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Monday night, my wife told me that every diet I’ve ever failed has failed because of a vacation. And she’s right. I’ve often dieted ahead of vacations so that I could both look better on the beach AND not worry about food when I was on vacation. Then when the vacation ends, I don’t ever rein in my eating habits and ramp up my exercise habits. I’m not letting that happen again.
The biggest problem I have with vacations is the actual travel involved. The logistics of moving a family of four with two kids under four can sometimes be paralyzing. Long gone are the days of throwing some clothes into the backpack and running out the door an hour before the plane leaves. Now there’s toys to pack and sippie cups to fill, car seats to lug and strollers to push, kids to feed and diapers to change. It’s really tough. By the time we get to the destination, I don’t feel like doing anything. So, when I go on vacation, usually, my diet and exercise regiments do too. I was fairly active last week, but not as active as I wanted to be, and not as diligent with my diet. So this week, I start attempting to get my June goals off the ground in earnest.
But Vacations are wonderful things in so many ways. Last week, we took a multi-purpose trip down to southern California. Pam attended a medical conference and the kids spent some quality time with my parents and sisters. It was a perfect vacation–at least for me. I got three nights of uninterrupted sleep, ate out at nice restaurants with great friends, played 45 holes of golf, went for two (short) runs, and didn’t gain a pound.
This week, it’s back to reality. I’ll get my three runs in and I’ll get my three weight sessions in. I’ve done well on the food front since we’ve been back, and I’m motivated to get my weight down this month. I’ve just had a week’s vacation to recharge my batteries, my kids are happy, my life is good, my partner does a great job at keeping me motivated. I’m ready to rock!
J.D.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Red // Jun 11, 2008 at 8:31 am
Normally I do treat it as a vacation from EVERYTHING, including fitness and shaving.
But it’s these several day long interruptions, whether caused by sickness, work, or vacations, that cause us to get off the fitness train.
2 brad // Jun 11, 2008 at 9:36 am
Most of my vacations are pretty active, it’s the business trips that kill me. I spent a week in Baltimore last month for a conference, and spent 10 hours a day sitting on my bum, eating restaurant food, and getting no exercise. I like to travel light, so I never bring sneakers and gym clothes for a workout in the gymn. Sometimes I do calisthenics in my hotel room and have thought about bringing a jump-rope with me (which is an incredible and cheap workout you can perform in the privacy of your own room as long as the person in the room below you doesn’t call security to find out what all that thumping is over their heads).
I took a 2-week road trip for work once with a colleague who was a serious weight trainer, and he continued to work out during our trip, getting up at o-dark thirty and getting a day membership at the local gym. I thought it was obnoxious and self-centered of him (he always had to take the car, leaving the rest of us stranded while he worked out), but at least he didn’t break his routine!
3 Andrew is getting fit // Jun 11, 2008 at 10:10 am
Well done. Vacations tend to derail me somewhat too but, like you, I’m getting better at them.
4 greenman2001 // Jun 11, 2008 at 11:28 am
One of the things I’ve noticed about your posts, Mac, is that getting a break from your stay-at-home-Dad responsibilities is enormously important for you to get”back on track” with your exercise and diet routines.
It seems as though the sustainability of these routines slowly degrades over time until they fail completely. Then you take a vacation, or in-laws visit, or you visit family. At these times, other people step in, take some of the child-care responsibilities off your shoulders, and you’re able to restart the old routines, re-dedicate yourself to them, and re-energize the batteries again to start the cycle over.
I wonder if you can think of a way — pure brainstorming! no action required! — of structuring your life so that these routines can sustain themselves, or whether you believe that this kind of failure curve is just the way things must be, and that willpower is the only tool you’ve got to maintain them in the face of flagging momentum and a depletion of resources.
I think many people think of exercise and healthy eating as something that takes away from the pleasure and … feasibility of their lives. The “livability” of life, if you will. It’s a burden that must be borne. The path you’re walking is a discouraging one: unsustainable routines that you must “take a break from” in order to go on with any of it. If I were looking to this blog for a model of how to get fit, I would find the pattern you, Mac, are living to be a discouraging one. I would find myself asking, “what if I can’t afford to take as many vacations as this guy does, or if my family isn’t inclined to visit and help with the kids?” What would a single parent say about this model?
Do you see your approach to all of this as being self-sustaining? Do you see it as being non-self-sustaining but believe that that’s just the way it is? As a thought experiment: if you never got a break from parenting, are there any changes you’d make in your approach to dieting and fitness? Do you think this is a question worth asking?
5 macdaddy // Jun 11, 2008 at 12:18 pm
6 greenman2001 // Jun 11, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Mac, I can definitely be dogmatic and condescending. I’ve gotten more so on this blog as I’ve watched you and JD ignore good advice and pursue strategies that don’t work. I certainly like the sound of my own voice, but it’s clearly not having any impact on you, so I’m taking liberties with etiquette I wouldn’t normally if you were standing in front of me. I’m a frustrated fan. As I’ve told you before, I’m at odds with blog culture, and the myth it perpetuates that this is somehow a two-way conversation.
I’m fans of you guys, though: I admire anyone who’s making serious efforts to change their lives. You both write with fearlessness and honesty. But the kinds of underlying issues that you discuss in your response to me here :
“I am unorganized as a stay at home parent and homemaker. I do waste time, then feel stressed out because I don’t have enough time, then skip my exercises or eat unhealthy food because I’d rather suffer than force my kids to.”
goes more to the heart of the challenges you face in getting fit than any of the absurd posts about how eating more almonds will help you “shed those last few pounds.” Everyone reading this — including me — face exactly the same issues, and to not talk about them bothers me a lot, because it implies that getting fit is only about “finding a program that works for you.”
I’ll try to modify my tone, Mac. Thanks for putting up with me!
7 Nat // Jun 13, 2008 at 5:36 pm
God vacations. Between vacations and are schedules, it’s amazing we both don’t weight 400 lbs. I do find that if I eat better on trips and get at least one or two good runs in, I just feel better.
8 Weekend Links (a little late) // Jun 16, 2008 at 11:09 am
[...] Vacations: I’ll Take The Bad With The Good - Mac is willing to own up that vacations often derail him. They derail me quite a bit as well. I have to fight through and refocus when I get back. [...]
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