THERE IS SO MUCH FOOD ON MY VACATION!!!!!!!

Will I ......... gain weight?

If you are a female who is reading this article, I guarantee that this thought crosses your mind every time you go on a vacation especially on a vacation that involves cooking Italian food with an Italian chef while drinking wine.

Am I right?

If not, then congratulations! Most likely you have a very healthy relationship with food, body image, scale number and ......... are you ready to share your wisdom with the rest of us?

Prior to my cooking vacation in Italy, I finally started my journey of understanding macro nutrients and how they affect our energy and mood levels as well as body's ability to burn fat and build muscles especially for women over 40. I had always been apprehensive of the diets that promoted restriction, food group elimination and overall black and white approach. Then I learned about macro counting or flexible "dieting". Technically, it is not a diet in the traditional sense but it is a style of life that equips you with the science-based approach of intentionally planning various phases that support your goals throughout life. It allows me to step into my new identity of becoming a macro scientist who uses data to make adjustments and track progress. It trains my mind to be less emotional and more factual and data driven.

As my coach likes to say: "It is not about getting skinny, but it is about who you are becoming as a part of this process!"

There are many phases to macro counting! It is not the purpose of this blog.

I intentionally chose to be in the maintenance phase before my vacation to boost my stagnant metabolism in my late 40s.

This is an exciting phase! This phase focuses on finding your maintenance calorie number, which means adding more food to reset your metabolism. When was the last time you were intentionally adding more macro-balanced food options to your every day active goals to achieve your maintenance calorie? NEVER!!!

Who does not want to eat more food and burn fat? I will be talking more in depth about phases of macro counting in my future blogs but this blog is all about helping you relax on your vacation, enjoy food and stay in the "right mindset" for you just like I was on my vacation.

My prior work helped me enjoy all the Italian meals that we cooked - appetizers, main course and dessert as well as other meals cooked for us. On this particular vacation, I had no idea what I would be eating. It was always a surprise! Because I was intentional about my phases and equipped with the right tools, I had no shame or guilt crossing my mind. I truly enjoyed the feast in the Italian way with lots of olive oil, pasta and pizza, wine, cheese, meat, croissants and cappuccino!

Prior to my becoming a "macro scientist", I considered pasta, pizza and croissants (every breakfast) were "unhealthy" foods. I was stressed about those items because we often would associate them with ........... weight gain. Does it that sound familiar? If I continued thinking like that, then I would be very hungry on my vacation and not enjoying it at all. Luckily, I did not have to justify that it is ok for me to eat all of it now and go on a restrictive diet upon my return!!!! Food freedom - as my friend Amanda likes to say.

Yes, we did some walking and hiking and my average step count was the same as at home 10k-15k steps a day.

However, I felt that I was not as active.

Now, we are coming to the main aspect of this experience. Did I gain weight? YES!!!!!

If you could only saw the food I consumed.....??

I loved it all! What I loved the most was my attitude about it. Liberating! Refreshing!

Well, I gained only 1lb extra! That is it! Surprise!

It leads me to another point that I want to make. Perhaps, there are many other factors that could affect the number on the scale?

(READ HERE - 9 reasons why scale number jumps)

Yes, on my vacation, I slept well. I had a lot of laughter and felt more relaxed = less stress! I was not stressed out about my "unhealthy" foods and fully enjoyed the cooking experience. My increased metabolism roared and I only gained 1lb that was gone in a couple of day upon my return!

After all, it is not the scale number that counts but amount of fat we can burn!

That is for another blog. Stay tune!

Where are you in your fitness/wellness journey?

Are you a yo yo dieter?

Are you grading your food into bad vs good or healthy vs unhealthy?

Are you feeling emotional and blaming your age every time your scale goes up?

If you want to know about my journey and how my relationship with food has been transforming my life and fitness, get a cup of your favorite drink or go for a walk so you can listen my talk with Amanda in the video below:

Join the Well Women's Community - like-minded women who want to feel strong, look good and enjoy an active life beyond 40!

Be Well,

Coach Jewels