I Took A Holiday & Gained A Stone

For the first time in years, I took a complete break.  Two weeks away on a cruise around the Mediterranean.  No gym.  No training.  No logging.  No structure.  Just sunshine, new places to explore, and as much food and drink as I fancied.  I gave myself full permission to switch off completely.

Did I worry while I was eating and drinking anything and everything? Yes, of course I did.  When you spend years building habits of discipline, it is not easy to suddenly let go.  But something interesting happened as the days went on.  Towards the end of the trip, I realised I simply could not keep eating and drinking at the same pace as I had in the first week.  The novelty had worn off, and my body naturally began to push back.

One of the biggest shifts for me was bread.  At home I usually keep it to one or two slices a day without thinking about it.  But on the ship, I was having far more.  Breakfast often started with a stack of mini croissants, dinner came with warm bread rolls, burgers meant extra buns, and of course there was the afternoon tea with fresh scones and jam.  It was bread overload compared to my usual routine.

The outcome was clear the moment I stepped on the scales when I got back home on Sunday.  One stone gained.  Fourteen pounds in just fourteen days.  A pound a day.  It was not a shock given how freely I indulged, but seeing it written in numbers was still a moment of realisation.

And yet I do not see this as failure.  I see it as part of the journey.  Fitness has never been about perfection.  It has always been about consistency stretched across months and years, not the ups and downs of a fortnight at sea.

Yes, I feel heavier.  My clothes fit differently.  My energy is not where it was before I left.  But the cruise gave me something just as important as training.  It gave me space to recharge, to enjoy myself fully, and to remember that life is meant to be lived.  Discipline is not about never slipping.  It is about how you choose to respond when you do.

And I am choosing to respond by getting back at it.

Monday was Day One.  From then I started again.  I will be logging my weight each week and sharing the process openly here.  This is not about chasing quick fixes or trying to undo two weeks in two days.  It is about re-establishing rhythm, rebuilding momentum and showing once again that steady, consistent effort always wins out in the end.

I know many of you have been in the same position.  You return from a holiday and suddenly you feel behind.  You feel guilty, heavy, frustrated and maybe even a little stuck.  The temptation is to put it off until Monday, or next month, or the New Year.  But the truth is there is never a perfect moment.  The only real choice you have is whether today will be Day One or whether it will stay as One Day.  I have made my choice.  Monday was Day One.

Over the coming weeks I will share the reality of that choice.  The numbers, the progress, the frustrations, the wins and the lessons that come from showing up week after week.

If you have fallen off track recently, let this be your nudge.  Do not wait.  Do not dwell.  Just start again today.  Day One!

Because the way forward is always built on consistency.

Check in next week for the first update.