How to Lose Weight on Vacation
Oh ma gawd y’all. Andrew made us Facebook official yesterday LOL and my lil heart is all twitterpated. We celebrated our four month anniversary yesterday and honestly—it feels like we have been together for 5 years. If you know me, you know I LOVE my alone time. And when he’s around, I’m still able to recharge. We’ve been to California, Oregon, Idaho, Connecticut, Florida, New York, and….HAWAII together!!
I visited Hawaii for the first time as an adult this Summer under circumstances I couldn’t have guessed if you paid me a million dollars. I somehow was able to have the time of my life AND lose a couple of pounds? How you ask? Well MY idea of vacation is sitting on the beach all day every day, phone off, Mai Tai in one hand, a good book in the other, sunglasses on and just livng my best life. My week in Waikiki had a little bit of that but it had a whole lot of physical activity built into the schedule as well.
My sweet boyfriend, Andrew invited me on his family’s vacation. PAUSE. I can barely remember the last time I went on vacation with my own family let alone someone else’s. I know how to vacation by myself. I know how to vacation with my best friend. But I have NEVER navigated vacation with someone I like kissing. And I’ve surely never been on vacation for an extended amount of time surrounded by a group of people. Well folks, Andrew’s family is SO fun and so adventurous and so welcoming and thank GOODNESS I’d met them all a few months prior to just showing up in Ohau to be with them!
Andrew’s dad picked us up from the airport with two Mai Tais in hand to welcome us. Andrew’s brothers made those drinks and BOY were they strong! Our first stop before going to the hotel was Waimea Bay which was about an hour’s drive away.
Let me begin by saying that the deepest I’ve ever gone into the beach is up to my knee. I literally jumped into a lake for the first time in my life like last week. Within 10 minutes, y’all I was up to my NECK in the OCEAN. Flailing, spinning, yelling, afraid I was going to be eaten by a whale. But…*whispers* it was so much fun. I didn’t die. (I also didn’t get my hair wet, so that was a major bonus.) The whole family was in the ocean playing football and I was so glad that I had the courage to get in too. Little did I know, that was only a TASTE of what was to come for the rest of the week.
The next day, we loaded up the car and went on a hike. A HIKE. I don’t think I thought they were REALLY going on a hike because I wore my swimsuit and jeans. I think I thought it was just a cute lookout point that we were going to drive to.
WRONG.
Y’all we were in the JUNGLE of Hawaii: moving tree limbs, navigating through mud. There was one point where I questioned if they were just making the trail up because I did NOT see a path! My lightwash blue jeans didn’t stand a chance (I’m still trying to get the mud out of them). But alas, we found the most beautiful waterfall in the middle of nowhere. Andrew wanted to climb it. I wanted the photo…so I climbed it too. (priorities). When I thought we were done, I realized that was just the warmup. We still had MILES to go to reach the top of the mountain.
We did it. We got to the top and it was beautiful. Of course once we reached the main lookout, I realized there was a parking lot which means… nevermind. Haha. That was called Pali Lookout.
Two other hikes we took during the week were Diamond Head and Kokohead. Diamond Head was really nice. You have to pay $5 for entry but it’s worth it. The entire trail is paved. There’s a bathroom and they had vending machines and rest areas. Kokohead on the other hand—is the hardest hike I’ve ever embarked on in my LIFE. We weren’t in the jungle. I wasn’t trudging through mud or anything like that. It was just a staircase from the bottom of a mountain to the top of it. I almost passed out. The closer we got to the top, the more my lungs were like “GIRL. WE NEED MORE AIR.” I was seeing them tweedled birds flyin around my head. But I MADE IT!!
There was one other hike that Andrew wrongfully assumed I would be participating in. Yeah he was like, “No worries babe! It’s super easy! There’s a little water that you have to get through before you get there, but you’ll be fine!” He said a little water…
IT WAS A TWENTY MINUTE SWIM THROUGH THE OCEAN TO GET TO THE ISLAND.
AbsoLUTEly not. They say the water is usually low enough to where you can sort of walk it, but it was later confirmed that Andrew couldn’t touch the bottom at some parts so that translates to me as WAY TOO DEEP.
You know, after all the boys left to the island, I did contemplate maybe trying to catch up. But the moment I stepped out into the water, I saw a JELLYFISH.
Aaaaannnnd WE GONE STAY RIGHT HERE ON THE SHORE. Thank you very much. Good night! Haha, it was cool to watch them get across the water and venture to the top. We waved at each other when they reached the peak! The island was called…Chinaman’s Hat because it looks like a hat, and I thought there HAS to be a better name for it—there is. The Hawaiian name is Mokoli’i.
So there you have it. The other missing factor to losing a couple of pounds other than the physical activity, was that it was so hard to get a reservation because Ohau had double the number of occupants than the island is used to hosting. (Some nights there was a 3 HOUR wait time for a table). SO we made a lot of meals in the hotel! (Which also was great for the budget too.)
We all took a catamaran out to sea, I got my nails done, gobbled down some Dole pineapple ice cream and yes, I racked up a little beach time with my Love too. Andrew was by my side the entire time and even though he could have jetted to the top of Kokohead without me, he stayed close by. His family is so much fun, and I somehow love him more now than I did before the week began.
And there we have it. The next time I go on vacation, I may actively plan physical activities into the itinerary and not eat out for every meal!
