What all that eating did to my scale

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Well, I guess it’s that time.  I have dragged it out as long as I could, but the time has come to say fairwell to the 2014 Clark County Fair.  Boo.

It was an amazing ten days.  Between working in the Dairy Women’s Milkshake Barn to letting Napoleon the Alpaca make me look good by giving a blue ribbon performance in the Open Class Llama/Alpaca Obstacles to meeting new friends through this blog (thank you all for reading, commenting, messaging, and just saying hey!), this was my favorite year at the Clark County Fair so far.

The Fair Folks probably agree.  I saw a story in Tuesday’s Columbian that said attendance, ticket sales, carnival ride tickets, and food sales were all the highest they’ve ever been.

One statistic I particularly liked was that food sales increased about $100,000 over last year.  Thank you all for not letting me eat alone!

Speaking of which, I promised I would reveal how much weight I gained from all my gluttony.  So here goes.

I weighed myself before we headed to the Fair on Friday, August 1 (Opening Day).  I got on the scale again the morning of Monday, August 11.  In both cases, I took three readings each just to make sure my scale was measuring properly.

The verdict:  I gained 2.6 pounds.  I know.

Wanna hear something even more ridiculous? That is exactly how much weight I gained last year. I don’t get it either. But I am grateful.

I attribute that less-than-fair weight gain to all the walking I did.  Over the course of the ten days, my pedometer measured a total of 36.47 miles. Moving the decimal, that is an average of 3.65 miles per day. Freakishly consistent, I walked an average of 3.59 miles per day during Fair 2013.

I weighed myself again this morning — four days post-Fair — and I have 0.2 pound left to lose.  I knew I should have waited to take my vitamins until later.

One interesting note:  our dear friend Dianne who joined us last Thursday also kept track of her Fair-affected weight.  She hadn’t been to the Fair in nearly 20 years, so she embraced it with all the gluttony I did.  I like Dianne.

Dianne is on Weight Watchers and had her weekly weigh-in the night before we Faired together.  The day after we noshed on Deep Fried Snickers bars…and lots more…she was up about 3 pounds.

Last night, her Point People told her she had lost that weight PLUS 2 more pounds!  WOW, Dianne!

I tell you this to suggest that going to the Fair and indulging a bit may not be the dietary crisis we all assume.  Now, I certainly don’t recommend making milkshakes, elephant ears, deep fried everything, and syrupy Hawaiian Shaved Ices the staples of your daily intake.  Ick.  But every now and then?  Once a year even?  It’s probably ok.

Having said all that, I’m back to my normal way of eating.  Yesterday’s highlights included a homemade fruit smoothie for breakfast and a spinach/kale/berries/grilled chicken salad for dinner.  Nothing fried or on a stick anywhere in sight.

So that’s that.  Thank you SO MUCH for joining me on this year’s Clark County Fair Adventure!  I had an absolute blast.  My calendar has already been updated with next year’s Fair dates.  Be sure to mark yours, too:  August  7-16, 2015.

Only 358 days to go!