Vacation

I just got back from a week-long vacation in the Florida panhandle. No, we did not see oil, tar balls, or gunk...you know you were gonna ask!

Anyway...vacation. Dieting. Dieting on vacation. How does this work exactly? Well, here's how it worked for me. (tomorrow when I weigh in I'll tell you how well/badly it "worked") I took the bugg off a lot...we were at the BEACH after all! Basically I ate what I wanted. Within Reason.

Seriously...this is no time to start wolfing down Big Macs or Angus Burgers, although it was a bit tempting. But, having been clean from that crack since January I thought it best to not take that first hit. So, when a fast food meal was on the agenda, it was 2 snack wraps for me because I know that's about a 550 calorie meal for me.

But, I did eat what I wanted. Really...I did. We had a condo, so breakfast and lunch were there and since I bought the food I knew what I was getting calorie-wise. The resort had a fitness room, which cost $7 per day for me to use. I used it 3 times while we were there. I also golfed 9 holes and walked and carried the bag...no pull cart for me, baby!

On the days I worked out I ended up at or over 1800 calories burned by noon. My target burn is 2800, so I knew that I could hit that 1000 and WAY more by the end of the day. On the other days, I just tried to be active and not go too crazy with my eating. I had pork on Saturday night (last day of vacation). I haven't had pork since January...except for an occasional bacon on a salad or something. Wow...that porkchop did a number on my belly. I'm still feeling the effects and it's been more than 24 hours!

The main tips here are this...don't go too crazy with your eating and be as active as you can. I swam a lot and moved in the pool instead of just laying about floating. I swam in the ocean. I played with the kids. I always took the stairs up to the 3rd floor condo. I walked in the sand. I walked at a good pace to the fitness center. I stayed active.

For eating I had a lot of grilled fish, but man those folks like to douse it in butter and sauces! I poured (yeah, I said POURED) butter off of my fish one night at dinner and filled my bread plate....ugh...gross. I have found that I enjoyed the meal most when it was more "naked"...little or no sauce...maybe just a grilled fish with a fresh fruit salsa on it.

I drank a few drinks...I know those are really caloric, but I had a few drinks. I didn't get bombed, but I did have a few drinks...I was on vacation for goodness sake! I had dessert twice during the week...I could've had it every night, but I only did that twice.

Today it was back to "normal" eating. I canoed on our lake for a couple of hours. Tomorrow it's back to total normal...back to healthy eating, logging all of my food, and back to the gym!

Getting fit by forty isn't something that I'm going to do and then go back to my old wicked ways...this is a new way of life, so I need to know that I can step outside of my healthy routine and be OK...I may have gained a few pounds, but now it's time to get back to the program and get losing again.

Lori