Holidays make me fat!
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Hurray, it's holiday time! I love holidays, but for me, holidays spell trouble for my efforts to stay slim.
Since reaching target weight 18 months ago, I do ok most of the year, but on holiday my weight goes up and I really struggle to get it off again when I get back. Holidays don't mean points, they don't mean prizes. Holidays mean pounds. When I come back from holiday, I'm significantly heavier than when I left, and it really gets me down.
Last year I put on 5lbs over 2 weeks, much more than I'd expected. I was so demoralised when I stepped on those post holiday scales, angry I'd let the pounds slip on. I thought I'd tried really hard to be good and we'd done loads of walking. But of course the scales don't lie and there was now 5lb more of me.
Some folks just diet for a few weeks and take it off again, but for some reason, my mind doesn't work like that. I have to admit, I very nearly gave up trying to stay slim. I felt I'd lost control and my confidence took a knock. I was a failure, a weak willed fattie, so why not give in and just eat what I want?
But I'd worked hard to lose the weight and I didn't want to go back to being fat again. So I had to find a way to make this work. I decided not to fight myself, but to focus on damage limitation. I just had to stop putting on weight and whittle off the holiday weight bit by bit. Slowly, I got my confidence back and got back on track. Soon I was back to my healthy eating and my weight stabilised and gradually reduced. Phew!
That was all too traumatic so I decided this year I needed a better strategy. I was determined not to repeat my mistakes. Somehow I had to take control of my holiday weight and keep hold of my mojo. So I wrote down what I'd eaten on holiday last year and it was soon pretty clear what I'd done wrong.
Too much food - I'd eaten too much. I'd stopped keeping track of my eating and every single day I'd eaten almost double my usual calories.
Too many treats - I'd eaten too many high fat treats. Holidays are about treats but I'd gone a bit bonkers. I'd eaten chips, ice cream, cakes, wine - all things that I'm normally very careful with - not just as a treat but often several times a day.
Too much lazing about - I'd not done enough exercise. Because of all the walking and cycling I'd assumed I'd done more exercise than I usually do. But I hadn't. I was actually using fewer calories on holiday than I thought.
All this added up to a triple whammy of holiday excess and I was paying the price! I had a choice - do things the same and put on weight which I know will be hard to lose or try and keep the weight gain down.
I decided on a very simple and small change; I decided to keep a mental note of calories I was taking in. I could still eat what I wanted, I just had to have a rough idea of how many calories I was taking in. This simple thing worked wonders. Without thinking I found I was limiting my treats - I didn't want to eat thousands of calories a day! Saying no to those chips got much easier.
I made another small change too - I made time for a few short runs which over 3 weeks used up about 2,000 calories.
The moment of truth came when we got home and I got onto the scales. I'd put on 1.4 lbs. Okay so I put a bit of weight on, but this is a major reduction from last year and a totally manageable amount to lose in a week. I've already lost most of it in two days.
I'm ecstatic. My tactic worked. I managed to keep things under control and have a great holiday. I did lapse a bit - bread remains a problem and I have a serious binge eating problem round crisps. I deliberately did not read the calorie count on that massive bag of crisps. If I had, I know I wouldn't have eaten them.
But it's a start. As long as I stay aware of what I'm eating, I can keep things under control. I know as well what I need to focus on next. I'm beginning to think that weight maintenance over holidays is not impossible, I may even lose weight on holiday - what a radical thought! All I have to do is take my slim thinking on holiday with me and not leave it at home!
What happens to your weight on holiday? How do you manage? Do you enjoy all before you with abandon and then diet like mad when you get back or have you another cunning plan? Tell us!
Now back to the office and avoiding the post holiday chocolates...
Take care,
Suex
I didnt put on any weight over my holiday and have got through a month and a half of being off the wine. I have had my first anniversary of reaching my target and thought I had had a bad week and was disgusted with myself, just like your blog the other week. I weighed this morning and it was all fine, I think it is to do with no wine at all and being used to being slim you feel every tightening of your clothes simply when you lunch is in your stomach!
I have continued to cycle but the weather up here in Scotland has been terrible and on days when I am late at work I do not cycle as the nights are drawing in fast now.
I am also on the front page of TescoDiets after the photoshoot in August and they have sent some fabulous photos in a book and on a CD - and, strangely, on a mug - which I find difficult to use.
I am going down to London in a weeks time to see loads of old friends so I hope there wont be too much eating but I will just take it in my stride.
I love reading your blogs, it is so encouraging to read stuff that people who are going through the same thing are experiencing. That is one of the reasons I enjoyed the photoshoot so much, meeting other people who have done the diet.
Comment by CHLOEWALKER2007 -
Hello, how did you get on? How wonderful you discovered cycling, I feel the same about running. I love the idea of cyclign through those forests.
Your resilience and commitment to staying slim is awesome - 11 times. you can obvilusly lose weight, the trick is to stop it building up, but it's so much easier said than done. Please keep trying. Let me know how you got on!
Suex
Comment by StaySlimSue -
I have just read this, the night before I go on holiday. I have been at my target weight since last October and am so petrified about putting on the weight again that I find it more difficult that losing weight. I have found that skiing in the winter and cycling holidays in the summer help me in two ways, one is that the exercise helps burn calories but also if I am doing something I love to do, I am not eating. Unfortunately I didnt discover how much I enjoyed cycing until I was over 50 but I love it so much now and am looking forward to cycling through national parks on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia.
I just don't think about ice cream or cakes on holiday but I do like a few glasses of wine and that is difficult but I usually dont drink at all in October and November so I have decided to give up wine (and anything else) for September too. Once I get home to Scotland in 10 days time I know I will have put on a couple of pounds but I think I am in the best place now to keep it off.
I agree with what you say about putting on a few pounds and then just giving up. I feel disgusing if I eat too much and feel just the same and think, that's it now. In my adult life I have lost a considerable amount of weight 11 times! This has to be the last time.
Comment by CHLOEWALKER2007 -