Guys. I’m just really psyched about this. I didn’t log my calories while on vacation with family, and in fact was a little trepidatious of the scale when I got home, because I had eaten some unhealthy things (including an obscene amount of Rice Krispie treats, haha.) But we also tried to have some healthy whole foods while traveling, and we hiked a lot and even camped in the desert.
My sister texted me saying she’d lost weight on our trip and that piqued my curiosity about where I was after our trip, and inspired me to get back into my regular habit of weighing myself daily. I not only didn’t gain weight, one day after getting home and I seemingly magically lost 2 pounds! For me, the lesson here is one I’m perpetually relearning, which is probably the key to sustained weight loss. First of all: aim for “good” or even “okay”, and not “perfect”. If you can have a perfect day of eating and exercise, that’s amazing. But those are generally rare. The key is to not let a day when you ate bad or felt disappointed in yourself derail you. Or to use it as an excuse to take more time off than you originally planned. Every day is a fresh slate. You don’t need to wait for the end of the year to reaffirm your goals. You have to do it every day, in small ways. And if you’re going on vacation, let yourself have fun. Eat fun stuff. And when vacation is over… put away the vacation mentality. Another thing I realized is: one day of eating bad, even one WEEK of eating bad, is not enough to cause significant gain. The most important part is all the other days and weeks. So like, eating tons of cookies at Christmas is fine. As long as you’re not mainlining cookies all December.
I’ve lost… gosh, 40 pounds since my highest weight, and I’ve kept it off for several years. It’s pretty fun because I look way better than before. Instead of hating and wanting to Photoshop all my pics, I just feel pleasantly shocked at the change. I didn’t actually realize how slim I am now compared to before until I saw all the vacation pics.
I’ve lost this weight by trying to make my calorie goals as easy as possible, logging my food (except on vacation haha) and setting my goals as actions rather than results. So my goal is not a specific weight, but rather my small daily habits that I know lead to success (mainly CICO, and aiming to consume more natural foods). This has been most helpful because my goals are only the small things I can actually control, rather than highly variable statistics like weight.
Finally, the other thing that’s been weirdly helpful was a thought I had once, that stuck in my head and logicked me into finally eating healthy. “You work every day whether or not you feel like it. Some days you get a lot done, some days you’re completely dead inside, but you show up. (Figuratively, since I’m a freelancer haha.) As a result you’ve made XX progress with your projects, which would seem impossible if not done over a long period of time. If you approach diet like it’s a job you have to show up for, even if you put in the bare minimum some days, you’ll still make lots of progress over time.”
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/obeywo/i_went_on_vacation_and_didnt_gain/
