13 Pound Loss on Vacation

[blizair09 3,250]

Hi everyone,

My partner and I made it safely back to New Orleans late last night after three-and-a-half weeks in Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam). It was an amazing trip -- enlightening, exotic, beautiful -- but I am very happy to be back home.

I weighed on my own scale this morning for the first time since December 19. Preliminarily, I lost 13 pounds during this time. I say preliminary because I'll be curious to see what my weight is Monday or Tuesday after I settle back into my normal routine and lose some of the bloat from the long airplane ride and the sodium from the airplane food.

Here are some things I learned (or remembered) and experienced while I was gone:

1. Changing my relationship with food is the key to this entire battle: This was the first time since my surgery that I had to come outside of my protective food bubble. While I took some Protein powder with me, it was used up pretty quickly, and once we left Singapore, there wasn't any appropriate powder available. String cheese wasn't readily available anywhere, and what they call cottage cheese over there is very different than ours. I had to work with what I could find and make it work within the parameters I set for myself. One time, we ate at a fried chicken place. I pulled the skin off and ate the chicken breast underneath. Many times, I had to get a stir fry concoction and then pick out the Protein and green vegetables and eat that. The point is, I was in less than ideal food situations, and I was able to successfully get the appropriate fuel I needed (and avoid undesirable food) because of my new relationship with food.

2. A little bit of alcohol didn't cause me any problems: I gave up alcohol after the first month of my six-month pre-op diet and I abstained from it for almost nine months total. While I did not consume alcohol every day during our trip, I did have at least one glass of red wine on probably 75% of the days, and two nights (New Years Eve and the next-to-last night of the trip), I drank quite a bit. Even on the "heavy" drinking days, my carbs never went over 50, and my calories stayed nicely in check. Now that we are home, I am planning on alcohol being an every-now-and-then indulgence (meaning no more than once per week), and if there is going to be a night that we have some drinks, I'll use Protein Powder to get my protein needs and keep the calories down and in check. The point is, the alcohol didn't hamper me in any way and my stomach was fine with it (just like my NP said it would be).

3. Exercise is important, but this journey -- right now at least -- is about consumption: We walked A LOT on this trip. I mean like 10-12 miles per day a lot. I was so proud that I could do it, and I was exhausted most days by the end of the day. And the walking probably did offset the alcohol I had, but all-in-all, my loss was along the lines it usually is. I will continue to exercise like I am supposed to, but this journey is still more about consumption at this point than it is any kind of exercise.

4. I still can't do carbonated drinks -- even a sip or two: Pre-departure drinks in international first class usually are champagne and juice. On one of the flights, I got a glass of champagne and took a few sips to see how I would do with it. For a while, it was fine. I ate a little bit during the meal service, and a little while later, I thought I was going to have to throw up in the little bag. (The seatbelt light was on for an extended time and I couldn't get up.) While I didn't actually throw up, I kept having to spit up Water until I had this enormous (and loud) burp. Once that happened, I was instantly fine. As much as I miss Diet Coke, I can't have it or anything else carbonated. I'm envious of those on there who say that they can have it, but I am not going through that again.

5. Food doesn't control my life any more: This trip was about the experience -- the culture, the people, the places. It was not about the food. That was the biggest victory for me. As we New Orleanians now Celebrate Carnival season for the next six weeks or so, I will approach the celebration in the same way. I am going to enjoy the season and be out and about proudly, but it isn't going to be about food, even if it is for others.

So now, I continue my journey. And I will proudly crawl back into my protective food bubble for a little while!

Best to all!!

Blair

[JamieLogical 8,727]

Sounds like you had an amazing trip and learned a lot. I think all of us experience some level of terror about not being able to find foods to eat in strange situations, but the fact of the matter is, Protein is available everywhere! As you figured out, you just have to find anything with protein in it and just eat the protein bits and you can manage. Good for you for making it work!

[suzzzzz 1,005]

Thanks for sharing your journey (literally and figuratively). Traveling where you went definitely sounds like a food challenge, but instead of making it that, you were able to not center it around meals. I am getting better, but the constant preplanning and anticipation of what or where the next meal is will take some time to totally drop. Maybe I need to go to Southeast Asia for a jump start!

Amazing you could walk that much. That inspires me to kick up my exercise a bit more. As for alcohol, I haven't had any issues with it, including champagne, but I can't allow myself to have it on a regular basis.

[blizair09 3,250]

Amazing you could walk that much. That inspires me to kick up my exercise a bit more. As for alcohol, I haven't had any issues with it, including champagne, but I can't allow myself to have it on a regular basis.

My partner was determined not to "waste" a minute while we were over there. The first days in Singapore, I was struggling with jet lag and the fact that nothing I could manage to eat would sit very well, but we walked and walked anyway. I felt pretty rough, but in the end, I was glad that he made me get up and around sooner than later so that I could adjust to the time.

[Holly McQuillan 6]

@@blizair09 What a great re-cap with some wonderful insights! Thanks for sharing! I love traveling and can't wait to do more of it post weight loss. I have always felt like a semi-active person stuck in fat person's body. I say semi-active because I love Water activities and exploring new environments, but doubt I will ever love running or long, difficult hikes. As you know, I'm only 2 weeks post-op, so I have a long way to go, but I'm happy to see that you were able to make the new lifestyle fit into an exotic vacation and still have fun. And to LOSE weight on a vacation is practically unheard of! congrats!

[stayingyoung 8]

Thank you for this. I live in Japan and plan to continue travel in Asia. Many options are not available here and I have been concerned about food choices and enjoying the travel without focus on one of my favorite things about living here.

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