Is Weight Loss Possible On A Stay-Home Vacation?
Weigh Day #30
Is weight loss possible whilst on a stay-home vacation? Of course, it is! It’s not easy but completely doable. Staying focused is key to success. And don’t beat yourself up if things go wonky. This is the situation I was in this week. Time off work and many things to do but did I get anything done? Or was this a missed opportunity? Eating out, birthday celebrations and a brain nagging to drink alcohol were all doing their best to hamper proceedings.
Weight – 118.5 Kilos, 18.66 Stone
Weekly Weight Loss – 0.8 kilos, 1.76 pounds
Total Weight Loss – 19.2 kilos, 3.02 stone
BMI – 40.9 (Obese), Total BMI Loss – 6.6
BMI Target – 25
Song Of The Week
This tune has uplifted and inspired me especially when things got tough.
Full Of Apprehension
Don’t Miss Opportunities
The scenario is usually this. I’ve got a week off work with no daily grind. No pesky having to go out and earn money. You can stay home. Time to put the old feet up and also get jobs done. What can go wrong? In my case normally everything. And I’ll tell you why. I’ll crack open liquor on Saturday and the week is lost. When I return to work, I look back with nothing but regret. I went into last week determined not to make the same mistake again.
Stay-home vacations are a massive opportunity to do things but more often than not, we descend into doing too much nothing and before we know it, puff, the week is gone and you’re back to that daily grind. This was my first at-home time off since starting the journey in October 2023.
No wonder I was so full of apprehension. Especially as I was so near to cracking and hitting the booze. I’ve been here many times and failed before I even began. I held strong and continued my alcohol holiday.
Planning & Mindset
Two Critical Factors
If you’re in a similar scenario, I cannot express how important it is to psyche yourself up. I had just three priority jobs, wrote them down and pinned them on the wall. Any hint of laziness or temptation and there was a stark reminder that I needed to get things done! Only three but all needed to be done.
And I got all three done. I think this is the main reason why I didn’t drink. I’ve concluded I’m getting too old and world-weary for regular hangovers and wasting precious time. Quite simply, things needed to get done. I knew rain was forthcoming from Wednesday, so I tried to clear the excess junk out of the back garden on Tuesday. You have to keep constantly plotting and planning. And if you do this, I’ve found it takes your mind off food because you’re focusing on other things.
Keep the brain working and it helps enormously from straying. I love plotting and planning!
Wobbly Woeful Wednesday!
Give Yourself A Break!
Seriously, give yourself a break, Franklin! You only turn 55 once. My comrade and fellow confused, baffled 50-something Crispin sent me an assortment of wacky items including an Elton John mug and books on Cliff Richard, Jim Davidson, Michael McIntyre and the Channel Islands.
The revamped office with my birthday goodies!
My other good chum and equally baffled 50 Something Neil sent me goodies including an excellent box set by new wave combo The Vapors. Most famous for their toe-tapping smash hit record ‘Turning Japanese’, there is much more in their repertoire worthy of your attention.
Proof in the pudding there’s more to The Vapors than “Turning Japanese”
Different Birthday
Normally by midday, I’m slurping scotch and posting shit on the internet, but I had a quiet and lazy day. After some good weather, the heavens opened and me and Bowie got drenched. And I had to get out my big coat which I thought I’d retired for summer!
Looking Miserable In Terrible Manchester Weather, 22 May 2024
It was great staying sober and treating the day like any other day. As I always stress, experimenting and trying new things are all part of the masterplan to keep your brain more functional when you’re over 50.
A Bad Night Out
We decided to dine out at an expensive restaurant. I rarely write reviews on Tripadvisor let alone bad ones, but I was so angry (as were the girls), that I felt it was my duty to do so! Getting scammed makes me livid! Here’s the review in full, two stars out of five, think I was being a little bit generous!
Not sure where to start. It wasn't the most horrendous eating out experience ever hence the two stars but we left £200 lighter feeling underwhelmed and not appreciated as customers. As has been reported before, the welcome doesn't give a good first impression. The young lady in reception radios upstairs and just tells you to go up. Barely a smile or any kind of welcome at all. Whilst I'd never expect the red carpet treatment, given the extortionate prices you do expect a little bit of common courtesy.
This set the stall out for our dining experience here. Having been to similar places where you order on an iPad, we knew what to do. You have to order everything from the tablet. Given the timescale to eat (which is more than ample given the slow service) and the fact it's a buffet, you want to order food as quickly as possible and we went in very hungry. Seems to be the norm but the first orders took ages, at least 15 minutes for one small plate of sushi out of 12 items ordered. The salads I ordered took well over 20 minutes and the place wasn't busy either! Then a couple more filtered through. We asked if we could get our orders all together, not unreasonable as similar restaurants seem to manage this and whilst they managed this briefly, it soon went back to just delivering random dishes.
At one point, my wife was thrust some coconut rice and nothing else! When the next dish arrived it was potatoes! There seems no strategy for how the dishes are served. Something we ordered and had forgotten about, came when we were eating our desserts! Which were good but you cannot mess up a cheesecake!!!
All this could have been forgiven if the food was up to scratch for the £48 (less desserts and drinks) the place charges. This food is most certainly not fine dining but pretty bog standard buffet food you can get elsewhere for over half the price. It was my birthday and we told the restaurant in advance but they made no effort and didn't even acknowledge.
The couple sat next to us walked out due to the slow service and we heard a waiter being rude saying he had many tables to deal with even though the place was dead. We didn't notice the 12.5% service charge till after we left (as we'd had enough and just wanted to pay the bill and leave) so that added an extra £21 to the bill plus I paid £12 for parking so all in all a very expensive night where we got little in return! The menu is pretty poor as well. Dining with two Brazilians, we know our Brazilian food and drink. The choices weren't great. No feijoada, no Guarana??? Come on, those are the Brazilian basics!!! But, the food was ok just not worth the money. We don't mind paying when you get some worth for your money but seriously, there's so many better, cheaper options in Manchester.
And I must confess, I felt a whole heap better after writing that! A new form of therapy!
Birthday Meal, 22 May 2024.
Being a buffet, I naturally overate but hadn’t eaten too much during the day. Hence to say, I never recorded my consumption in My Net Diary. First time in quite a while. Never beat yourself up, that’s my top golden rule now. In any case, I knew I’d gone over on calories but not too many. There’s nothing wrong with a day off. We are only human! It’s what comes after that counts.
Back To Normal
With Minimal Effort
Something you need to teach yourself after a life event or even just a bad day is to get back to normal as soon as possible. I’ve learnt that two days off is the absolute maximum. Any more and you could find those bad habits creeping back in for good. This is where ‘Domino Effect’ can creep in and before you know it you’re putting off the weigh-ins and having more bad eating days than good. Don’t go there, it’s simply not worth it!
These days I find getting back to normal quite effortless but it wasn’t always that way. Having no alcohol in my system certainly keeps a clearer head but there were months I’d not drink and still not lose weight or make any effort to do so. So, it’s not simply about the lack of alcohol. IT’S ABOUT YOU!!!! Never forget this all comes from you. You have to possess a will to succeed in any way you can. It doesn’t matter how you get there but it does matter that you get there. And it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there as long as you’re always moving forward to get there.
Friday was a particularly good day and one which helped enormously in meeting my weekly target. For once, I didn’t eat late and ate very sensibly. In an ideal world, every day would be like that. But we all know this is 100% impossible and never think any other way!
A good day but still not enough fibre and protein!
That’s the number one rule. You’re doing this for you. It’s your body and your life.
The Weigh In
A Good Week
This week’s challenge was to prove to myself that I could achieve weight loss whilst on a stay-home vacation. Job done!
I was delighted to get through the week and lose weight. I wanted to prove that you can achieve weightloss on a stay-home vacation. Another 0.8 kilos (1.76 pounds) gone.
Since changing a few habits mid-April, I’ve lost 4.7 kilos (10.36 pounds). To put things into perspective about how changing habits can have an effect, in the period from 3 February to 14 April I lost 2.1 kilos (4.62 pounds). I find jotting down little facts and figures helps a lot! So twice the weight loss in half the time! I’ve now got into a groove of chipping away around half to one kilo a week which those boffins in white coats with clipboards recommend.
What’s more important is how good I’m feeling. Much better than the last time I was this weight two years ago and that is the key to success. It’s not only about the weightloss but how you feel inside. I love that birthday picture, I think for a bloke who just turned 55 I look fantastic and rarely blow my own trumpet when it comes to pictures.
I frequently bang on about milestones because they help a lot and when you hit them, makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I’ve now lost three stone. Here’s to the next three stone!
And if I can do it, you can too!!!!
The Week Ahead
A New Challenge
Back to the realities of work! I agreed to do a week (or four days given it’s a bank holiday on Monday) of the overnight shift. For something different and a bit of extra cash. This presents me with a series of challenges but nothing which fazes me.
Food shouldn’t be a problem, I’ll probably have to take two meals to work and eat an evening meal before I go but not really thinking of the plan yet. Will save that for Tuesday during the day when the realities of going back to work sink in! Lethargy could be an issue and I probably won’t do as many steps since the wife is off work and will take my freeloading friend out for his walk.
The overnight shift is always a challenge but I’m not doing the marathon 12-hour overnight so it should be a little easier. Always up for something new but no doubt I’ll be happy to get back to my normal 2-10 PM shift!
Delighted to prove to myself that weight loss whilst on a stay-home vacation is possible!
See you Weigh Day #31!
