I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve posted! I had an amazing weekend, but I ate terribly. So I’ll say it right out: yes, I did break my no sugar challenge. I had been walking the edge of the definition of “no sweets” the past few days, and I basically crossed the line by the middle of yesterday. The straw that broke the camel’s back? This little guy:
But more on that later. I’m going to describe the trip in more detail first! Friday we bussed out to Lake Tahoe. This ended up taking a really long time because we hit the worst rush hour traffic. We didn’t get in until around 8, and we left around 2. And the drive definitely shouldn’t take that long! After settling in to our rooms (we stayed in a group lodge), we started on dinner, which was make your own pizza.
I was smart and took a chunk out before it cooked so I could tell it was mine! The bottom was a little black though…we set the fire alarm off multiple times, and that seemed to be the signal that the pizzas were done. I don’t think the ovens there were very good! I also had some carrots and celery dipped in ranch. So the carb and saturated fat fest begins! That was basically all the food this weekend…plus sugar. And see the problem is, as I’ve talked about in my glucose post, too many carbs, especially white ones, make you crave even more carbs. So basically I ate a ton of carbs this weekend. I believe I had a piece on peanut butter on bread after dinner, as well as a granola bar.
I had a fun night hanging out with my dorm mates. There was a hot tub, which was nice. I planned on doing a sizable amount of work this trip, so I hadn’t planned on going in the hot tub and walked out there with my Ochem book. I ended up staying there and leaving my book in a pile of clothes…not a very good idea. My book is now rather wrinkled. Oops.
Saturday morning, it was time to hit the slopes. Breakfast:
Plus, lucky charms. See, I was walking the line. With the blueberry muffin too! I think as my challenge progressed, I got more lax with what I considered a “sweet”.
Before I talk about skiing, let me first say that I’ve only skied once before in my life, 2 years ago. Luckily, I had some friends help me out. One of them hadn’t really skied before either, and the other 2 were decent skiers. After being re-taught how to put my skis on, we hit the bunny slope. It was a lot easier than I was expecting, certainly easier than the slope I went on last time. After 2 runs on that, we decided to try out some other slopes.
We took the main lift up, and enjoyed an absolutely stunning view of the lake. 
These are not my pictures, they were shamelessly stolen from my friend’s facebook. But I was with him, so it counts, right?
We got to the top, which was the main skiing area, with a ton of different hill choices. We chose a green. Well, as it turns out, this one was a lot more difficult than the bunny slope. As it turns out, my biggest problem when skiing is slowing down. And stopping. I have a very hard time not going down the mountain like a bat out of hell. Combine that with the fact that there were a ton of obstacles other skiers on the mountain, and I didn’t particularly want to plow down any small children, and we’ve got a bit of a problem. I had very little room to manipulate, or go down the mountain side to side. Sooo I wiped out. I’ve never really wiped out on a real slope before so it was interesting. Luckily my friends helped me figure out how to get up…I was so happy I had my helmet on though, or it could have been really bad, because my first fall I landed right on my head. I fell again. And then I fell on a reasonable slope, fairly badly. And by badly I mean, I wasn’t hurt buuut my poles went flying. And as it turns out, one went over the edge of the slope. So I had to climb down and get it. Now I’m not saying I scaled a cliff or anything, but it was interesting…especially because the snow wasn’t packed in at all, so coming back up the snow just compressed and I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere. But I survived (not that I was ever in danger…) At that point, I decided that falling on my head again was not the best idea (I had a faint, very faint headache, but nothing more than what I’d feel from diving for a softball), so I just walked down the mountain, and took the lift back down.
At that point, it was lunchtime! The ski place actually had quite a few options. I was tempted to get chowder in a bread bowl, but I figured I should probably have some type of nutrient, and I’m glad I did! I got a Mexican salad burrito bowl, with guacamole.
It was good! Someone else got a burrito, and it was actually the biggest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. It was crazy! The food there was super expensive though, but guess that’s to be expected. I continued walking the line with a oatmeal raisin cliff bar and blueberry muffin #2.
Sorry for the terrible picture! Before lunch, I had returned my skis because I figured another bad fall could be dangerous, so I spent the time after lunch plotting how I could get back to the lodge sooner than the bus we took there, which wasn’t going to leave for 3 more hours. I had no work with me, and tons back at the lodge. After much debate and research, a few dorm mates and I took 2 buses, plus walked a mile, and made it back, saving ourselves about an hour and a half. The trip back took a while, but hey, we still saved time!
Back at the lodge, I ate a half a bagel with cream cheese, and yes, another blueberry muffin. Do you see the problem here? Lots of carbs! I worked until dinner, and right before dinner I had some hot chocolate. At this point I realized my sugar challenge was hot, especially since there was a big old chocolate cake staring at me. 
Dinner was vegetable lasagna, plus LOTS of bread with butter (definitely had more than is shown here), plus a salad I scrounged up. Now, don’t let those greens fool you. They’re smothered in ranch! There was sooo much cheese and dairy here. Now I understand what my teammates were talking about! Ugh. After dinner was the cake. And believe me, don’t let that small piece fool you! Let’s just say that the cake was sitting out in the open for a while…Plus S’mores…ughhh. I vowed I would eat healthy today, but let’s be honest, that seriously didn’t happen. Saturday was another good night, I got some more work done and then caught up with my friends.
By breakfast the next morning, there was absolutely no fruit left. I’m not even going to go in to my breakfast because it was downright embarrassing, but whatever you are imagining my breakfast is, make it 1000x worse and you’ll have my morning meal. Needless to say I haven’t been feeling too great the last few days! Sooo many carbs! After packing up, we rushed out a little earlier than planned, because there was a big snowstorm coming. We got out around 12, and it was snowing all morning! So beautiful! I tried to get an “it’s snowing picture,” but you can’t see a lot. 
During the bus ride back, we hit some pretty bad traffic right away, but I managed to snap a few pictures!
After the bus ride, I’m pretty well rested! My neck is super sore though. It’s partly from sleeping strangely earlier this week as well as this weekend, but I think it’s a little sore from wiping out as well! I only have a few bruises though (on my shin).
We arrived just in time for dinner!
Whole wheat pot stickers and dumplings, brown rice, and salad. 
Garlic bread, plus a taste of salmon alfredo. And since today wasn’t going to be a no sugar day, I couldn’t resist trying the red velvet frozen yogurt. 
Back in my room, I was still craving sweets, so I mixed up banana with cocoa powder. I think my sweet tooth is finally satisfied. I’m full, but at least none of my dinner sweets were too gross-feeling-inducing, apart from the quantity. Well, this is great, because tomorrow starts No-sugar challenge part 2! I still want to close this out on the same day. I lasted 2 weeks, which wasn’t bad, but I want to continue despite my hiccup to February 10. After a weekend of indulgent eating, I’m ready to get back on track tomorrow! I really want to avoid saturated fat, sugar, and white carbs this week, as I’ve had a bit of an overload this weekend, and I feel a little bit like death! Do you guys ever feel like this? I made myself a meal plan for this week, because I have a ton to get done, and I don’t want to have to worry about what I should eat! I simply check out the schedule, and I’m good to go! One less thing to think about certainly can’t help!
Despite all my complaining about the food, I had an awesome weekend! I’m really sorry I let you guys down on the challenge, but I’m going to pick right back up! And as planned, Tuesday will still be my Zero Sugar day to raise awareness to all the added sugars in foods! I hope you all had a good weekend as well!
Have you ever wiped out badly skiing? What happened?
