Vacation Victory

As I mentioned in my last post, I just got back from vacation. I went into this vacation with LOTS of preparation, since vacation binging is what got me off track last year. As a quick refresher, last January I had started losing weight, by March I had lost right at 20 lbs which is also right around the time that we were heading out of town for a weekend with friends. I wanted to be able to enjoy the weekend, so I decided to throw the rule book out for three days. How much damage could I possibly do in three days right? Well, I enjoyed my weekend and did not restrict myself in any way. The only problem was, when I got home I never picked the rulebook back up. I gave up, and over the course of the next twelve months I gained every pound back. On March 22, 2013 I hit my "rock bottom" when my husband and I were grocery shopping. I was picking up a 35 lb bucket of cat litter and when I went to swing the bucket into the cart, I pinched the fat from my stomach against the cart. It hurt physically, but it hurt so much more mentally. Every pound I had gained in the past 5 years felt like it was sitting on my shoulders. I had enough, and I went home and started my blog that night. That was 150 days ago today, and I have yet to "fall off the wagon". I have not given myself one cheat day to throw out the rulebook. I have not exceeded my calorie count a single day in 150 days. That is a huge accomplishment for me, and I knew that I wash't going to give up on that in order to throw out the rulebook on this vacation. So as I said, I went into this vacation with lots of preparation, and that is what I want to talk about today. We were driving from Tennessee to Michigan which takes around 10 hours. On a 10 hour road trip, you are bound to encounter some fast food. So about a week before we left, I went to every fast food website I could think of and studied their nutritional guides. I found at least 3 options at each restaurant, and made a list on my phone for each one. That way, I knew that wherever we went, I had a game plan going in. Obviously fast food is not ideal, but from time to time there will be no other option. It is best to know exactly what you are going to be getting before you get there, so that you are not playing a guessing game. That was the first way that I prepared, and the second was by planning my workouts. I packed plenty of workout gear, and I worked out 6 days out of the 7 that we were there, which is normal for me because I take one rest day every week. On Saturday, even though we were in the car for 10 hours, as soon as we got there I changed into my workout gear and did Insanity. I alternated Insanity and Couch to 5K every other day, and used Tuesday as my rest day since that was our busiest day. On Wednesday I asked Brandon's cousin Heather if she would mind going for a run with me. Heather is very athletic, she was on the Michigan State rowing team for four years, and she just accepted a position as a head coach of a local high school volleyball team. She of course agreed to go with me, even though I told her that I was still running in intervals. We ran and walked in intervals to a state park that was a mile from where we were staying. I hated feeling like I was holding Heather back, even though she did absolutely nothing to make me feel that way, it was all in my head. I decided that I was going to run the whole way back, and I did! Having a partner there kept me going, and I ran the whole mile back. I wasn't sure if I would make it, but I did. It just lets you know what your body can do when you let your mind get out of the way.

Maintaining weight on vacation is difficult, but I decided I wanted to up the difficulty level and actually lose weight while we were on our trip. I weighed myself the morning that we left and I weighed 173.8. I worked really hard while we were gone, and it paid off because when we got home I weighed in at 172.8. I lost exactly one pound, and I am proud of that! I don't to give you the wrong idea and make you think that you can't enjoy vacation. I enjoyed a s'more by the campfire, and treated myself to frozen yogurt twice. On the days that I enjoyed a treat, I just made sure that I left room for that in my calories. Anyway, I am sure that I am boring you by now but I hope that these tips are helpful if you are going on vacation soon. Plan ahead for unavoidable fast food and plan your workouts!

Thanks for reading,
Sarah