Week sixteen: fancy dancy

I have just spent four days at Jasper Park Lodge. For those of you who don't know it, JPL is a posh Fairmont property nestled in the Northern Canadian Rockies. I went with my husband. He was in a conference and I was "wife of...", not a role I'm very good at for lots of reasons, and we won't talk about the heated argument over oil and gas drilling vs environmental damages to Mother Earth. Suffice it to say, I need to learn to zip it when I'm with people who make their livelihood doing resource based work.
The Lodge is beautiful. But the challenge was copious amounts of food and drink. Besides building pipeline and drilling leases, this group of surveyors really know how to lay it on in the eating and drinking department.
Today, back home,  I was nervous to get on the scales. I was afraid I may have gained back the 13 pounds I'd worked so hard to get off, but I'm pleased to report, NO, I have remained the same despite eating and drinking more than usual. And here's how I did it...
I only ever tasted desserts, one taste, enough and that way I never felt deprived. I substituted extra veg for the potato or rice portion. I asked for " only a drizzle of hollandaise sauce on my fish, please, " and I tried to totally avoid the bread basket that circulated first at each table.
Sitting down in a lovely dinning room and eating with strangers helped too, as did dressing up for meals. It slowed everything down and just helped me enjoy not just exquisite food, but fine and interesting people and the mountains all around. And, yes, I did a real full-fledged work out in the hotel gym complete with my weight training and cardio!!
The last night -- at the ball -- I danced. And oh, how I danced. So there are strategies for things like this. I walked, thought about calories vs exercise, danced my feet off, did a really good work-out on Saturday afternoon, and generally had a good time. I didn't shedweight but, hey, I didn't gain any either, and I feel energized to go back at it.  Onward...tomorrow is crash week.

And for those of you who are posting comments, thank you. I love the encouragement.
Margaret