Anyway, we stayed in Lodgepole, and this is where we have stayed every year except for the first year. The last two years we went weren't as pleasant, and we seriously considered not even going this year. In fact, it was more than that. I had told my husband we would not be going anymore. He's the type that would be happy to stay home all day every day and not venture out of doors for anything except food of his choice.
So earlier this summer when I told him I'd made reservations for camping again...let's just say he had some...er...objections.
But this was a nice camping trip. The campsite we had this time was very nice; it was shady most of the day, which is good because it gets into the high 70's low 80's during the day.
The thing about camping is, you spend a lot of time just relaxing. I don't even allow the kids to bring their hand-held video game consoles because I want them to find entertainment out there. One consequence of having nothing to do is that you really look forward to meal times. And since I'm dieting right now, I had to be very careful not to pig out. Well, I'm really into the program these days. My motivation and optimism are at an all-time high, and I really wanted to make this work.
I am happy to say that I succeeded!!!I made sure to bring snacks that would allow me to stay on program. And as far as the meals go, I only brought foods that would work on the program. I figured if I didn't bring anything that would bring me down, I couldn't succumb to it. Though, I did have a few dangerous items. I had brought the stuff to make s'mores, and instead of chocolate, I brought some Nutella, which is a chocolate hazelnut spread. This stuf is by no means low-cal, so it had the potential to be a problem. But it wasn't. I did have 2 s'mores made with it, and it was delicious, but I fit it in and did very well.
The other thing that really worked out for me was the hiking. Now, you may recall, I have back and foot issues. For some reason, my feet (and back for that matter) really were not hurting much at all on this trip, so I took advantage of that. In the mornings, I did three laps in the campground loop (this earned me one activity point for the 3 laps each time), and we also walked to the store that is at the campground where I got myself a delicious 100 calorie Haagen Dasz Raspberry Sorbet and Vanilla Yogurt frozen novelty. It was worth two points, and so was the round-trip walk to the store, so I "paid" for that one. When we went to the amphitheater show one evening, the four of us walked there, which was about a 25 minute round-trip hike. Finally, we hiked one of the trails on the last day, and we even got to see some black bears!
All in all, I am proud of myself for staying on program so well, and I did not feel deprived at all. In fact, my husband and kids and I all remarked that this was one of the better trips we've made out to the ol' campground.
