success on vacation!

For the past 8 days I have been away from home visiting family.  I have never gone on vacation and lost weight (or even maintained weight) because I feel as though I’ve earned the right to let everything I do with rigid precision at home go. Well, this time I am pleased to report a 3 pound weight loss, an hour or more of workouts 6 out of the 8 days, and most importantly, some learning about myself and what I am capable of doing if I set my mind to it.

Just thinking “wouldn’t it be nice if I ate healthy food and exercised every day while I'm away?” is not enough to actually get it done.  I told everyone I was visiting (my parents, sister and cousin) what my intentions were and asked them for some support.  I asked my sister to map me a running route around her house in Toronto so I could keep up with my half marathon training, where we are running 14K at this point.  I thought ahead about the fact that I would be travelling yesterday when our second 14K run was scheduled, so I decided to do it 2 days earlier in Winnipeg. Big thanks to my cousin who drove me around the Assiniboine River and showed me an 8K running path the night before.  My brother-in-law was teaching a hot yoga class in Toronto last week and I decided I’d try it out, plus run home afterwards (2.5 hours of exercise that day!).  I asked my bootcamp instructor, Trish, to help keep me accountable and she emailed me 3 different bootcamp exercises I could do anywhere (hotel room, park, etc.). I must admit it was a little awkward doing random plyometric exercises near a playground in Toronto while curious parents and their kids stared at me and Alex, but really who cares, I had to get it done. I basically woke up every morning, tied my hair in a ponytail, got into my workout clothes, and told myself I would have to earn my coffee, breakfast, and hot shower before any of that was going to happen (thank you Michele Shorter for planting that seed in my head!).  I also vowed I would not eat after I had dinner, and it was pretty easy given I was in a hotel room with no kitchen for most of the days.  I used the time I had to run to clear my head, practice being in the moment and appreciating little things like a perfectly placed/timed water fountain I came across in Toronto while I was lost running through some random neighborhood with no water bottle, and a beautiful little community garden along Churchill Drive in Winnipeg and the smell of this combination of vegetables and flowers that reminded me of my grandma’s garden in Rainy River.  I decided to play a little game with myself and say “hi, good morning” to every single person I passed on my 14K runs.  People in Winnipeg were all about it. Some people in Toronto were not but I know it’s because they weren’t expecting it. I felt great all day knowing I’d gotten my workouts out of the way in the morning and it made me want to eat healthy so I wouldn’t ruin the progress I’d just made.  I learned that if you do a bit of pre-planning it is really easy to lose weight on vacation, or at least not lose progress you’ve made at home.

I was so grateful for this opportunity to meet my new nephew, Jesse, who is named after my grandma Jessie who passed away last fall.  I was so grateful to be able to travel on to Winnipeg for a family wedding and catch up with family who I’d last seen under the sad circumstances of my grandma’s funeral. It was an important part of my grieving process to come back and celebrate a happy occasion with these same people. And through all of these joyful moments, it was nice not to feel gross and guilty (from bad eating and no exercise).



my first 14K run - from Willowdale and Sheppard to Yonge and Eglinton and back.  It included some rather long hills like this one, but no big deal thanks to run clinic hill training!

At my cousin's wedding--the dress fits!

 after the yoga class I attended that my brother in law taught. I realize my posture is totally wrong but if you can get past this and appreciate I was about to run 9K after an almost 90 min class, I'd be grateful!

Glendora Park in Toronto--I would run to this park (30min) every day and then do another 30min of bootcamp

this week’s goal: lose weight on vacation

Vacations for me have always meant eating in excess, indulging in every food that is not part of the Canada Food Guide’s 4 food groups, and packing tons of workout clothes only to wear them once (or not at all).  Tomorrow I head across the country to visit family for 8 days.  I’ve worked way too hard on both eating clean and exercising 6 days a week to let it all go. I want to step on that scale when I return home and see brand new numbers I’ve not seen for over a year.  So to try to set myself up for success, I have already asked my sister to find me a 14K route in Toronto to run this weekend as part of my half marathon training.  I also asked my bootcamp trainer to send me a list of things I can do in a hotel gym every day and I committed to running the hotel stairs on one of my days.  I also told my friend I would email her every day after my workouts and to expect news from me daily about what I’ve done.  I’ve never done this much thinking ahead about how to stay in shape on vacation so this will be a little experiment.

I have to say, this week I have felt amazing.  Finally, 3 weeks of working out 6 days a week, drinking 3L of water a day and some serious carbohydrate cutting are paying off.  I’m down 4 pounds in 3 weeks which is an indicator of things heading in the right direction, but what is even better is feeling so much more energetic.  Usually at bootcamp or run clinic when I hear, “let’s run up the side of this mountain…for the 6^th time!” I think, “Oh God, I can’t, I’m about to pass out.”  I don’t know if any of you have run or worked out to the point of tears where all the voices in your head that tell you you’re tired, you can’t do this, etc. come out and you feel like you are losing this whole battle to be in great shape. It’s happened to me twice this past month where I was surprised to find myself crying at the same time I was gasping for air.  This week, oddly enough, I’ve been thinking, “Ok, I can do this, I am totally going to kill it.” And I feel as though I have. Something is changing in my head about what I’m capable of doing and I feel awesome. So interesting how a person’s mindset, combined with good nutrition, being well hydrated and in a pattern of regular exercise contributes to success. 

new mindset!