After last week’s victory, this past week has been a celebration — and an exercise in learning to live with a new body. There has been no additional weight loss for the first time since I restarted after vacation, but I also expected this.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the trials of returning to my chosen diet after returning from vacation; I think vacations are one of the biggest diet busters there is, followed closely by special occasions, and I’ve had two this past week.

Last Saturday, my daughter (and only child) was married; certainly a celebration was in store, especially with a sit-down dinner at a great restaurant. Not only had I already planned to allow for a “cheat meal”, since it would have been difficult to manage special dietary needs under the circumstances, but I even allowed for cake. Cake!

Remember how I wanted to smash my face into cupcake frosting a few weeks ago? One of the reasons I managed to live through that experience was because I knew I’d have some cake at this one. I also allowed for a few drinks.

Then, the plan was to return to my diet the next morning.

But that’s not what happened. Nope.

On the day of the wedding, I went with my daughter to have her hair done, and then lunch. I ended up choosing to cheat a little bit at lunch; not a major cheat.

The wedding meal was pretty darned good, and I chose my cheat meal wisely, because not only do I firmly believe that if you’re going to go off plan, the food should be worth it, but that going off plan should still be an exercise in discipline, and in knowing what you’re putting into your body. And the meal was well worth it.

The cake was… not worth it. (Apologies to my daughter.) I ate the frosting and a bite of the cake, and decided that it broke my cheat rule: don’t waste carbs and calories on things that don’t taste good. So I didn’t eat the whole piece. Instead, I ended up feasting on a wonderful soft pretzel at a bar after the wedding. Now, that? Heaven! But still off plan.

The next morning? Breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and the available options weren’t conducive at all to my diet plan. I made yet another concession — and this one was probably the worst concession: no choice but bad food, and I was hungry.

Now, you’d think all this would be quite enough, right?

Nope.

On Monday, I went to see one of my best friends; she spent a few days in a cabin and invited me to come along for a night. I made the mistake of not really planning out food, but my wonderful friend did. We ate quite nicely, and I appreciate her generosity; the food was tasty — but not entirely on plan, once again.

This all finally ended Tuesday, when I went home, and I was back on plan on Wednesday morning.

What started as a plan to have one cheat meal ended up as four days of off plan eating. This naturally made me put on a few pounds, and most of that has come off, again. The last pound and a half will likely be gone again by this time next week. And I’m okay with that — I’m not beating myself up over it.

Because, especially when you’re dieting for years, there are times you have to step back and choose to put things in perspective. Yes, I could have prepared for all of these dietary infractions by carrying my own selections of food, and there have been circumstances when I’ve done exactly that; I firmly believe in the “failing to prepare is preparing to fail” credo.

But I also think there are times where you have to embrace learning experiences and make choices from what’s available without going overboard, and I believe I did that this week, for the most part. I knew I’d pay a price with that pretzel and beer, but I was willing to accept that in the grand scheme of things, it’s a bump in the road of my journey, not a sinkhole, and dealing with the occasional bump keeps you awake.

Not obsessing about food intake made the experience at my daughter’s wedding event, and time spent with my good friend, much more relaxing — and sometimes that’s the necessary choice.