Sounds like commissioning work.

Alright here is how this went:

Before my trip of cheating- I weighed 348.8 lbs (Thursday morning).

I weighed myself Tuesday morning and holy shit 360!

Wednesday AM 356.4
Thursday AM 354.4
Today 352.6

So I am up about 4lbs heading into the weekend. I wish I weighed myself during my cheating trip (I did on Friday AM) and after 2 wonderful meals, I had only added .4lbs I think this emboldened me that cheating would not be that bad in terms of a surge of weight gain.

Some thoughts:

I ate crummy food. I thought I would be able to have some great meals during my travel but my circumstances dictated a lot of bar food at odd times.

I drank a ton and way too much beer. I would have opted to drink more low carb cocktails but had 2 instances in which I was socially drinking unexpectedly to some degree with some current and former pro athletes. Pitchers of beer and buckets of beer were provided (sometimes by me) and logistically it was kind of an issue to keep traversing the crowded place we were to get small cocktails. I was planted in a very cool social situation and didn't want to keep leaving that setting and also feared that'd be swarmed by people and I'd lose my seat with them so I just guzzled down a lot of beer (this happened twice).

There were 2 meals I gorged a bit, including the last one before restarting. I wonder how much of the 11 weight gain was attributed to that as well as the beer.

I definitely indulged in sweets. The hotel I was at had bags of chocholate pretzels and carmel popcorn. Got one of both and didn't even eat half of them.

Being hungover, I drank a lot of Gatorade.

All that said, I'd do it again and will do it again the next time a trip comes up. I liked looked forwarding to a few days of normalcy off the diet. Whether travel for work or pleasure, I don't want to have to think about it.

I would change some things thought. I definitely started cheating a half day early and kept going a half day later than I could have.

I can aim to drink only 0 carb/calorie stuff opposed to that I did.

Two meals, I did overeat for sure. Didn't even really enjoy that. Just wanted to check off some boxes off foods I missed.

I don't have any travel plans coming up. I imagine I'll travel 5-10 days this year and I think that's a fair balance. I hope next time, rather than the 11 lbs I put on, the amount gained can be better managed.

No regrets though. Learning process and I had fun on my vacation and am back in the saddle. Hoping to drop the rest of that gained weight the next handful of days.

Hotel bars are tough. Social situations where you have to establish a common identity are tougher.

I find I do okay with potatoes. Not good but okay. I do poorly with wheat, even wheat based beers. Chili fries appetizers work well for me and everyone likes them. Also, there are the ultra low carb Michelob Ultra and Miller Light and the not so bad Guinness.

Thanks for the report from the front SVDude! I wish you well dropping the trip weight.

349.4! Pretty much all the way there. Relieved to some degree.