I’m back from my two weeks in Florida and what may or may not come as a surprise to you all, I took a break from my diet and pretty much let the whole thing go.  I’m not sure how much weight I gained, but I gained a lot of weight.  From what I’ve seen I gained about 15 pounds.  Oddly enough I’m not upset though.  Why?  Because I know that I will be able to lose it all again.  I did it once and I can do it again.  Plus, the weight gain was expected from how much I ate (which was a lot) and after the trip started I decided to not be strict on my food.  In fact I didn’t even keep track of my calories on most days, and the days that I did I usually quit tracking some time before lunch.  And although this didn’t do me any favors when it came to my diet, it did a ton to make my vacation a better experience.  The only real downside to this was that I didn’t do myself any favors on the Diet Challenge front.  My lesson learned from this is that I should make sure that when I enter a challenge, that I don’t have any vacations occurring during this time period.  Every time I’ve gone on vacation during a challenge I’ve created a pretty large stumbling block for myself that’s been difficult to overcome (but not impossible if it’s early enough in the challenge that I can recover).

On the workout front I called a gym near where we were staying that advertised weekly memberships.  However, they wanted $40 for one week.  Even though my wife thought it was a bit steep she gave it the green light, but I just couldn’t see myself paying that much for a week at a gym.  So I pulled out my iPad, downloaded the Gainfitness app, and created several body weight exercise routines.  For several mornings (I did take a few off to actually rest) I would get up, walk or ride a bike for an hour and a half, then do a body weight routine.  It was a refreshing experience that I enjoyed; and it was nice to do something extremely different.  I have to say that body weight routines are a lot more difficult than I thought they would be.  I have a lot of respect for people who stick strictly to that kind of exercise.  Personally for me I started to miss lifting by the end of the week.  My experience in Florida does have me thinking about throwing in a body weight routine in my weekly workout though.

In the gym I’m trying out Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program.  I decided when I came back to the gym that I wanted to do something different.  I’ve noticed a lot of good physical changes with my previous program, but I didn’t feel like I was making any gains strength wise.  Now this could definitely be due to my nutritional intake which is solely focused on losing weight, but I wanted to switch things up in order to alleviate the boredom that was starting to set in.  So far I really like the program because it’s got a lot of flexibility, it has a way to measure your success, and it’s something different.  I’m really starting to appreciate being able to switch things up.

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• Renewed my gym membership
  
• My wife joined the gym
  
• I’m considering being host to a new weight loss challenge
  
• My “morning crew” is back at the gym
  

Why my vacation was better with a break from my diet and the gym:

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• It allowed me to have a more enjoyable time.
  
• I was able to see what my eating would be like if I no longer tracked my food.
  
• It allowed me to mentally take a break from my tracking and nutrient intake.
  
• I was able to avoid burnout.
  
• I was able to try new forms of exercises in a different environment.
  
• I knew that I lost the weight once and I would be able to lose it again.
  
• While I am still getting things back to where they were, I feel like I’m almost starting fresh again.
  

Daniel:

Wow! Seeing the latest pics, and thinking back to where you started from is very inspiring. I’m stuffing my face with ice cream as I write this, but I earned a little treat.

Kate:

Hi Dodge,

I remember posing you that question on fb about a month ago… Well we have had some positive outcomes and a few “learning experiences”! On a plus note: Lizzy (5) and I have been walking, going to the park, getting her and Ice cream. (I was amazed as I didn’t want one too!!) She has been helping me stretch….so some light strength work….walking with me when I do a loop around the block (down the hill along the Appia and up up up the hill, arriving at our house from the other way) Timed it takes me 35 minutes.

After a good 40days on mfp I can report what seems to be a start in weight loss, also I have lost cm’s on my body which is nice. I went from a RHR of 82bpm down to 70bpm!

Thanks for the suggestions, I shall see what we can do to make activity much more fun.

oh I hail from the UK! That’s why my English is good!

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