The entire time I was traveling, I ate with what could be called reckless abandon. No calorie counting, no thinking “gee, is there way too much sugar in this for me?”, no thinking about “diet” at all. I figured that I would be walking so much that I would burn it off.
And it’s true. I did walk a lot and did burn most of it off. But here’s what I forgot to factor in – the habit. Once you throw away good eating habits for bad – even if it’s for only a 2 week period – you have to relearn the good habits, and it takes a lot of time and energy. Because of that, I’m stressed, eating too much, and struggling to get back in gear, thinking “Did I really have to have dessert at every meal?”
My point is that I need to start rethinking “vacation mode.” For years, it was an excuse to eat with impunity. I’ve controlled it somewhat and now will try to temper my eating, and increase my exercise to a certain point. But what I really need is to just continue to eat like I have been, albeit with somewhat different foods. It is harder – I’m usually eating a lot in restaurants and don’t have access to a kitchen – but it’s no excuse. Every place I go has had open-air markets where fresh fruits and vegetables abound. I could easily buy something there and have a picnic, rather than go to a restaurant.
Or if I do go to a restaurant, I don’t have to order the speciality with meat, potatoes, dumplings and bread. I could just get a salad and some lean meat. Instead of sampling the nation’s cuisine at every meal, I could do it just once or twice a week.
In fact, when I came back, I was telling my neighbor about the trip and the food. DeeDee is originally from Germany, and I mentioned how much meat and bread I ate while I was there. She laughed and said, “Well, Germans don’t eat like that every day!”. Duh. Of course they don’t – they also eat salads and fresh vegetables. In fact, DeeDee (who is rail thin), only has bread on special occasions.
Food for thought.
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