As of this morning I am 4.9 pounds away from my goal weight. Over the last year and a few months, I’ve worked hard and have lost 24 pounds. But . . . my two-week trip to Hawaii (with a weekend tour immediately following) is coming up soon, and I don’t want to gain back a good portion of what I lost! I know I could easily gain 10 pounds in this two and a half week period.

So, how am I going to maintain my weight while eating in restaurants three times a day – with a luau, crab fest, and all you can eat prime rib and shrimp dinner thrown in? Good question. I’ve been thinking about it for months. So here’s my plan of attack for the majority of the days:

Exercise:

1. I’m going to be staying on Waikiki Beach, which is over a mile long, so I will get up every morning and go for a long walk (not stroll) on the beach.
2. I plan to swim as much as possible in the pool or ocean (Waikiki is known for its big waves for surfing, so we’ll see how that goes!). But even if I’m just swimming in the pool, it’s an excellent form of exercise, working most of the muscles in your body.
3. One of the activities I plan on doing is hiking to the top of Diamond Head (the extinct volcano). This is an hour and a half or so hike to the top with about 100 stairs at the very top.
4. The hotel has aqua aerobics and yoga classes that I will participate in.
5. I will be going on two photography tours which will involve a certain amount of walking and lugging equipment.
6. Some of the other things I want to do include walking around the Honolulu Zoo and the Honolulu Aquarium, and possibly horseback riding (this actually burns 272 calories per hour!).
7. I will also spend some time in the gym facility at the hotel, and am hoping they have a scale so I can check in on how I’m doing!

Food:

1. Eat my fruits and veggies every day!
2. Drink a lot of water and limit soda and juice.
3. Try to limit the yummy tropical drinks.
4. Leave the dripping butter off the seafood.
5. On the buffets I will try to fill up more on salad before the other high-calorie foods.
6. I will try to limit the high-calorie desserts and stick to the trail mix I usually have for dessert at home and will bring with me (chocolate, peanuts, and dried fruit). Not sure how that will go, but I will try.

I think mainly what I’m going to be doing is trying to burn off the excess calories that I consume, because I will definitely want to try some of the authentic Hawaiian foods and have some of those “umbrella” drinks just so I feel like I was really on vacation! If the gym at the hotel has a scale, I will post how I am doing on this challenge! 11 days to departure . . .