We left Friday for the airport, heading to take a flight to Naples only to get stuck in a monster traffic jam near the airport. We ended up missing our flight and when I started to tell my DH of all the household projects we could get done with an unscheduled weekend at home he became bound and determined to get out of town anyway. That man will do ANYTHING to avoid Ikea…

There was no reasonable way to re-book our travel to Naples, so we looked at the monitor of flights leaving soon and selected Amsterdam. I don’t even want to know what the plane tickets cost us - he was the one who insisted on leaving anyway, and he whipped out his credit card and sent me away - I’d have calculated how many other trips we could take for the same fare, etc… A few phone calls to hotels and we were booked into Amsterdam and canceled in Italy.

It was rainy but not terribly cold, and we walked around a ton. We visited the Anne Frank house, the Van Gogh museum and just had a nice, relaxing time. We had a few great meals - one really nice “modern Dutch” restaurant, and one really good Indonesian restaurant. Most of the other stuff was the standard garbage you find in any modern city with a lot of tourists - overpriced cafes offering greasy and not very good dishes.

I did really well with my think-as-you-eat efforts. It helped that I didn’t LOVE what I ordered at the ‘modern Dutch’ restaurant, and that Indonesian food comes in lots of small servings of a bunch of different dishes, so chowing down on a big pile is not at all an option. I think I left something uneaten at every meal all weekend - it’s becoming easier with practice.

On Saturday, I stayed longer than my DH at the Van Gogh museum (I love art; he can only handle one hour of any museum at a time). While walking to meet up with him I stopped and bought a waffle. I threw a few bites away. Then I had this weird desire to go and buy another one, or find some ice cream, simply because I was alone and no one would know. It’s true I was hungry - we’d had eggs for brunch at 11 and it was 5:30, and dinner wasn’t until 8:30. But still, it was strange to have that compulsion to stuff my face like I was “cheating” on a diet. I did look into a few more food stores, but bought nothing except another bottle of water. A few minutes later I was back w my DH and it was in the past.

On Sunday we had a great breakfast at the hotel. One of those huge buffet things with lots of fresh and hot dishes. The kind where I typically either eat my standard hotel breakfast of fruit, yogurt and cereal (thereby bypassing most temptations) or I go hog-wild. I decided to have what I wanted. I had a small amount of eggs, some bacon, a small waffle. I took what I thought was a yogurt but turned out to be panna cotta. I ate a slice of bread. I had a large but not unreasonable breakfast - nothing hog-wild. I was pleased to be able to eat what I wanted without going crazy and leaving stuffed to the gills.

We flew back to Paris and I was not hungry on the flight, nor afterwards. I took the next flight on to Zurich - still not hungry. I didn’t get hungry again until dinnertime, where I had 2 apples in my hotel room & that was fine. It was really nice to see myself able to eat to my hunger and able to recognize when I felt the need for more copious food (breakfast) and lighter fare (dinner). I’m really hoping this becomes standard for me.

I was only in Switzerland overnight for a very early meeting on Monday morning, and by Monday noon I was back in the airport heading home. I’d had a roll with jam very early for breakfast at the hotel, at the airport I found a cafeteria where I got soup and muesli at the airport which was the perfect fix for me. Later at home I ate some leftover carrots and cheese for a snack, then a light dinner and I’d had another great eating day.

I had a really nice weekend, and the detour to Zurich was a bit tiring but otherwise fine. I managed my stress without eating, which I’m very proud of. I’m very glad to be home, and glad that this weekend is a homebody one…