Weigh-in day. Before I went to Texas for the weekend, I stepped on the scale and saw 209.something, and I thought -- if I can just manage to keep it at 210 or lower, I'll be happy. It's really, really hard to diet while traveling.

But I managed it. Thank goodness for online nutrition databases and my iPhone.

I discovered that, dangerous though it is, Olive Garden has a couple of reasonable options -- their salad dressing is horrible stuff, but if you like salad undressed, that's only 2 points a serving (though the website doesn't tell you how many "servings" is in a bowl) and the minestrone soup is only 2 points a bowl. A breadstick is only 3 points, surprisingly (I had half of one) and there are two reasonable entrees -- the Linguini Marinara for 8 points, or the Venetian Apricot Chicken for (surprisingly) 7. I had the chicken, and it was really quite good. Though if I hadn't been traveling the next day, I would have had a second bowl of soup (it's bottomless, after all) and saved half the chicken for lunch. (On the other hand, if temptation is a problem for you, stay away: the number of entrees over 30 points was pretty crazy.)

And I walked with my dad both mornings I was there. It was only about a mile, and at what I figured was a "leisure" pace, because I didn't want to push my knee too hard. Interestingly, though, my knee hurt far less than I expected. I may start to swap out the bike for the treadmill once or twice a week at the gym for my "warm-up" activity.

Sunday was rough, food-wise, though -- I had a banana and coffee for breakfast, and then because of the way my flights lined up, only a packet of airline peanuts to tide me over until about 3:30 in the afternoon, when I stopped at a Chinese fast food place (it was the closest thing to my gate) and got some egg drop soup and something sort of like General Tso's Chicken. I only ate about half the chicken, though, before they started to board the plane. I thought about taking it with me, then realized that I really wasn't hungry anymore, so I dumped it.

(As a note -- General Tso's chicken is a lot of freaking points. It's a good thing I dumped it. Sheesh.)

Anyway, this morning I reminded myself that weighed in at 208.4, down 2.6 this week for a total loss of 64.6 pounds.

Whoo! Travel pit traps successfully negotiated!