It’s funny how when you first return from a week-long vacation, it feels like you have been gone a month, and within 24 hours, you feel like you never left. After this last vacation, I also felt like I was dragged, kicking and screaming, back into my old routine. Instead of every day being ripe with potential, it’s back to Ground Hog Day. Remember that movie? Every day was the same as the day before.
Not only am I back in my existential rut, I am back in my eating rut. On vacation, it’s eat-when-I’m-hungry. At work, it’s eat-by-the-clock. On vacation, there is no stress eating, no boredom eating, no fatigue-eating. On vacation, eating is an integral part of the vacation, not a reaction to it.
Occasionally, I will revert to eating the way I did when I was younger, since I was not overweight then. My body is not the same, though, and neither is my life. My activity level is lower, my metabolism is slower, my stress factors are higher. Anything that goes in my mouth goes straight to my waist.
I have one friend who has had success with Atkins, another friend who lost weight using Weight Watchers. The trick is to find a way to eat and exercise that works for ME.
