IHOPped Home

Yesterday morning, I said goodbye to my son, daughter-in-law and grandson in Washington DC at our farewell breakfast before heading to the airport. We had planned to eat at the IHOP, about 10 minutes from the airport, but it turned out to be a plan that could not be executed.

I have no real experience with IHOP. I thought about the pancakes and my points, made a preliminary sketch of what I was going to eat and had a fall back position of not eating pancakes but choosing something from the lunch menu, as the flight was leaving at 2 p.m. What I didn’t figure on was the 25- minute wait to get seated that was going to cut it too close to departure time.

Our only other choice, next door, was Dunkin’ Donuts. Oh brother, was that torture. There is no good plan for a donut establishment, and I was starving. My husband and I had not eaten breakfast, fully prepared to eat a “big” IHOP meal, which would carry us until we got home. Now, there I was sitting amongst the donuts and, to make matters worse, the attached Baskin Robbins. Could it be more complicated?

I have to admit that the problem was not being tempted by either the donuts or the ice cream. I love both of them and would choose them in that game of picking food that you would take to a desert island. The problem was simply that I was really hungry and refused to eat junk food, even in this dire situation. So, I ordered a gigantic cup of coffee and focused on the family and on the food I would find at the airport.

It was sad to wave goodbye to the kids, but you never saw somebody move so quickly through an airport. I found yogurt and protein bars and inhaled them. I even bought one extra protein bar for the plane, in case of emergency. The “emergency” occurred within the first two hours of the flight, so I was glad I planned ahead.

Losing weight is really important to me. It was driven home yesterday when I was able to sit in the middle of a donut/ice cream factory and touch none of the goodies. Thanks Weight Watchers!

Talk to you soon.