Lessons From The Great White North

I have spent some time recently exploring the blogosphere to see how other bloggers roll.  Most of the blogs I have seen in the weight loss arena take the form of publicized personal journals.  People will often describe their struggles, perspectives, opinions, etc.  I see the attraction in this but I feel it is a bit self-indulgent and narcissistic.  The purpose of this blog is to give you information you can use to live a healthier life.  With that said, I wanted to take the opportunity to describe some things I learned on a recent trip to Canada to highlight some of important and valuable insights from prior posts that you can use to lose weight effectively.

So here’s a list of take away points from my summer vacation:

1.  Toronto is a beautiful city with very friendly people who apparently love to bike.  It may just be because they are trapped indoors every year for 9 months of brutal winter.  Regardless, I definitely saw many people using their bikes to get around town.  While they do have obesity up there, it appears less than south of the border.  I do not think these are coincidences.  Doing little things like incorporating more activity into your daily transit from place to place can make a big difference in achieving your weight loss goals.  If you are able, you should bike and walk as much as possible.

2.  Sugar is a problem.  I learned this the hard way as I went into vacation mode.  I have almost completely given up sweets but My sister makes these amazing chocolate chip cookies and I had a bit of a binge. The end result was a stomachache and a migraine.  If you have problems with headaches or GI issues, consider cutting out the sugar.  For more on the dangers of sugar, see my posts:  Are You Pouring on the Pounds? and On Crack and Ice Cream.

3.  Trampolines are great exercise.  My sister has one in her backyard and a few minutes on that thing and I was huffing and puffing.  This is how I know it is good exercise.  If you are wondering if you are getting enough exercise, use your breathing pattern as a litmus test.  If you are able to complete sentences, you are not exercising hard enough.  If you can only get a few words out at a time, that’s a good sign.

4.  You can exercise on vacation.  A run through a new city is a great way to explore and learn the ins and outs of your temporary surroundings.  You’ll find the distraction of the new environment will push you to run further than you would have otherwise.  For those of you who are staying in hotels, I have a good workout that can be done in the stairwell.  Most of the workouts I posted on the site can be done anywhere in a short amount of time.

5.  You will splurge on vacation.  It is impossible to avoid it.  Don’t let it derail you.  Read my post Falling Off The Wagon to learn more about how to approach setbacks.

I think these pointers will help you survive your summer vacations without completely getting derailed.  If you have any pointers that you’ve learned from your summer vacations, please share in the comments section.  Have a great summer!