My vacation to New York City and Denver for a variety of great events is over now. We returned home Sunday and I dreaded my first time on the scale, assuming I’d gained at least 10 pounds from all the vacation meals we had.
The good news was I’d only gained three pounds, not bad for 10 days of eating out and not having access to my usual foods and exercise routines.
I think the outcome was better than expected for several reasons. First, while I wasn’t doing my usual exercise bike riding to shed calories, we did walk constantly in New York. Walking there is a bit more strenuous than the average walk in the park. We also were fighting our way through crowds; my daughter graduated college in Yankee Stadium with about 30,000 people, literally, in the stands, getting through an event like that has to burn some calories.
My daughter's graduation at Yankee Stadium
When we arrived in Denver for a niece’s high school graduation, I tried the exercise bike in the hotel as I wrote about last week. We also walked a great deal on two of the days we were there. When we arrived home Sunday, I got in a 30-minute workout on my home exercise bike to get my body back into exercise mode. Monday, I put in an hour of riding, dropping 0.40 of a pound by Tuesday morning.
Throughout the trip, I also refrained from eating everything I would have liked to have, getting in some healthy meals in the midst of my New York foodfest. I didn’t feel deprived though, which is a good sign that I developed a healthier relationship with food on this trip than I have had on some other recent business trips.
I did go over my daily calorie allowance on six of the 10 days, but that resulted primarily from less exercise. I was eating no more than the 3,000 calories a day I usually have, the level I’ve found keeps me from feeling hungry all day. The major change was that I wasn’t getting my 1,000 calories burn-off from exercise each day. Now that I’m back, we’ll see how long it takes me to burn off those remaining 2.6 pounds and continue on my quest to get back down to 200.
John
Wellness Secrets of a SuperAger 