Guys, it’s REALLY hard to want to work out here…

Current Weight: 214.5 lbs

Total Weight Loss: 19.9 lbs

Because I like to make things as difficult on myself as possible, I decided to prepare for the Professional Engineering Exam by signing up for a 3 week course down in Houston.  You know, to go along with all the Weight Watchers and half-marathon training.  Should be easy, right?

Hahahaha. Yeah…

I can say this. Staying in a hotel and attending 10 hours of engineering classes each day doesn’t help matters when it comes to working out and eating well. I know that I’m always full of excuses, so I’m currently looking for a plan of attack for my next trip down there next week.

I’ve come up with a few ideas, but I’m definitely looking for some tips from you guys.

1.  Hit up a grocery store when I get to town, so that I have healthy snacks for the room and for during class.  The classroom does provide snacks, but they consisted of candy, potato chips and doughnuts.  So nothing that I could really eat.  (Although, I did have a Dum Dum most days.)  One of my biggest problems wasn’t really during class, but on the way home.  I would be so hungry that I would usually make an impulse decision and end up eating something that wasn’t overly healthy, but was fast.  Hopefully, by being armed with snacks, I won’t be quite as ravenous on my way home and can make better dinner choices.

2.  I need to get my workouts done in the mornings.  It sort of sucks because then that usually leaves me a little tired for the 10 hours of lectures ahead of me, but I’m certainly too drained to get anything done AFTER class, so it’s really my only option.

3.  I need to walk places a bit more.  My hotel was right next to a pretty big shopping center.  Besides it raining most of the days (which hopefully it won’t do next time) and not knowing my surroundings too well, there was absolutely no reason why I wasn’t walking to the restaurants for dinner.  At most, it would take me 15 minutes and it was in a well-lit, heavy traffic area, so safety wouldn’t be a huge concern.  I could also probably walk to the Quiznos where we had lunch every day.  Again, it was only a block or two away.  Absolutely no reason why I’m wasn’t walking there.

4.  With my training schedule, I’m supposed to be doing my long runs on Saturday mornings.  However, every day except Thursdays (the class is Thursday thru Sunday), we meet pretty early in the morning, so trying to squeeze in 8+ miles and then sit through 10 hours of class is sort of crazy.  However, on Thursdays, we don’t have to be there until 10am, so I need to do my long runs on that day and then get in about 40 minutes of activity on the other days.  It just makes more sense.

So, that’s my plan, folks.  Hopefully, I can stick to it somewhat.  I’m definitely open to suggestions, especially from those of you that maybe travel a lot for work.