I’ve lost a vacation. And I’m happy about it!

I don’t mean “vacation” in the literal sense. I’m talking about working backward in weight loss; I have lost the gain from my last vacation. I was gone for nine days and it took me nearly a month to lose those nine days of eating what I wanted — when I wanted. I’ll add that I knew before I went on that vacation that I would eat what I wanted and I would gain weight; I went on a cruise with a cruise line that’s known for good food, so eating was part of the experience.

Now, Spring Break looms in front of me; my husband and I will be spending time in some old favorite haunts, but for me at least, it’s not a food vacation. (Maybe more so from him.) I might have a couple of deviations, so I expect the scale may be slightly up at the end of our time out, but hopefully not by a lot. I’d rather spend my time enjoying my surroundings, the things we do, the places we will be. When this “vacation” is done, I don’t want to spend another month rolling it back off my butt.

I’m getting my focus and determination back and doing the hard work that’s necessary to peel off the vacations that have contributed to weight gain. While vacations aren’t entirely to blame, it’s a different way of looking at my weight loss and gain history; I keep track of my weight and it’s a different way to determine weight goals. I know when the stretches are that I don’t weigh by looking through my data, so I know how much I gained during each vacation stretch. That includes longer traditional holiday breaks that tend to be eating holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So far, I’ve rolled back my February cruise. Next are Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the low before those eating holidays is only eight pounds away, which is a nice, solid, and easily attainable goal. After that, the next is another similar drop. And I like those easy goals that are short-term; while I know from direct experience that it’s absolutely possible to achieve long-term big goals, shooting for the small ones is much better when I know my mental commitment can get overwhelmed. So while I’m doing the mental work necessary to build myself back up, short goals will do just fine.

I know about long-term big goals; remember, I lost 206 pounds over the course of roughly 8.5 years, and it’s not my sole large weight loss. I find, this time, that it’s not the end goal that bugs me mentally but the amount that I’ve gained. I’m working on not beating myself up about it; letting in emotional self-judgment tends to drag me down. I’m much better off being objective about both the way I gained, and the methodology I must use to return to where I was. And once I get there, again, truly embrace the tools I have to remain there… and most of all, to be happy there.

So here’s to losing a few more vacations along the way!