I am one of those people that gets post-holiday, post-vacation blues. It’s not crippling or anything, but I always feel a bit deflated at this time. Christmas has gone, New Year celebrations have passed and with my birthday right after that, as a kid, I was pretty sad that there was nothing else to focus on until Easter. These days, I’ve long passed the thrill of endless chocolates in springtime, though.
I guess it would be worse if I were one of those that get a lengthy holiday break. I get Christmas Day off, but I’m often right back into it, straight after. This past Christmas, I was back to work on Boxing day, for example.
It’s a sobering time in more ways than one, though. Back to the grind, focusing on getting things sorted for the coming months and a break from the beers, wines and spirits. I don’t mainly do Dry January, as I didn’t drink that much over the holiday anyway, but it’s always a good idea to take a break from the hard stuff.
That gets me onto one of my ongoing challenges. I want to lose weight. Not just a couple of pounds that I gained over Christmas. I didn’t gain any weight. I do want to make a serious effort to lose about 80lbs by the end of the summer, though. Eating more healthy food is the easy bit. We mostly cook at home during the workweek, rarely eat fast food, and practice Intermittent Fasting.
We don’t do anything that is not sustainable. I am well aware of the yo-yo dieting effect that curses many, so anything we do (as Kathy, my wife, is on board with this too) has to be something we can keep doing in the long term. The IF has benefits for sure. We no longer mindlessly much in the evenings. Once dinner is eaten, usually around seven, that’s eating done until the following day. No snacks, no mid-evening sandwiches, no alcohol either. Just water or green or herbal tea.
For us, the hardest part is exercise. I tend to be up early most mornings, and so by early evening, I am pretty tired and soon ready for bed, not walking or workouts. Still, we’re going to make an effort to take post-dinner expeditions around the neighbourhood.
For now, though, I’m going to conclude this post and get back to my early morning pre-breakfast (literally as we fast until at least 9 am) black coffee.