Orbital Velocity

Day 117: How Was My Vacation?

When someone asks, "How was your vacation?" they usually aren't asking whether you threw your diet and exercise habits out the window. In asking myself that question, however, that's essentially what I want to know: what was the impact of my being away from home for over two weeks, away from my newfound habits and rituals?

Strictly speaking, my trip to Mexico wasn't a vacation. In fact, I billed 20% more hours in the month of March than I typically would. For my wife, it was a Tax Season work retreat, a way to escape the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder from Chicago's winter gloom and get the benefits of a solar recharge when she most needs them, during her two-month crunch time. It's something I recommended she do each year, starting about four years ago, and it's been a huge help. We found cheap lodging on Isla Mujeres, with good wifi, and we both worked every day we were there.

When the trip was still ahead of me, and I was in that magical place of envisioning what my days would be like, I pictured yoga every morning, push-ups and sit-ups at least a few times each week, and creative ways of sticking to our diet. What I didn't picture were mosquitoes waking me up at 3:00 AM, biting me until their blood payload was heavy enough that I could hear that singular high-pitched whine that drives me insane. We put an end to this nightly interruption of sleep by closing the window and balcony door at bedtime, and turning on the A/C -- which we prefer to avoid. I'll take mosquito netting over air-conditioning on any but the hottest of nights. I also didn't picture how dirty the floors of our room and balcony would be, a common problem in dusty, sandy places -- especially in inexpensive hotels. The poor sleep made it so I didn't feel like waking up and doing yoga, and the dirty floors made me want to keep my hands and face away from them. The exercises I'd imagined myself doing simply didn't happen.

And I was constantly tempted, of course, by delicious Mexican foods that were definitely not allowed while on our diet. I wasn't overly generous in making allowances for favorite foods or beverages. But I did have one al pastor taco. I drank more sugary hibiscus and tamarind "water" than I should have. I ate more fatty meat than I typically would. We enjoyed a glass of wine and a break from work each evening at sunset. When rice or potatoes showed up on my plate along with the seafood and vegetables I was expecting, I always ate at least some of it. There were a couple of situations in which our respect for Mexican culture and the beauty of a moment required of us that we order tequila. And the sheer volume of food we ate -- three restaurant-sized meals, most days -- made us both realize most-of-the-way into our stay we needed to cut back a bit, and order more dishes para compartir.

All things considered, however, I felt like I did pretty well. Not a single beer, not a single burrito. Only one breakfast was covered with boiling-hot cheese, and that was an accident -- and a mistake, as we were later informed by what polite people call "digestive discomfort". We ate lots of healthy ceviche and cocteles de mariscos. Eggs with vegetables for most breakfasts, and we were painfully self-restrained in our refusal of tortillas y totopos. My wife is particularly good about saying no when off-diet carbs are brought to the table as part of the meal, for which I am always grateful... about an hour later.

This is all to say that you can visit another culture, where you love the food and want to eat all the things, and manage to eat healthy, allow yourself a few indulgences, and come home no heavier than when you left.

In terms of exercise, I realized after a couple of days that my at-home routines weren't carrying over well at all. So I took my own advice: find exercise you enjoy doing, and push yourself to do it. I love swimming in the ocean, so I took one to three swim-breaks each day. While swimming, I established some "landmarks" in the water, like sandbars and swim-area buoys, and used these to define boundaries for swimming laps. This way I could measure how far I was swimming, and push myself a little harder each day. I've always sucked at distance swimming, and have admired people who are good at it. Even the small amount of progress I made in the course of ten days felt great.

Now that I'm back, it was time for a check-in, to see whether my efforts while in Mexico were enough to keep me on track. Here are the results:

I'm delighted. Over the last twenty-one days, I lost four pounds. My waistline measurement is finally down -- which I can feel when I put my pants on. I beat my previous records for push-ups and pull-ups, despite not doing either for over two weeks -- which tells me all that swimming paid off. And the biggest victory for me is that I broke 500 jumping-jacks in ten minutes.

The one disappointment is that I had a major setback in the number of sit-ups I'm able to do in three minutes. This comes as something of a surprise, to be honest. My guess is that it's due to my having done no sit-ups and almost no yoga while away. Seeing the impact of this is super helpful. Now I know what I need to focus on for the next ten days, until my April 15 check-in.

Actually, there's one other disappointment -- and it's an informative one. Since arriving home two nights ago, I haven't really been looking forward to getting back to my Orbital Velocity habits. I didn't write a single entry while in Mexico, and I didn't immediately have that "welcome home" feeling where you crave the rituals you've been away from.

Right now, however -- having been home for a day-and-a-half -- I do look forward to getting back into the swing of things. What made the difference? Was it just a matter of needing a "recovery day" after the mild strain of being away from home, and of coming back to lots of household chores? I suspect that was part of it. But forcing myself to do a check-in this morning, and feeling good about having done it, seems like the turning point. It reinforces my sense that twice-monthly check-ins need to be a part of my routine for the rest of my life. They need to become part of who I am, as essential as brushing my teeth, shaving, getting my hair cut, going to the dentist every six months, and all the other aspects of personal care that I've mentally filed under "Mandatory". If there's only one thing I take away from this project, I think that's likely to be it.

So, how was my "vacation"? It was sunny, it was romantic, it was fun. And it was a success.