Lifestyle changes, vacation, and freedom.

My husband and I just enjoyed a week long vacation to Florida/North Carolina. It really got me thinking about my lifestyle change because this trip did not look anything like our last trip to Florida, our honeymoon in 2011. I wrote a blog post about staying on track while traveling earlier this spring, but I wanted to hit on a few things I did during this trip that made a huge difference.

I was very active during this trip. I had to be. I knew if I went from working out 6 days a week to nothing and then tried to resume business as usual when I got home that I would be hurting. My activity looked different from what I do at home but the point is that I still DID something. I didn't run a lot because, well, it was very humid and muggy and even waking up to go out at 6:30 a.m didn't make that much of a difference. I ran a couple of times, even though I had to modify a little bit. I ended up incorporating run/walk intervals because my body is not used to that heat. I also tried to stay moving when I could. If we were in the pool, I'd tread water. At the beach, I would walk up and down the shore or body surf. We also played a few rounds of golf. My goal was to stay moving when I could.

Food was different this time around as well. Last trip was full of fast food, junk snacks, and I'm pretty sure we ate out EVERY MEAL. Now, besides the fact that   eating that way is expensive, I didn't WANT to eat that way this trip. We packed healthy snacks (apple slices, grapes, string cheese, organic popcorn.) We did go out to eat a few times, and I carefully picked out my meals. We stayed at a villa and had a full kitchen, so we were able to grocery shop and cook for ourselves often. That's the beauty of a lifestyle change as opposed to a diet. People always say "You can't eat that, can you?" My response is usually something along the lines of "Well, I probably CAN, I just choose not to." When I limit myself to things I can/can't eat, I'm setting myself up for failure. My perspective towards the things I eat have changed so that I have a healthier relationship with food, so to speak. That's not to say that I don't occasionally indulge... Because I certainly do. But I limit those indulgences, I savor them as a special treat, and I don't make excuses for myself to overindulge (a.k.a. I'm on vacation, I can eat what I want! NO.) 

One of my few indulgences this trip was this amaaaazing Creme Brûlée. So. Good. 

Now when I said earlier that this trip looked a lot different than our last... I really meant that it LOOKED different. 

This is a picture from our trip to Universal in 2011.

One night during this trip, we went to Bubba Gump at Universal for dinner.  I thought it would be cool to recreate the picture from our honeymoon. After we took the picture, I pulled up the old picture and put them side by side and WOAH. BIG. DIFFERENCE. We didn't even realize that through my lifestyle change, my husand had benefitted as well. 

The biggest difference for me this trip, the biggest realization I had, was the life of liberty I now lead. I think back to our first trip or I look at pictures that I was embarrassed by and I just immediately remember that feeling of being a prisoner to my bad habits and a body I was ashamed of. This time around, I had confidence. I wasn't petrified of being in my bathing suit. I'm not cringing at the pictures of myself IN my bathing suit. I'm not cringing at the pictures of myself period. I'm not saying that to be vain. I was just able to realize that what I was experiencing, for the first time in my life. was freedom from things that had a hold on me for too long. This trip really opened my eyes to living a life of freedom. A verse that kept resonating with me is Galatians 5:13 (MSG) "It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows" Is that powerful or what?!

Once we come to enjoy the freedom God has given us, we are no longer bound to the things that hold us captive and we stop trying to sabotage that freedom.  Whether it be food, the expectation to look a certain way... whatever it might be, we were not meant to live your life as slaves to those things. We were created to live a life of freedom!