Dani's report The German Job...

 

Usually, when you start something important and focus only on that, something is sure to come up and you can't carry out your original plan 100%. Because a sickness comes up, or some problem in the family or at work, or perhaps financial difficulties arise, or other influencing factors intervene. In my case, work interfered with the very first phase of my lifestyle change: I had to spend 3 days abroad. A business trip. A week before, I started to think: what now? I don't want to stop/suspend my plan, because then it could be prolonged indefinitely. It's like a tightrope walker in a circus: they only need to waver once, and 9 out of 10 times they'll surely fall and everything is lost. From there, it's almost impossible to come back. Or you don't come back, but start over, but then something else might interfere again. So I felt I would be in a tough spot for 3 days: I would be out of my established daily routines, both in terms of meals and training. Ever since I started this lifestyle change project and brought daily regularity into my life, I've noticed that I find it harder to handle unexpected situations. Although before, that's what I thrived on. But now? A few times I've already gotten worked up over small things, even though, looking back, it was all silly.

 

My mind was on this again: how will I cope? Because I certainly won't be able to stick to my diet, and I'm also worried about my workouts, because I won't have time for them. What's more, who knows? Maybe I won't even have the opportunity, because the place I'm traveling to doesn't have a gym. And I'm not taking weights with me for 2 reasons:

1. I don't have any at home

2. excess weight is heavily penalized on planes.

But I have no other choice, duty is duty. At most, fingers crossed and we'll see what happens. Then Bence and I discussed the eating part, what I can eat and what I can't - he didn't say many new things, but it was just good for reassurance. That's what I needed. Hope came back a little. So on my first day abroad, I was good until lunch, because I had breakfast at home, and I had my morning snack in the destination country. For lunch, a protein shake, because nothing was open (I'd never seen anything like it, and the hotel restaurant was closed too!), for dinner a light salad. That was very good, though. Since almost half of my first day was free - I arrived earlier than necessary - I went for a run in the neighborhood. It felt really good. The weather was good too. The second day, the complications began: breakfast was fine: surprisingly, I could eat everything that was prescribed. I even managed the morning snack. But lunch was not so lucky: broccoli cream soup, vegetable pasta, and dessert. Uh-huh... Good. Nothing to do. So that colleagues wouldn't think I was stupid, and so that we wouldn't get into a deeper conversation on this topic, I ate 4 half spoonfuls of soup. I picked out the vegetables from the pasta and left the pasta (here the waiter looked at me funny, like why didn't I like their food?!), and I didn't even ask for dessert. But I drank a lot of water. That fills you up too! :)

Dinner became the event: we went to a separate restaurant with 20 colleagues - no chance of me skipping it, but I'll have to figure out how not to devour a steak... I managed to order a salad here too - my luck was that my colleague sitting opposite me ordered the same, so we discussed how incredibly healthy we were eating! :) Plus 1 liter of water. Afterwards, we went for a walk in the city to have a drink. Of course, I only drank water again. Everyone was pushing beer, but I just said: "No thanks. I don't drink alcohol." There could be two things:

1. Or they think what a great guy he is, he doesn't even drink alcohol, he lives a clean life

2. Or they think what a nerd he is!

But I don't care what they think. I didn't miss my workout on the second day either, but I was lucky this time: we were supposed to go to dinner on time, but 5 of us managed to agree to go half an hour later than the others, so I had exactly half an hour to go for a good run. I couldn't run as much as the day before, but at least I managed to fit it in.

It felt good!

There was no workout on the 3rd day. On the one hand, it was a rest day, on the other hand, I was fully occupied from 7 AM to 11 PM. There was no time for it. But the food was just as much of a pain as the previous two days. It's not a good feeling when you see everyone around you eating better and better food, and you're just devouring salad. However, every time I manage to show self-restraint, it strengthens me internally: This is it! I've overcome this too and haven't sinned!

So anything can come up, anything can interrupt your plan, but you have to see: there's always an alternative, you just have to find it!