Just got home from a wonderful week-long vacation. While having a great time in the Seattle area (yes, I loved it), I successfully avoided the temptations of countless chocolate shops, ice cream stands and bakeries.
When I go on vacation I tend to treat it as a vacation from everything, from reality. I eat whatever I want, drink more than usual, and justify it all by “being on vacation” and/or “this is something I can’t get at home, I might never be back.” Which is entirely true, but this time around I asked myself if it mattered that I might never be back. Was it really important to have that thing now, or ever? This trip, in most situations, I decided it wasn’t.
For example, when I saw the sign for Victoria’s oldest chocolate shop, I thought “if it’s that old it must be fantastic, I should get some, maybe I’ll take it back to the office.” Of course it would never have made it back to the office, and when I looked in the window it just looked like any other chocolate shop. I’m sure it would have been delicious, but honestly I just didn’t really want it. And we have old chocolate shops in Ohio too, eating that candy would not have been a life-changing event. So I passed. Same with the bakeries, ice cream shops, and most desserts.
Full disclosure…I did have a sweet dessert twice. Both in restaurants, where it was served to me in a set portion. Once it was gone, it was gone. That seemed to work for me, and both of the items were totally worth it. They were also not things that I would typically binge on (baklava and fruit sorbet), which made me more comfortable ordering them.
Net outcome? I learned that every day is not a special occasion, even on vacation. And most of the things I would have been tempted by in the past really didn’t seem that special this time around. Oh, and for the first time in history I didn’t gain five pounds on vacation, actually I lost a little!
sweeter without 