Surviving Vacation

It has been a very busy couple of weeks!  Our family recently returned from a ten-day road trip to visit with family and friends that spanned over 2,200 miles.  We stayed in three different hotels in various parts of Kansas and Arkansas, as well as a few nights with my husband’s parents.  Did I mention we made the trip with our two boys, who are both under 8 years old?  Oh, and our dog, I can’t leave out the dog!  (Note to self: don’t ever feed the dog sausage from the hotel breakfast buffet right before getting on the road…it’s not pretty!)  We had a fantastic time, and when we got home we all still liked each other, so I consider the trip a success!

Being on the road and eating at restaurants and other people’s homes for so many days is difficult, at best, when you’re trying to maintain a 1,600 calorie per day eating schedule and wanting to get in a few workouts!  Through some creative planning ahead, and the understanding of my mother-in-law (who didn’t mind that I brought in groceries and prepared some of my own meals while we were with them), I managed to keep within my calorie budget throughout our vacation and to eat very much like I do when we are at home.  I feel very accomplished!

Eating right on this trip was probably the biggest challenge I have faced with maintaining my daily food goals since I began nearly a year ago.  Truth is, I was very nervous about it before we left on the trip.  By planning ahead and letting family members know beforehand that I would be eating differently, however, it helped to alleviate the stress.  Also, we eat at restaurants enough normally that I already knew what choices to make when we ate out while travelling and cooking wasn’t an option.

Through our travels, I was also able to get in four good swims in the hotel pools where I swam enough laps each time to get in a good workout.  So, even with travel, I purposely made time for exercise, something I would have never dreamed of doing a year ago! On the final day of the trip, after we got home and everything in and settled, I ran up to the gym for a while and knocked out a good strength training workout along with an hour of cardio. 

In the end, like everything else in life, it all comes down to choices.  You can choose to throw off all restraint because you’re “on vacation” and indulge in too many high-calorie foods, using the excuse that you, “want to enjoy yourself.”  Most likely, you’ll later regret that decision as you feel awful from eating such things, and/or, when you get home and step on the scale you’ll have a lot of extra work to do to play catch up for the pounds your indulgences cost you. Nothing sucks the enjoyment out of something like an upset stomach, or worse, a 5 pound weight gain!  But, you have another option...You can choose to eat with moderation.  You can take a few minutes to plan and build balanced treats into your day (yes, I had a couple bites of my mother-in-law’s Kansas Dirt Cake and a small slice of her homemade banana bread, but without regret and without going over my calories!)  By making the right choices, you can be proud of yourself for staying true to your commitment to a healthy lifestyle. 

When you choose wisely, you can look yourself in the mirror and know that this is who you have become…a person of balance, who is in control of your eating and able to make good choices that will contribute to your own health and well-being, and trust me, that feels AMAZING!