It’s 4 AM and I’m wide awake. Not the good type of awake either. It’s the type of awake where I only got two hours of sleep. I tossed and turned, but now I am fully awake.
There’s a battle going on inside my body. Two opposite personalities are playing a game of tug of war. There’s Fit Mike vs. Vacation Mike.
Fit Mike knows he has a goal to improve his body. Fit Mike knows that his trip is over and that his body needs the proper amount of sleep to get back in shape. The sooner he can get back to his routine the better.
Vacation Mike is still stuck in another time zone eleven hours behind Eastern Standard Time. Vacation Mike enjoyed eating all sorts of exotic dishes. He enjoyed the daily pastries for breakfast. Vacation Mike isn’t ready to just go away.
Whenever I traveled internationally in the past, it always took a couple of days for my body to readjust to being back home. I didn’t always go crazy with my food choices but I normally was forced to eat foods I didn’t eat when in my home.
Eating While Traveling
This last trip I ate about three times a day. That’s not typical for myself when I’m home. I usually eat about two solid meals consisting of a lot of vegetables and protein. Carbohydrates like rice and potatoes are included as well.
During the trip I was having a big breakfast. In Thailand, breakfast included dinner type of foods. You could have mashed potatoes, fried rice, stir-fry and noodles for breakfast.
What a genius idea! We Westerners forget the definition of breakfast is “breaking” the “fast”. Breakfast is nothing but the first meal you have after a period of hours of not eating. Eggs, bacon and coffee do not totally define breakfast in other parts of the globe.
Vacation Mike loved eating dinner type of meals for breakfast. Throw in some French toast, pancakes and occasional croissant and I was in foodie heaven. For almost nine days, that’s how I was living.
Exercise While On Vacation
Despite Vacation Mike eating more goodies than normal, he did share one common thing with Fit Mike. Vacation Mike did some form of exercise every other day. Vacation Mike knew that even he had to do something to keep from going overboard.
Every other day Vacation Mike did some simple exercises. Going into the vacation, Fit Mike did a daily push up and bodyweight squat challenge. The challenge just involved three minutes of pushups followed by five minutes of bodyweight squats every day.
Unfortunately due to lack of sleep, the streak of twenty-five days in a row was broken. Instead of being totally defeated, Vacation Mike started doing the challenge again. He also worked out at a hotel gym. For cardio, there was good ole fashioned walking and swimming in pools.
By the time the vacation was over, Vacation Mike only gained two pounds of junk weight. This pleased Fit Mike. Fit Mike was expecting Vacation Mike to have gained over five pounds and make it more difficult for Fit Mike to lose some fat.
Vacation Over
Once back in the United States, Vacation Mike was suppose to hand the keys to my body back to Fit Mike. All the good vacation memories would stay inside Mike’s mind but it would be time to get back to a normal eating routine dedicated towards Mike goals. That’s what Fit Mike is all about!
On Day One of being back in the United States, my wife and I came back home to an empty refrigerator. We were extremely jet lag but knew we had to get some food. My logical mind wanted Fit Mike to come up with a grocery list to get us back on track.
But reality kicked in, and the jet lag formed a foggy battlefield in my mind. I couldn’t find Fit Mike anywhere! Due to not seeing Fit Mike in the fog, I easily spotted Vacation Mike and asked him what should wedo?
Without hesitation Vacation Mike told us to go get some pizza, wings, and birthday cake (it was my wife’s birthday after all!). One more day of celebration was in order! Sounded good to me!
Two days later it seems that Vacation Mike is still celebrating! Vacation Mike seemed to behave pretty well overseas but now that he’s on US soil, he has had 24/7 access to junk foods.
As I lay awake at 4AM, I’m starting to wonder if Vacation Mike is purposely jacking up my sleep to keep me from feeling normal. My wife and I have been suffering from jet lag pretty severely. We attempted to cook a wholesome dinner two days ago, but Vacation Mike slapped the food out of my hands and demanded more pizza instead.
Don’t Forget Who You Are
While at the grocery store to get some sweets to go with the pizza, I heard a quiet “don’t forget….” I looked around thinking I had gone crazy. The voice went away so I approached the doughnuts. When my hand touched the box, I felt this instant sensation take over.
In the aisle, there was a mirror. In that reflection I could have swore I saw Fit Mike looking at me with disappointment. “Get yourself together”, I told myself.
As I walked out the store, the cold air made the hairs on my neck stand up. I knew what this sensation was. This was Fit Mike wanting control again. It was not going to happen instantly in that moment, but I know that Fit Mike won’t wait another two days before taking over.
Maybe that’s why I’m awake at 4 AM. There’s a battle going on inside me, and it’s only a matter of time before Fit Mike knocks out Vacation Mike to reclaim his throne!
