Alrighty, if you thought I’d fallen off the wellness wagon, you’d be right, well, at least half right. In my defence, I have, however, spent almost two months of this year away from home, having a fabulous time, and at least a week following each return to get over jet lag.
It could be worse. While I haven’t lost any of the weight I’d wanted to by now, I’m weighing in at the same weight I was before I went to the UK. Given the amount of amazing food (and drink) we consumed in the UK and Vietnam (not to mention the beer, especially in Vietnam), that’s a result I’m not going to quibble about.
To be honest, it wasn’t difficult to eat well in Vietnam (and still indulge in beer and spring rolls), and while I felt as though I’d put on a couple of kilos over there, I suspect it was all water weight and mostly in my ankles and, as such, didn’t hang about.
The portion sizes are smaller over there, the food is fresh and full of fresh herbs and vegetables and you can’t go wrong with noodle soups at breakfast. Plus, I reckon we sweated everything else out. (Too much information?)
Which leads me to the reason why, after all this travel, I’m not all the way back at my starting point – or heavier. I’ve somehow managed to maintain an average of 10,000 steps per day for each of the last eight months. If it wasn’t for the amount of walking I’ve done, we’d be having an entirely different conversation.
So, yes, I’m behind on my 2025 Health and Fitness To-Do List, but all is not lost.
This brings us neatly into June. While I’ll be in Sydney for a few days visiting my parents, I’ll be home for the rest of the time.
Last week:
- I planned my menus in advance
- I tracked most of my food
Not only did I feel more in control, I also managed to quiet some of the food noise in my head – although I’ll talk a little more about this next time.
Regular accountability through posts like these seems to work for me too, so the weekly updates will be back. If you’re not interested, simply skim past.
My goals for June are to get back to the habits I was creating at the end of last year:
- Plan menus weekly
- Track food and exercise
- At least four alcohol-free days a week
- Average 10,000 steps a day
- 2 x strength/resistance sessions a week
- Stick to the principles of the CSIRO plan in terms of portion sizes and allowed indulgences
- Regular weighing (I know this one is controversial, but it really works for me)
Recipe of the Week
Last week’s soup was Recipe Tin Eats’ Country Harvest Root Vegetable Soup. I couldn’t get celeriac, but substituted celery, sweed and turnip for that and it worked well.
Julie Lin’s Spicy Garlic Stir-fried Celery
This makes a fantastic side dish and pairs well with something like Recipe Tin Eats’ Asian Beef Bowls, either as a substitute for (or in addition to) rice. (We use Basmati rice as it’s better for Grant’s blood sugar than Jasmine rice – and we cook the rice in advance and keep portions in the freezer as that lowers the GI of the rice even further.)
Anyways, here’s what you do:
Mix together 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (Chinese cooking wine), 3 tablespoons light soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon white sugar. Set this aside for now.
Toss some sliced celery (for the two of us, we used about 5-6 stalks) into about 2 tablespoons of hot oil in a wok for a minute or so. Chuck in plenty of diced garlic (and I mean plenty of garlic – we used 4 cloves) and fry for another couple of minutes. Tip in the sauce and add a cornflour paste ( 1 teaspoon of cornflour mixed with 3 tablespoons of water) and stirfry until everything thickens slightly. Season with salt and pepper and finally add a teaspoon of crispy chilli oil and give it one last toss through.
Wellness Reimagined Link-up
Why not link up below if you’re blogging about health and wellness? The linky will be open for 48 hours and is open to those bloggers who are tracking their health, wellness and activity.
Meet Your co-hosts
- Debbie Harris from Deb’s World
- Donna Connelly from Retirement Reflections
- Jennifer Jones from The Retirement Phase
- Sue Loncaric from Women Living Well After 50
And Anyways... 
I DEFINITELY consider maintaining weight while on vacation a huge win! I think you have been doing a great job.
Thanks Joanne. It was all down to the walking, not the restraint!
Hi Jo, despite travelling you’ve done well to achieve the number of steps as well as eating well. The food looked amazing and now that you are back you can get back on track to ticking off more of your checklist. June is a great time to reassess and re-evaluate. Enjoy your time in Sydney. Are you ever home, these days? LOL 🙂 Sue L x
Jo I would say you have had a huge win! To come home from the UK with no extra kilos is quite amazing. I do remember how much walking you did while there so well done. Mid year is exactly the right time for you to reassess and march forward. I notice you have Noosa National Park on your checklist. I have promised myself to do that, very slowly with my dodgy knee, next time we are up there. Have a great month ahead.
Great job on the lack of weight gain while away. I never seem to manage that. I am looking forward to the discussion about the noisy voices in our head. Love your check list and like you talking about it or writing about it really helps me with accountability. And I harvest golden soup is on regular rotation at my house. I add Greek plain yogurt to mine instead of cream.
Hi, Jo – I wholeheartedly agree with the other. Keeping up your walking and maintaining your weight while traveling are huge wins. Freezing rice to lower its GI even further is something that I did not know! Thank you for sharing this and welcome home! ❤
It’s because pre-cooked rice (and pasta) in the fridge is allowed to (for want of a better word) ferment a tad. It’s the fridge time that’s important. We freeze it the day after cooking for convenience.
Good to hear you made the most of the foodie experiences – and maintained the weight you wanted to.
Wow – you kept up the walking and kept the weight off – great job! I have never eated cooked celery as a side dish. I have added it to soups and stews and various recipes and I’ve eaten it raw by itself or with dip, and I’ve eaten it chopped up in chicken salad . . .but never cooked as a side dish. I’m sitting here trying to imagine the taste and texture! I did not know that about freezing the rice and the GI! Interesting info!!
It’s because pre-cooked rice (and pasta) in the fridge is allowed to (for want of a better word) ferment a tad. We freeze it the day after cooking.
I’m mightily impressed with your update Jo! You’ve been away and kept your walking up and managed to eat and drink well – that’s a huge positive and win/win. You’re clearly dedicated to the list of things to achieve and I have no doubt you’ll achieve your goals. A great post!
Jo, I always enjoy posts like this, especially when you share recipes. You have inspired me to make a health and fitness checklist. Hopefully, it will help me get back on track. I found it very easy to walk 10,000 steps and more while on vacation, but now it seems like drudgery. I guess I need castles and beautiful lakes to stay motivated. Good luck with your weight loss goals.
Hi Jo – I’m late to the party – I get notifications of your substack posts, but not these ones for some weird reason. So glad you’ve managed to keep a handle on things after all the travel and the associated eating that goes with it. I’m sure all that walking helped and will continue to keep you on track.