Losing Weight and Travelling

I lost 13 pounds of weight doing short term travels in 2 months.

I first heard that men lose weight when travelling from the documentary movie about long-term backpackers, A Map For Saturday. I never made much thought about it because I do not have the luxury to do long term travelling.

Due to my brothers motivation to lose weight for his Boracay Trip this coming weekend, he challenged me for a Biggest Loser contest which I agreed since I feel myself getting heavier.  This was on the night of the third session of the Sole Sisters‘ talk about GLAMPackers to POORPackers (September 18, 2011).

Since then I have travelled to

• Tacloban, Samar and Eastern Samar for 11 days
• Puerto Princesa and El Nido, Palawan for 10 days
• Concepcion, Iloilo for 6 days

Though I do run, swim and hike mountains I decided not to do anything strenuous up until now for my injury to heal. So what I only did was frequent short-term travels.

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Here’s a couple of reasons why I think travelling made me lose weight

1. The Freedom to Stand – Though it was not illegal to stand in the office, I was a bit shy to stand and walk around while everyone was working diligently. While travelling you can stand everytime you want and you could walk around almost anywhere you want without looking silly.
2. Small but Frequent Movements – While backpacking, I always need to keep on moving since I wanted to see awesome places and had to talk to different people around.
3. Limited Food due to Tight Budget – Everytime I travel there is always that fear of lacking money and not be able to go home that is why I always go for cheap foods. I also do not order much, just the amount that is right for me.
4. Limited Food due to Inavailability – Since I was always inside transportations there were no readily available stores. And there is this fear that I could have bowel movement or wanted to pee while in transit.
5. Unboring like the Gym – I was enrolled in a gym before but I found it boring because what I see when I get there is what I always see when I get there. When travelling I always saw something new and most of the time I got carried-away to the point of spending too much time on one place and hurrying to get to the next stop.
6. My Weights are my Pack – Unlike the gym I would only carry weights for 30 minutes the most. While backpacking I’m carrying a 5kg pack with me almost the whole day.

Now that I lost 13 pounds of weight, breathed fresh air and feeling much stronger and lighter than before I think I’m ready for the weigh-in tomorrow. Wish me luck!

If you want to lose weight and feel good do Backpacking. Frequent short-term backpacking is good for your health.