Taking a Break

Having been 300lbs, I absolutely cringe at the thought of taking an actual break from the gym – I.E.  More than 2 days off in a row.  I recently had just such an opportunity to take a break this month.  In fact, it was a 9 day break! Some family health issues prompted a trip out to Seattle for 9 days earlier in the month of January.  As I’ve said in previous posts – Family is first for me.  I decided that I wasn’t going to try to force going to the gym while we were out in Washington.  If I tried to make time to get to a gym and didn’t manage to get there for whatever reason, I’d be grouchy and whining.  Instead, I resolved NOT to go for 9 days and enjoy the time with family.  Life is short, and I wanted to maximize the time we have. Knowing that I wasn’t going to make the gym for at least 9 days was a pretty scary thought.  Thinking about it, I don’t think I’d previously taken more than 4-5 consecutive days off since before starting my health/fitness journey more than 2 years ago!  I somehow still managed to get all my workouts in when on the road for 22 weeks for work in 2010.  I knew that I didn’t want to stress over the break though.  I would just put some of the knowledge I’d gained in the last couple years to good use! First, I had to keep tabs on what I was eating.  Did I count calories? Absolutely NOT!  I made wise choices and since we were with family a lot, we really didn’t eat out too much.  When I did have a meal out, I used common sense when making meal choices.  I knew it would be tough to avoid processed foods, so I went with chicken breast sandwiches, chicken breast teriyaki, and plain rice.  I avoided the massive cheeseburgers with bacon and more cheese.  I had probably two cheat meals over 9 days (the worst being a sourdough burger and fries) – not bad.  I also took in tons of water – still managing a gallon a day even with spending a lot of time in a car driving back and forth to a local hospital. Second, I needed to get in as much movement as possible w/o going to the gym.  How’d I manage that?  I parked as far away as I could from places so I’d take more steps to get to the doors.  I took the stairs (up and down) to get where I was going at the hospital.  I even got our 6 year old who is obsessed with elevators to take the stairs a couple times PRs   Third, I blocked out all the mind games my brain would try to play.  Was I tempted to sneak off to a gym? Absolutely!  I managed to fight off the mind games, and keep the gym on the back burner while I got to enjoy the time with my family. After getting back to Minnesota and back into my normal routine 10 days later, I was truly surprised at how well the gym went.  I set two new PRs on dumbbell and barbell benching!  As it turns out a 9 day break after 2 years of hard work in the gym was a good thing.  Not having worked out for 9 days also gave me a new appreciation for the time that I do get away to make it to the gym.  I have a supporting wife, and for that I am very thankful.  How often do you take a break from the gym and what does that break look like?  Let us know!