Than you all so much for your kind comments in response to my last post. It really means a lot to me-I had no idea what to expect and I was really nervous about posting. Not many bloggers discuss weight gain, but I think it’s something that should be discussed as well.

What I’m piecing together from my thoughts and your comments is this message: healthy living is a state of mind and a passion, but not necessarily a body type. Everyone has their ups and downs, and there is no one-size-fits-all blogger.

But like the title of the last post, I’m ready to own it. With all that in mind, I wanted to briefly touch on my plans moving forward. I want to do something about the extra weight in a purely HEALTHY manner. The main things I am going to focus on are more produce (fruits and veggies), less sugar, and portion control. This WILL NOT become a weight loss blog-I probably won’t discuss this a ton in the future (unless you guys ask about it). I’ll of course keep you updated on my life, but I don’t want to focus on that in the blog so I can continue to give you all the quality programming you’ve come to know and love (kidding).

And on to a much more fun topic-my weekend!

Friday afternoon my family drove down to San Luis Obispo, about a 4 hour drive south. For some reason, most of the hotels were booked up this weekend. The hotel we stayed at was the 12th one my dad tried! It was really nice, and also cozy. 

Upon arriving, the first priority was dinner. We passed the Apple Farm Restaurant on the way to our hotel, which boasted of farmer’s market fresh food. And amazing pastries-I was sold! Another bonus-it was a 2 minute walk from our hotel. 

I was in the mood for farm-fresh veggies so I ordered the veggie melt, and subbed a side salad for the fries. I also added avocado to the sandwich-which totally made the sandwich! I wish I could say I like eggplant…but to be honest, I don’t know how to eat it! When I bit in to the sandwich, the whole piece came out!

As luck would have it, my family for some reason or another was discussing potato pancakes on the drive up, so they were a must when we discovered them on the menu. Plus, house-made apple sauce!

And yes, despite my whole beginning of this post, it was vacation and they did boast amazing sounding desserts, so we ordered a few things to try. My choice was a chocolate zucchini bundt cake, because hey-zucchini=healthy, right? We also ordered an eclair, and a mini apricot pineapple pie. Everything was delicious.

PS-like my shirt? “I’m only half crazy: 13.1”

After dinner, we decided to walk off our large meal by exploring downtown San Luis Obispo. We bit off a bit more than we could chew-the walk turned out to be pretty long! Luckily, a free trolley was kind enough to pick us up- “The Old SLO Trolley.” We got a kick out of the name, but slow it was not!

Upon arriving downtown, the first priority for me was to buy a sweatshirt. Somehow I managed to forget one…luckily I found a cute one that I wore the rest of the trip, and will definitely wear in the future. 

We wandered into a candy and soda store with every type of candy bar imaginable, and a million…interesting…sodas. 

The next morning, we awoke on the early side to make it to a morning tour of Hearst Castle. Mr. Hearst was one of the founders of newspapers as we know them today, and had a huge news empire. He build a castle on the top of a hill overlooking the coast where we would relax and host famous or interesting guests. 

Check out this view! It’s no wonder he loved this place!

We went on a tour of the part of the house the guests would visit. Every night guests would be expected to attend a cocktail party, followed by dinner and a movie.

The grounds were beautiful. He modeled the castle after several architectural styles from Europe. 

I really enjoyed this visit. It transformed me back to a different era. I’ve always thought that if I could live in any other time period, i’d want to live in the 1920s. Everything was so…elegant (this from a girl who wears exclusively exercise clothes..). Plus, the views were amazing! There was so much history there.

After the tour, I had my first ever Starbucks coffee. I can’t believe I’ve never gotten coffee there before! I ordered a cappuccino, and I enjoyed it. Then, my family set out on a hike. I’ll go more into that tomorrow, but here’s a hint-my mom was just about ready to kill me. 

We then went to the restaurant I had been looking forward to all trip-The Natural Cafe. My family ate there a few years ago when we stopped for dinner on the way down to Santa Barbara, and I had fond memories of it. I ordered a veggies stuffed potato, and a half salad with cranberries, walnuts, and avocado in a lemon herb vinaigrette. Both were superb. I need more potatoes in my life! I want to recreate this at home. 

These are my eats from the day. For dessert, we found a little ice cream sandwich shop where you could create your own ice cream sandwich. The ice cream was frozen into perfect little disks that perfectly fit the cookies. I went with birthday cake ice cream and an oatmeal cookie and a fudge cookie. YUM.

Today we headed home-in terrible traffic I might add! We made a few stops, the first being for ice for my calf post-run and lunch, the next at a fruit and garlic stand at the side of the road, and the last at a huge outlet mall. I picked up some new kicks-Crossfit shoes from the Reebok outlet! They had a good deal on shoes, and my workout shoes are a) not optimum for weight lifting and b) a year old and have seen better days. I can’t wait to try them out! I love outlets!

What did you do this weekend?