We enjoyed a wonderful fortnight in Tenerife just before Christmas.  This is a time of year that I really can recommend for taking a break in the sunshine.  And there was sunshine.  Lots of it, most days that we were there.  The daily temperature was somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees, which is exceptionally warm for Tenerife for December.

I had taken my trainers, sports wear and heart rate monitor with me.  The plan had been to walk for about 30 minutes a day.  I was fully intending to stick to this daily commitment to offset the additional calories I knew that I would be consuming and the reduced activity levels.  At home, I potter about doing housework.  On holiday, I sit and read in the sunshine.

HOWEVER, what I hadn’t planned for was the fact that the sun would be so hot from first thing in the morning until it set in the evening.  I’d researched the area we were staying in (Los Gigantes), and I knew that out apartment was located on a bit of a hill.  BUT I’d not realised just how long that hill was and quite how hard it is to walk uphill for any length of time.  We were also sleeping incredibly well (often 9 or 10 hours a night).  Part of that was the fact that it didn’t get light until 8am.  By which time, the sun was up and it was already 22 degrees outside.  That is simply far too hot for me.  I overheat.

Long and short of it – I managed one morning to fit in an hours walk around the village.

It was lovely to be walking around the village whilst the locals were going about their business and the holiday makers were mostly still asleep.

I managed a few more walking opportunities  – after returning our hire car, and at some of the places we visited, where a wheelchair just couldn’t go with me in it!  Los Gigantes, whilst being very picturesque, isn’t the best place to visit if you are a wheelchair user or your mobility is impaired in any way.

I ate more that I would at home (where I am very conscious about my calorie intake), I moved less (read a lot of lovely books) and returned home with a few additional pounds in weight.  Well, about 7lbs if I am honest.  All that a week before Christmas!

Christmas food indulgence didn’t seem too bad.  We hadn’t stocked up on lots of snacks and goodies.  We ate “regular” meals before and after Christmas day itself.  Including ostrich steaks, which were surprisingly tasty and very easy to cook.  Similar in taste and appearance to fillet steak and cooked in the same way.  However, only 141 calories for a 125g steak, very low in fat and very high in protein.  We’ll be eating it again!

BUT there was cheese, and chocolate and many other things that found their way into the house disguised as a Christmas gift or as a “rare” treat.  The things that I usually have to banish as they are just too great a temptation for me…

Anyhow, like so many others, I am “back on it”, back to my exercise regime, which has been sadly neglected since last March.  I’ve paid the price.  My niggly aches and pains have returned.  My body is looking less toned.  There are wobbles in places where I’d thought I’d managed to banish them from.

Fitness doesn’t just happen.  It needs to be earned.  It needs to be respected.  Suddenly this journey is just as much about how I look and feel in my reduced sized body – not just what the scales say.