Monday, July 30, 2012

Back in the routine

There's a problem with coming back from vacation for most people...I suspect that's slightly more the case when you're coming back to Iqaluit. For most of the month of July I was in places filled with greenery. Or in some of the major capitals of the world. I could drink good cappuccino on a daily basis (even in Scotland), get amazing food of any kind almost any time with nearly unlimited shopping and cultural activities.

And then...bang. Iqaluit.

I'm trying not to put down my home, because there are many virtues to the place. I'm just saying the first week back is always a bitch, and last week was no exception.

Although the hardest part of last week was getting back into my diet and exercise routines. I wrote a couple of months ago that I had managed to lose about 35 pounds. Well, prior to going on vacation I was down 43 pounds. Although my weight loss had slowed, I was still losing about 1.5 pounds per week, which is nothing to sneeze at. If I kept that pace up, I'd hit my goal of losing 80 pounds in the new year. Considering I was planning for that to take two years, I was quite pleased.

But there's nothing like a good vacation to screw up the best laid of plans. Actually, it seems to be cruises. Five years ago I was barrelling along on a novel, heading into the last quarter of the book when I went on a cruise. I've barely written a word since then. That's why I was so worried going on this trip...would the diet and exercise routine curl up and die afterwards?

It's been hard to get back into the swing of it. Part of the problem was that while I was pretty good with keeping active on vacation, the diet was locked in a closet and ignored for the entire time. Yes, I did plenty of walking around cities. Hell, I was even a good boy and managed to get to the gym on the cruise ship a half dozen times.

But the food? Forget it. The first morning back in Iqaluit when I had my usual breakfast of a bowl of Cheerios and a banana I could practically hear my body screaming at me: "What the fuck is this? Where's the chocolate chip pancakes, croissant, hash browns and 10 pieces of bacon?" Supper wasn't much better when it was just a stirfry and, most importantly, no dessert. Well, specifically, not four or five desserts, which is what I tended to do on the cruise ship.

What can I say? They had really good desserts and I simply had to try them all. I couldn't just choose between carrot cake, a cappuccino cake, fudge cake and a few other treats when they're saying I can have all of them and they might not be back the next night, meaning I would miss out. That's just wrong.

The fact I was only up 1.4 pounds after the end of the trip borders on the miraculous, it truly does.

So right now it's just fighting to get back into the routine. I'm managing, but it's hard. Last time I started working out because it was something I needed to do mentally. It actually made me feel better. This time the elliptical is just mean. Last time it took about three weeks or more to get used to the new diet routines. Now that the beast got a taste of life outside of the cage, it's been resisting going back in there. I've finished a perfectly normal supper and I'm still hungry.

I'm managing and I haven't cheated on the eating and I haven't skipped a day at the gym. But until I settle back into the pre-cruise routine, things are going to suck.

Last Five
1. Mambo swing - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
2. Capturing moods - Rilo Kiley
3. Let's get lost - Lloyd Cole
4. Eye candy - Ron Sexsmith
5. Tighten up - The Black Keys*

1 comment:

John, Perth AU said...

You know, those characters in your novel are getting really annoyed just sitting there without any resolution to their existence. Put them out of their misery, why don't you?