Vacation De-motivation

I think starting sooner rather than later is best.

We are still a long way off from September, that's a great amount of time to change habits. And these changed habits can help you to make smart choices during the vacation.

Don't think of it as not being able to eat what you want, just eat what you want within limits. Or offset with plenty of exercise that's easy to do on that sort of vacation. Vacations shouldn't destroy your good work, or at least you shouldn't let it.

Get started now If you can change your diet (the things you eat, not the latest fad eating craze) to a diet that is sustainable and you start loosing weight, you will find holidays much easier.

I'm just about to go on holidays and i've accepted that I probably will be eating (and drinking) many more calories than I need for the time i'm away. I will still try and make the right choices and keep the exercise up, but if that doesn't happen, that's okay too.

But... if I had waited to start until after this holiday (Which I didn't know I would be having when I started nearly 2 months ago), I wouldn't have lost the 4kgs that I have already lost. I would have gone away on holidays, put on 2kgs and then still be 6kgs away from where I am now.

At least now, I may put on 2kgs while on holidays, but i'll still be 2kgs down from where I started.

Start now. You have plenty of time before Sept

At the very least, right now you can start honestly logging your food. If you're not ready to start cutting calories or eating healthier, at least log to see where you stand. You might find that viewing your food logs encourages you make better decisions.

You also could try making exercise a habit now, and worry about the food when you come back from vacation.

The "I'll start X (tomorrow, on Monday, next week, January 1st...)" mindset is a real killer, because we can ALWAYS postpone it a little longer...right? But we feel better because we think we'll do better then, but nothing really changes until we realllllly want it. So if you reallllly want it, try to start a bit now. Later, you'll be happy you did.

TheLittleGingerDoesWeightLoss wrote: »

I think starting sooner rather than later is best.

We are still a long way off from September, that's a great amount of time to change habits. And these changed habits can help you to make smart choices during the vacation.

Don't think of it as not being able to eat what you want, just eat what you want within limits. Or offset with plenty of exercise that's easy to do on that sort of vacation. Vacations shouldn't destroy your good work, or at least you shouldn't let it.

^^^

AlexRussell1 wrote: »

So I'm graduating at the end of the summer and will soon be headed on vacation for 10 days. Of course I want to lose weight but I'm struggling to decide if I should start before or after my vacation.

I don't want to start and then not be able to eat what I want OR start now and then relaps back into my old eating habits while on vacation thus destroying post vacation motivation. However, I don't want to wait to start either because the vacation is in September. Thoughts?

I started here mid-Feb with a goal to lose as much weight as I could on a NET 1250 cal diet by mid-June ... 4 months. I didn't really have a weight number in mind until I got to about mid-May and knew what would be possible.

I stuck firmly to that goal and lost 15 kg.

And then, mid-June ... I went on holidays.

While I was gone, I ate whatever I wanted to eat, and lots of it. But I also exercised a whole lot. In 3 weeks, I cycled about 390 km, including riding a century one day (161 km = 100 miles). I walked about 64 km, including a 9.5 km hike to the top of a mountain. And I went sea kayaking!

Losing the weight prior to going on holiday allowed me to do those things much more easily than I would have if I had not lost the weight.

I hoped I would not gain more than 5 kg, and I estimated that I might gain 2.5 kg, which would be all right. The day after I arrived home, I had gained 2.5 kg, but the next day (this morning) I have already lost 0.5 kg so I think some of that was water weight. A total gain of 2 kg is not bad at all. And since mid-Feb, I have still lost 13 kg.

Now I'm taking a couple weeks to ease back into it again, and in a couple week's time, I'll be back onto a NET 1250 cal diet until the end of September when I'll reassess the situation.


So my advice would be to start now, pick a calorie limit, firmly stick to that limit for the next 2 months, then enjoy your holiday with the knowledge that you'll be back onto the diet when you return.