I hope we can take this trip again someday.

After we got back in the states my husband had training in Illinois for two days so we spent another three nights in hotels. Our friends had us over for dinner both nights and she's a wonderful cook, but like most Americans uses meat, potatoes, gravy, butter and pastas.

We got home late Tuesday night, and I was afraid to step on the scale to see how much weight I’d gained. I waited until the morning (you know what they say about weighing in the morning) and I was up 7 pounds. It doesn’t help that I’m pre-menses either. I immediately got back on track with my healthy eating plan, and when I weighed myself this morning I was down 2 pounds. I’m hoping that when my cycle comes I’ll be down even more.

It’s nice to go on vacation every now and then but there is no place like home, and I'm determined and re-energized to maintain a healthy lifestyle after taking some well needed relaxation, and a few minor indulgences.