The Challenge That Is Vacation

I spent the last four days out of town with my daughter, my parents and my sister's family. Why is it so hard to stay in a healthy state of mind for no other reason than you uttered the word vacation? Does being on vacation and not answering to your usual responsibilities really mean that you have none? No. I still had responsibilities, namely my daughter, but also responsibilities to myself to not abandon my goals.

Food was a challenge. It always is for me. You don't overcome 40 years of bad food habits just because you started a blog and spoke the words "healthiet year of my life." I think I did okay. I didn't deprive myself of anything, but I did consciously make my food decisions. Some of those decisions limited me to a single trip to the breakfast buffet and a healthy helping of oatmeal and others included homemade chips and fried pickles.

I am reading Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project, which I am really enjoying. One of the points she makes is that you should frame the changes you want to make in the positive. And I have been thinking a great deal about this and trying to implement this where it makes sense. So when ordering room service at 8 pm I didn't say "I can't have the sandwich because it comes with fries." Instead, I thought, I really want to have energy and sleep well tonight so I should have a salad not the chicken sandwich. I finished the salad and didn't feel stuffed to the gills and felt pretty good about the decision I had made. No guilt here. Similarly, when I had the homemade chips and fried pickles, I decided that I really wanted them and knew I would have a lighter dinner because of the choice I was making.

On the soda front, I stuck to the plan... nearly. Each night we were away I ordered a pitcher of iced tea from room service. This kept the soda obsession at bay. But last night after we saw Noah the Musical it was too late for room service. So I did get a soda from Sonic. And tonight as we came home, it was after my 2 pm no soda deadline. I knew I didn't have any tea at home and I can't stand the taste of tap water so again I had a Sonic soda. I didn't order the Route 44 I usually would have, but instead a 32 ounce. Now that may not sound like much of a sacrifice, but for me its a pretty big distinction.

I am still not exercising. I know I need to make time for this, especially as the rest of this month is going to get pretty stressful work wise.

I did pretty well at getting the required 7 hours of sleep. However, while I do feel better rested, I am still tired much of the time. I think I am someone who requires more like 8 or 9 hours of sleep for optimal rest. But right now 7 is as good as it gets.

So the scale will show tomorrow how much damage was done by vacation. I am hoping not to much, but I do expect some gain. But regardless of what the scale says I am not giving up making this the healthiest year of my life.

I want to start small weekly goals tomorrow. Anyone have a suggestion of what it should be?