Vacation - Danger Zone

Challenge time. Could I maintain my weight through all the excitement and erratic schedule of a vacation? I really did not want to gain those four pounds back or completely lose my diet momentum. But what about the restaurant food, the social drinking, the laying about, the compromising on what we would eat, the food temptations in my friend's home. What about exercise?

There is great potential for backsliding on a vacation, and there's no point denying it. You need to enjoy your vacation and that's that. I decided that my goal would be to keep from gaining back the weight I had lost.

Calorie Trade-off
What I did was to watch total calories rather than the particular food that I ate. This meant facing the fact that the German chocolate cake I just ate had as many calories as two meals, so the calories for two meals had to be sacrificed somewhere during the week. Yoga and walking were my exercise. I ate ice cream, pizza, pastries, Starbucks, Mexican food, and chips, in moderation.

No one noticed my smaller portions, or that I had only one glass of wine or one margarita. My nutrition probably suffered, and I wouldn't want to continue doing the calorie tradeoff for very long.

When I got back from vacation, I had only gained 1/2 pound back. Success!

I decided not to count the vacation week, because it was not a true continuation of my diet. But it was successful in its own way.