Vacations kill me

Until about 3 weeks ago (aka my last post) I had been doing pretty well. I walked everyday and watched what I ate. All that stopped when I went on vacation. It’s really hard to control what we eat when you’re not in your natural surroundings. I keep kosher, so my food choices are especially limited. It’s been really difficult, and I’ve gained back all that I’ve lost and more.

The vacations that I’ve been on have been very active. I went to Hong Kong to celebrate my 18th wedding  anniversary with my husband. Hong Kong was beautiful, and we walked everywhere. It was so humid that I felt like I sweated out much more than went into me. We would take sandwiches and granola where ever we went. Since my body can’t do carbs, I expected to gain weight, and I wasn’t disappointed.

My next vacation was something that we planned for a year. Well I should say that other people planned and I went along. A friend of mine turned 50, and she wanted all us girls to go to the Golan and do a big hike. We did that, plus berry picking, swimming in the Kinneret, boat rides and visiting an archaeological museum. Everything was outside and everything required movement. Even with all the exercising, I still managed to gain weight.

We had a day trip from work a couple of days ago, where they took us up north and we did hiking, kayaking and tractor driving. There was food before and after each event. I only ate at meal times. I didn’t gain any weight, but I had plenty of guilt.

During the past few weeks, with all the travel, I haven’t wanted to take the Alli. When I do take it, I need to make sure to have a bathroom near by. It’s not very conducive to traveling.

Having Reduced-Obese Syndrome is very difficult. Through all these trips, I never went crazy with my eating. I ate what normal people ate and still gained weight. I guess it goes to show what a lot of people have known all along – I’m not normal.

I have also been under a tremendous amount of stress these past few weeks. I’ve decided to leave my job. I haven’t been enjoying it for a long time now, and I have other projects that I’ve been working on that are taking off and really need my attention. These projects will not be making money right away, hence the stress, but it is really the right thing for me.

It will be great to do something that excites me again, and I hope to feel more alive and be able to spend a bit more time on me. I plan on upping my exercise time, and since I’ll be working at home, I’ll be better able to control everything that goes into my mouth. Everything should get much simpler.

Before this life change begins, I’ll be going on another trip with my family. We’ll be going to the US for a little shy of 3 weeks. We have very little idea of what we will be doing (it will involve many Mets games,) and it will be great to have some real family time together. I’ll do my best to watch what I eat, but I’m not going to kill myself if I fall off the wagon. I want to be able to have fun and constantly counting calories is just no fun.

One thing that I have decided to try is The Carbohydrate Addicts Diet. That’s where you eat only one hour of carbs a day, but they can be anything. I have lost a lot of weight with that in the past, and it should give me the flexibility that I need to be successful.

I wish that I didn’t have to focus on food all the time, and that I could just be 100% carefree on my vacation. If I am, I know that I’ll pay for it later.

On all these vacations, I’ve been avoiding being in pictures as much as possible. I really don’t like the way that I look and I’d rather not record it for posterity. My fat-face is back. Perhaps if I find a way to lose a couple of kilo in the next couple of weeks, I’ll have my thinner face and I won’t mind being captured on film as much. I keep on telling myself that these are the “before” pictures to compare to the “after” pictures that I’ll be flaunting in the next few months.

happens in the end, I will enjoy this time with my husband and kids. We’ve waited for this a long time. I’m starting to get excited about it. Do you think that getting excited like this burns calories?