Journey to FIT—Week 4

Originally posted on October 11, 2014 on carriebeckort.com

Week four provided me with an all too common but difficult challenge.

Vacation.

Starting the week, I actually wasn’t too nervous. I thought through the trip ahead of me and tried to plan. I strategically picked my Fun Days to occur on the days I thought it would be the most difficult to keep to the nutrition plan. And I even had a first:

I packed my own exercise equipment.

In the past I’ve worked out on vacations in the hotel fitness room, but I’ve never packed my own gear. I figured bands were easy enough to pack, so that’s what I did. For the three cardio workouts, I would have to get creative. We went to Colorado and I did look into attending an FXB gym there. We stayed two days down in Colorado Springs and the rest of the week up in Estes Park. In Colorado Springs, there were two gyms near our hotel. Monday would have been the only day I could have gone. However, on Sunday we were in a car accident and I just didn’t feel like going. Instead, I went down to the hotel fitness room and climbed on what I initially thought was an elliptical (the treadmill was in use). It only took me a few seconds to realize it was an incline machine. Despite the added challenge, I did my 45 minutes.

The FXB nearest to Estes Park was in Boulder, a good hour away. After making the initial drive up to Estes Park, I knew I didn’t want to be on that road an hour one way just to work out—especially after having just been in a car accident. I used my bands and did the same strength workout I would have done if I were at home, although I’m sure it wasn’t quite as intense as it would have been at the gym!

For cardio, it was all about hiking. My husband and I love to hike, and thankfully our daughter appears to have the same enthusiasm! Not so much for all the other family members traveling with us, but they were good sports. It’s hard to know for sure if I hiked at a Level 10—sure I was tired and dripping with liquid awesome, but the altitude always affects me and makes things difficult. But it was great and I loved every huffing-puffing second of it!

I stuck to my nutrition plan with surprising accuracy. Although, I did have to ask the family to hold off on making the cinnamon buns until Friday so I could save one to eat on my Saturday Fun Day.

I think the key for my success was telling myself before vacation even started that this was how it was going to go and that’s that. Although, the homemade ice cream would have been nice...