Aloha, I'm back from Maui!

ALOHA!

I'm back from Maui!!!!  I said that like I'm excited to be back in Vancouver, but I'm so not.  Kent and I did not want to leave.  We wanted our kids to go back home, but we would have stayed in a heartbeat had someone volunteered to be temporary parents for my cherubs.  Just one more week.  Alone.  Without anyone whining about being bored.  Check out what we came home to...

Snow.  Boooooo.  Anyway, sticking to a plan of any sort is often times beyond difficult on vacation.  I think I finally figured out the trick to it.

1. Journal, journal, journal!  Activity and food.  It's amazzzzzzing how things rapidly get out of hand, and it starts with just a handful of chips.
2. If you can be in charge of cooking your own food....DO IT!  We stayed in a resort with a full kitchen in each room.  We hit Costco as soon as we picked up our rental car, and then we were off to the grocery store for items not needed in such large amounts.  No worries, I bought pineapple wine at Costco. That is always needed in bulk amounts when traveling with extended family! lol  Pineapple wine is 0 Points when traveling with a party larger than 4.  ;)
3. Take advantage of ANYthing active.  We ran, we biked (sort of), we swam in the ocean, we swam in the pool, we hiked, then we hiked again, we walked everywhere.  It was SO MUCH FUN!  Trust me when I say, the Heather from 10+ years ago would not have put fun and active in the same sentence.  Who am I kidding?  I wouldn't have said that 5 years ago.  The love for activity has popped up in recent years.
4. Indulge only in things you cannot get at home.  Kent and I celebrated his birthday alone Saturday night.  We decided to hit a local restaurant with traditional Hawaiian cuisine.  I had Lau Lau that evening.  I ditched all of my vegan goals, and enjoyed every single bite.  It was amazing.  Totally worth it.  No guilt!
5. If you require special foods, pack them along in your suitcase.  I did.  I wasn't sure how readily available gluten free bread would be, so I packed some bagels & a burger bun.  Sounds weird, I know.  However, they sure did come in handy!  I never once saw a loaf of GF bread in any of the stores.  Oh, and my GF granola bars came in handy during our hikes!

I would love to hear your own personal tips for traveling & staying on track!  I'm not talking about perfection.  I'm sure we've all been to that point in our journey where we strive to be perfect....and pull it off.  That gets old after a while.  Learning to be real about what happens on vacation, rolling with the punches, and figuring out how to live life without being a slave to your journal eventually falls into place for those of us who have kept off the weight for a long period of time.  So what are you doing on vacation that helps you stay focused, on track, or get back on track once you get home?  I don't want to hear what your Aunt Joan does or about something you read in a magazine.  I want to know what personally works for you.  Do tell!

PS...here are a few snippets of activities I participated in while in Maui.  They are links to my other blogs that you might or might not pay attention to regularly.  I'll update the links as I add the hikes, other runs, etc.  It takes so much time to to all of this blog stuff!  I would love to sit here all day blogging my life away, but life doesn't let that happen.  Funny, really.

The 1st Run Of 2012...
http://www.willrunforcoffee.com/2012/01/first-run-of-year-in-maui.html

The 38 Mile Downhill Sunrise Bike Ride...
http://www.willrunforcoffee.com/2012/01/38-miles-in-mauidownhill.html

The Food...
http://365daysglutenfreevegan.blogspot.com/2012/01/days-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-vacation-in.html