Last time I left off, I felt a mental fatigue. I was kind of tired of doing the same thing over and over again but more so I was hungry for some real food lol. I was consistently eating no fat Greek Yogurt, Salad and fruit cups for the past 6 months. Not only that, but I needed a break from the grind of work and working out pretty much everyday. At that point I knew I needed a change of scenery. That is exactly what I got as I went on a cruise at the beginning of August.
I went on a Carnival Cruise for a week and I traveled to the Caribbean. I went to the Dominican Republic, Grand Turks and the Bahamas. This was actually my first time out of the country and I really enjoyed myself. Getting to see the different cultures and different environments of living gave me a different perspective on how I live and how I want to live in the future. This was also my first real vacation in a long time. Going forward I plan on taking more vacations outside of the US. Being in the tropical weather was amazing but for the most part I was mostly on the cruise ship and I must admit, I did not follow any routine I set for myself. I only went to the gym twice but I still kept doing my morning stretch, pushups and sit-ups.
That was the least of my problem as I completely fell off diet wise on the cruise and I had no problem with it. I ate 3 full meals everyday and I knew I was over eating as I remembered one day where I felt my stomach telling me to stop eating. I usually just eat grilled chicken but on the cruise I was pretty much on a burger and steak diet. Not too mention the full breakfast meals with my food drowned in Syrup. I also drank way more than I have in a long time. Do I regret my diet and behavior on the cruise, HELL NO. It was vacation and I earned it. But I did notice there were many obese people there. There were times were I thought to myself that was me just 10 months ago. I knew for sure I did not want to go back to that size and lifestyle.
When I came back, it was the first time I was actually afraid to read the scale in a long time. I knew for sure I gained weight but how much I gained was the question. I figured I probably gained like 5 pounds but to my surprise I was shocked to look at the scale and see I gained 16 LBS in just 2 WEEKS. When I saw that I knew it was time to get back on my grind.
I didn’t even want to post. I didn’t want to give the idea that I was going to start gaining weight again and giving excuses. So I just decided to do what I normally do and that is keep my head down and do the work. That is exactly what I did. I was working out and back on my regular diet just like how it was when I left. I even started increasing the amount of steps I do a day to 15000+ steps which is near 7 miles a day.
At first I thought it was going to be hard to adjust, but honestly after a good week of being disciplined I was back to my regular mindset and body. Also I believe the more cardio focused workouts in the gym the past 2 weeks helped me get back into the groove again. So when it was time to weigh myself again, I knew for sure I lost most of the weight I gained but I was surprised again to see I lost 20 LBS in just 2 WEEKS. Now I know this amount of biweekly weight loss is not feasible for me going forward but to know I am just 6 pounds away from being under 200 pounds, something I haven’t being in 12 years is amazing.
It is also crazy to know I am right near my goal of 175 pounds. My best guess is that by mid October I should reach that goal. I also know that that doesn’t mean I can go back to binge eating afterwards, I would have to going into a maintenance phase and find the right amount of calories to maintain that weight which will mean keeping the diet I have now but increasing the amount of protein I intake.
I was doing some at home workouts recently and I suddenly asked myself, do I just want to be mediocre? Did I just lose 121 pounds to have just an average physique or do I want to continue to be great and put in the work to eventually lose 150 pounds and have an amazing body. I chose… to be GREAT.
