The hubby and I went on our first holiday in 3 years a couple of weeks ago. We'd booked an all-inclusive resort in Turkey for a week and I was so looking forward to it. I've shared a few posts on social media about my results and my plans in terms of my eating / exercising and weight but thought I'd do a summary blog to share how I got on and how I approached the holiday and what I've done since getting back.
I wrote a blog post a couple of weeks before I went with some top tips about managing your weight loss whilst on holiday, how to prepare in advance and some top tips for getting yourself back to your normal eating habits on your return.
If you’ve got a holiday coming up, have a read of my Holiday Strategies blog for some ideas
So, I had all my plans in place (as per the blog post above) – in summary, choose healthy options for my meals (this is not that hard for me as these are the foods I actually enjoy eating) and then enjoy desserts and ice-creams (my main weakness) without any guilt whatsoever and then deal with the gain as soon as I arrived back home.
Things that didn't go according to my plans
No matter how much forward planning you do, there are always unexpected things that get in the way and that you will need to adapt, roll with and learn to just accept and not beat yourself up about.
1
Plane food: We were flying with Jet2, when we were checking in online, they were trying to upsell us all sorts of things – from seat reservations to insurance to breakfast. I never pay for food on a plane (its ridiculously expensive, never healthy and never looks particularly appetising) so as we had a really early morning flight (6am), our plan was to check in and pick up some food to eat on the plane in the shops in the lounge – I usually choose things like fresh fruit, protein pots or sushi and a cereal bar. However, even getting to the airport 3 hours in advance, the queues for absolutely everything were the worse I’ve ever come across and we literally were in a queue from the second we arrived until we boarded the plane 3 hours later. Absolutely no time to go anywhere near a shop so it meant we boarded the plane with absolutely no food or drink for a four hour flight with at least another two hours to add to that for the airport the other side and transfer to the hotel.
So, not ideal whatsover, but we had to order food on the plane. I checked the menu and ordered the ‘best’ option on the breakfast menu – randomly a cheese ploughman’s sandwich. Not ideal or particularly healthy but certainly the best of a bad bunch – it wasn’t on my plan but there are times when you have no option. Key thing here – didn’t beat myself up and certainly did the best I could!
(picture from the internet, not my actual sandwich which didn’t look as good as this one!)
2
Exercise! So, I’m really enjoying my running again and I take part in monthly virtual challenges where I commit to running a certain distance each month. This means I have to average three 5k runs a week. I took my running gear on holiday with me and made a plan to run three times minimum – even if I didn’t do the usual 5k, I was aiming for 3ks so I didn’t have too much to catch up on when I got home. It started off well – I got up really early on the first and second day to run along the promenade – however, it was really hard going – the temperature was already in the 30s at 6.30am and after my 2nd 3k run, I felt quite faint and light headed so decided no more running – I certainly didn’t want to make myself ill.
3
24 hour patissiere – when you’ve given yourself permission to enjoy desserts and ice-creams on holiday and your resort has a 24 hour patissiere, you’ve got unexpected access to dessert whenever you fancy it! I’ve never come across this on holiday before so I’d thought in advance about desserts after lunch and dinner but having cake on tap whenever you fancy it really did throw up a few new challenges. I’m always honest and we did enjoy a few mid afternoon trips to the patissiere but not every day!!!
4
Prickly heat – I’ve never had it before but by day 3, I had a pretty bad case on my shoulders, upper arms and back and ended up at the pharmacy for tablets and a steroid cream. I tried really hard not to let it effect my enjoyment of my holiday but it did effect my mood a bit, was quite uncomfortable and the tablets made me feel a bit drowsy for the first day of taking them. I know I’m an emotional eater and with food on tap, I had to use other techniques and strategies to deal with those down moments especially when it got a bit painful.
On my return
As I mentioned on my Strategy blog, I got right back to my normal eating the second the plane landed. We got home, I defrosted a chilli from the freezer so our first meal back was completely back to normal and made us both overnight oats for breakfast the next morning using frozen berries as a big shop was needed.
First thing I did the next morning was to get on the scales – absolutely no judgement of myself here but just to see what the result was so I knew what I had to contend with and to help me make my plans for the next couple of weeks.
I basically gained 1lb a day for every day of holiday and that 1lb was cake and ice-cream as I’d made healthy choices for all of my meals.
The absolute key thing here is that there is no guilt linked to that number – I’d had a great holiday, a few unexpected things to content with and I’d enjoyed what I’d eaten.
I went for my normal Tuesday 5k run (a lot slower than it had been pre-holiday) then had breakfast and my next priority was to do a quick meal plan and a trip to the shops to get stocked up as we basically had no food in for lunch and we were both working from home. I make this a non-negotiable with myself so that I’m right back on my normal eating right away.
Food plan and food shop done, it was then time to tackle things like washing, catching up on emails and back to normal life!
Now, unfortunately a lot of us gain weight a lot quicker than we lose it so I give myself the following challenge: however much I put on whilst on holiday, I give myself double the length of the holiday to lose it – so I challenged myself to a 7lb loss over the next two weeks. I didn’t have many plans in that two week period so I was fully in control of all my food and exercise choices.
Week One
I had a great week of just getting back to normal – no restrictions, no crazy exercise regime, no cutting out of food groups – just following my normal healthy eating plan. I did keep meals pretty basic as we both had a busy week so I kept to old favourites and lots of quick and easy options for lunch and dinner making sure that I always had lots of leftovers to use for lunches as well as portions for the freezer.
I did my normal runs and just had a normal week with no extreme measures.
I got on the scales 7 days later and saw a 3.4lb loss – just short of half of my holiday gain, did I want more – of course I did but I was absolutely delighted with the loss and more importantly, the fact I’d stuck to my ‘quick on, quick off’ plan and I was right back into my normal patterns again.
Week Two
My goal for week 2 was to lose the 3.6lbs to make my goal of losing 7lbs in 2 weeks and at the start of the week, all was on track for that – I only had one night out planned which was a theatre trip with a friend and we’d already decided on a sushi dinner which was absolutely a great healthy eating choice and my normal ‘go to’ option when eating out instead of fast food options if we aren’t going to a restaurant.
However, my plans changed part way through the week – I got invited to a baby shower and then an impromptu couple of days away with a friend in the New Forest. I wasn’t going to be fully in control of my food choices but life is all about balance – I’d already had my holiday in Turkey and I wasn’t going to say no to having a fabulous weekend but I was going to make careful food choices and although I may not make my 3.6lb goal, I wasn’t prepared to have a gain.
My weekend food choices
First the baby shower – I had lunch before I went so that I wasn’t hungry for the buffet food and I had a tiny piece of the cake which I really enjoyed.
Next the weekend away – we arrived quite late on the first night and no shops were open so we decided to grab fish and chips and have dinner on the beach. My friend and I shared a small portion of chips, I left about 90% of the batter of the fish and had a large carton of mushy peas.
For breakfasts, I took my own cereal with me along with some fruit I had at home so in the morning, we grabbed some delicious fresh strawberries from the car boot and some yoghurt on the way home for pretty much my normal breakfast.
A visit to the farm shop saw us stocked up for lunch and dinner – we made a huge salad to take with us for a day on the beach and I enjoyed an ice-cream before heading home for a BBQ style dinner of lean meats, jacket potatoes, corn on the cob and salad.
I got home on Monday morning, right back to normal and then out as planned to the theatre and sushi on Monday night with weigh in being on Tuesday.
The result was a brilliant minus 2lbs. Not the 3.6lb I was aiming for however, I was more delighted with this result than I was with the first week’s result. I’d had several challenging food situations to contend with which were last minute plans, I didn’t restrict myself but made very sensible and measured choices and enjoyed every second and I still managed to lose a very good 2lbs.
And now, I just roll my goal over to next week – I’ve got 1.6lbs to go to lose my holiday weight. The week ahead is currently an ’empty diary’ one but things may change, unexpected events or situations may arise but if I continue with my sensible choices plan, I’m fully confident I can see the loss I want.
The key to long term weight loss success is to realise it's not a race, there isn't an end date to 'eating healthy' - it's about making this a lifestyle and sometimes life means you have to adapt your plans, do your best and just carry on. I absolutely haven't 'failed' because I didn't lose my holiday gain in the 2 weeks I set as a time frame - instead I see it as a huge success that I'm now 5.5lbs lighter after 2 weeks back and I'm still loving what I'm eating and I'm feeling really good in myself.
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I’d love to hear any thoughts or comments on this post and if there’s anything that really works for you to help keep you on track or how to keep the motivation going strong!