Diet Hard, Train Hard, but Relax Hard and Enjoy Hard at Those Important Events in Your Life Too.

Greetings from the Mayan Riviera. I’ve got a couple more days here and then it’s back home. While it’s great to get away from routine and structure it’s also great getting back to routine and structure. This is my first 10-day trip and while it’s been really nice, I am really missing the kids.

I dieted and trained hard for this trip trying to defatten myself before hitting the sun and got down to 225 lbs. I am betting I am close to 240 now, lol; and no it’s not all water. While my muscles are full and my shirts are snug, my abs and vascularity have abandoned me. Jerks!

The thing is, I am perfectly ok with this. I came into this vacation with not even one thought of trying to stay on plan, diet, maintain my progress to date, etc. Not one. I did train once though. My plan was always to come down, totally relax, shelf the plan, enjoy the culture, new foods … and lots of it. And believe me, I’ve done just that.

You can always diet hard, train hard, etc., but you do not always get vacation opportunities like these. I am a very simple and straight forward eater at home, not needing a lot of variety to be satisfied, etc., but when you’re at a Gourmet all inclusive, well, I think that’s just silly to not sit down and enjoy new and tasty foods. I must say I’m proud of myself for being a little risk taker with some of these dishes. Sometimes I have no idea what I’m even ordering. I just looked for at least recognizable word. Then when it comes out I have numerous times still not known what I’m about to eat.

To be honest, attempting to be on plan here, or even mostly or even partly would have just hurt my vacation experience. For me, food and vacationing go hand in hand. Think about the year’s events – vacations, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, celebrations – they all have us gathering around with loved ones over good food. And there is nothing wrong with that. Food is central to culture. I very strongly believe if you want to, you should choose to partake as well.

So while I have certainly regressed in my progress I also have full confidence that I will simply go home and regain it. And there is power, confidence and relaxation in that knowledge. Thus, I’m good with it.

Of course, if we want to have a nice physique, we have to make many sacrifices more often than not and that’s something we accept as part of the journey, but still, there are several times of the year for all of us that we deem important celebratory events and we eat during them. Choose yours. Diet hard, train hard the large majority of the time, but relax hard and enjoy hard at those important events in your life too. Guilt free!

Vacation for example is one of them for me.

To me this is part of achieving the ever-coveted “balance” we all strive for. Balance is not simply caving in to whims and emotions and cheating when you haven’t chosen to, nor chosen to fully accept the outcome, etc. No that is definitely not balance but I’ve seen many attempt to justify this sort of thing by labeling it balance. Balance doesn’t come with feelings of guilt either.

Balance is what I described above. Pick your times, make your choice, enjoy, relax, be ok with the outcome and simply pick back up where you left off on the other side.