Enjoying Your Vacation Without Destroying Your Progress

Going on vacation stressed & anxious over meticulously managing your nutrition, health, or fitness is work, not vacation. Trying to meticulously maintain fat loss goals while vacationing typically backfires resulting in you worrying, wondering, & wavering instead of enjoying, escaping, & experiencing. You spend all your mental energy obsessing over things like:

• “How much weight will I gain & how will I lose it when I get home?”
• “I’ve worked so hard & made such progress; this vacation is going to screw it all up & I’ll have to start over.”
• “What am I going to eat? How am I going to track food? I’ll never be able to resist all the desserts & drinks.”
• “I regret even planning this now; I don’t even want to go.”
• ? “I hate how I look - how am I going to get out of being in pictures?”
• “The thought of wearing shorts, sleeveless tops, & a bathing suit is making me sick.”

No one wants to diet for 2 weeks on vacation & lose 14 days.

No one comes back from an amazing vacation thinking, “if only I ate less; if only I didn’t try so many new foods; if only I restricted carbs; if only I didn’t put on a bathing suit; if only I didn’t take pictures; if only I didn’t have gelato & pasta in Rome.”

Time to stop wasting vacations because you obsess over about food, eating, calories, the scale, your body, being in pictures, & how you imagine you look. Even worse, you’re passing up vacations altogether because of this!

Hard Pill to Swallow: NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE or WHAT YOU WEIGH. NO ONE IS LOOKING AT YOU OR YOUR ARMS IN YOUR SLEEVELESS DRESS… NO ONE! Just you judging you.

What if I told you that you can enjoy your trip, stay more or less on track, & experience less stress & anxiety around food & eating?

Yes, I assure you, this is a thing!

I spent 2 weeks in Italy & you bet your bucatini I ate pasta, pastries, pizza, panini, wine, & gelato every damn day (OMG all the carbs!), while also walking 20K-30K steps a day.

I’m not saying go all in & eat & drink everything in absurd quantities, but let’s live in the messy middle - the grey area where life really happens.

Here are my top 10 tips to enjoy vacation, without destroying your progress!

1.?Prioritize What Really Matters

Just like in everyday life, you can eat & enjoy pretty much anything on vacation, but you need to make choices. What matters most on vacation? Is the food, culture, & experience special, or something you can’t get at home or something you may never do again?

If going to another country & experiencing culture through food & beverages matters a lot (it does for me), then get comfortable with the idea that you will eat a bit more & you may even gain a couple of pounds, which may or may not even be body fat.

Decide in advance how much alcohol you will have per day – maybe one glass of wine with dinner every night. Decide in advance when dessert or daily fun foods (foods we eat hedonically for pleasure) fit in your day – can you split dessert with others you’re traveling with?

If there are a few dishes that look amazing, can you share them with others for a taste of them all?

Like in everyday non-vacation life, you can’t indulge every day or even every weekend so be reasonable, employ restraint, make good choices, & identify priorities now, while giving yourself space & grace to live it up.

2.?Stay Hydrated

No matter where you are or what your goals are, stay hydrated!

Dehydration can happen, especially in hot climates & while flying. Not only can dehydration lead to headaches & fatigue, but be hard on digestion (which already gets a little wonky due to travel). Start increasing hydration a couple of days before & day of travel, as well as after.

Bring a refillable water bottle so you always have water available. Sometimes I bring individual packets of electrolytes – not because I need the electrolytes (though depending on where I'm going, weather, altitude, sweat, & activity level, they may be beneficial), but because yummy flavored water = I drink more of it.

3.?Hard Pass on Crappy Food

This is also one of my basic rules of everyday life… if it tastes like crap & you don’t love it, it’s not worth eating. Whether a road trip, short drive, or international flight, don’t give in to crappy ( often highly-processed) foods simply because you’re travelling or because it’s free.

When possible plan ahead, pack snacks, & eat what you bring. Travel rules notwithstanding, things like fruit, protein bars, nuts, packets of nut butter, veg & hummus, multi-grain crackers, oatmeal packets, jerky, protein powder, & dark chocolate travel well. You can get some Greek yoghurt, a sandwich, smoothy, & salad at airports for the flight as needed.

4.?Get Moving!

Whether sitting on a beach for a week or exploring a new country, take advantage of trails, running routes, bike rentals, kayaking, self-guided walking tours, exercise studios, hotel gyms, & pools to stay active & maintain some form of exercise & movement. When possible, walk wherever you can.

I encourage clients to be realistic in how they plan exercise & perhaps simply focus on activities & movement they enjoy rather than regimented training - you do you. Even on low & slow vacations walking 8-10K+ steps is a non-negotiable. Not to mention it’s part of my daily routine at home, so no reason not to keep doing the least you can do to hold onto a movement habit.

5.?Prioritize Protein & Veg

Can you keep tracking your food while way? Sure, you can eyeball & estimate. But why not look at this as a mental & physical break from tracking & an opportunity to practice your skills of eyeballing & awareness you’ve been learning while you’ve been tracking!

There are a few easy ways to manage caloric intake without weighing & tracking, & these two particular ways are also key even when you’re NOT on vacation. It's prioritizing lean protein at every meal & loading your plate with veg.

Protein takes your body a long time to digest, keeping you fuller longer. Veg is full of water & fiber, also filling you up, keeping you fuller longer - these give you big ROI on nutrition, especially when nutrition may take a back seat on vacation.

Just like in everyday life, anchoring your meals around lean protein & non-starchy veg helps you manage portions & calories. Fill ? your plate with non-starchy veg, fill ? of your plate with lean protein, & leave the last ? for starchy veg & complex carbs. If adding fats, focus on unsaturated fats during meals knowing your desserts & fun foods will be higher in fats – and unless you’re going someplace where local bread is a true outer body experience, ditch the bread & butter, you have it at home.

6.?B.A.M.s, Boundaries, & Non-Negotiables

Setting your bare-assed minimums, boundaries, & non-negotiables before you leave helps you maintain healthy routines while traveling & give you control. Things like:

• Minimum daily step goals or closing watch rings
• High protein breakfast
• A salad a day & veg with every meal
• Morning walks, pool laps, or hotel gym workout
• 1 drink max at dinner
• No day drinking
• In bed by 11pm
• 1 fun food you love daily
• Daily rest
• No chain restaurants, eat local

I’m not talking about rigid rules, but giving yourself a flexible template & structure – setting basic expectations & standards of health & wellness to hold yourself to, so you feel good about your decisions while still having a good time. All of the above examples also hold true as health-promoting habits in everyday life.

7.?Eat Slowly & Mindfully

Again, just like in everyday life, learning how to eat slowly & mindfully helps you lose or manage weight, without even trying or focusing on portions & calories. Going on vacation is the perfect place to start this new habit – no TV to eat in front of, no computer to sit at working, & no commuting shoving a breakfast sandwich down your face. And no standing in front of the pantry with your hand in a bag of chips mindlessly crunching & munching.

Slow the roll making your meal last at least 20 minutes – put down the phone - I’ll give you the obligatory food porn meal pic first.

Chew a lot & slowly. Put down utensils & breathe between bites; sip water. Reflect on how appreciative & grateful you are for this vacation.Focus on the experience of where you are, with whom, & being in the moment.

This gives your brain & belly time they need to connect & tell each other, “Hey! We’re good, stop eating now before you go too far.” You want to be about 80% full, or just satisfied, without feeling uncomfortable.

And when you get home, this new habit should absolutely be incorporated into your everyday life, so building this skill is also a non-negotiable.

8.?Get your ZZZZ’s

You may be on vacation, but you still need to prioritize quality sleep. Inadequate sleep is linked to a lower?metabolism, higher appetite & cravings, & fatigue – already an added challenge during travel & when dealing with time zones & jet lag.

Prioritizing sleep will help you stay energized, keep your immune system strong, & keep your hunger & cravings in check. Keep a normal-ish schedule & a normal-ish sleep routine. Bring an eye mask & ear plugs - I even bring my favorite contoured pillow.

9.?Perspective

NEWSFLASH: Similar to holidays, vacations are not really what's derailing your progress.

Imagine this… you overeat by 500 -1500 calories a day for a week away.?Over the course of the week that may result in a 1-3lb gain. With 52 weeks in a year, it’s what you do the other 51 weeks that matters WAY more than vacation or a few holidays every year.

Also, it’s not the vacation derailing you, but your delay in returning to your normal healthy habits & routines that’s the real problem…which leads me to #10.

10.?Return to Routine ASAP

Once you’re home, your priority is getting back to your regular eating, sleeping, moving, & exercising routines. It may take a few days & that first week back may be rough, but getting back into it is what matters for capitalizing on & re-starting the momentum of your progress.

It is so easy to let days & weeks pass & before you know it, a month has gone by – don’t let this be you. This is where your progress stalls, not on your vacation.

As soon as you're home, get groceries ASAP! The day we returned from Italy, I walked in the door & went grocery shopping to set us up for the best possible choices for the rest of the week. Dinner that night was just a rotisserie chicken, a salad kit, store bought roasted veggies, & a grain pouch for a pretty healthy meal made easy when I was tired & not happy about being back home.

Bonus Tip - If you’re someone who typically weighs themselves daily, or someone who easily gets triggered by scale weight, then consider NOT stepping on the scale for at least a week when you return.

Give yourself & your body time to get back into healthy routines. Give your body time to adjust to your regular foods, less sodium, less calories, less carbs, less alcohol, jetlag, & regular sleep in your bed.

We know these factors result in scale weight increases, without often being body fat increases – much of it is typically water weight.

Plus, who wants the last thought of vacation to be a random number on the scale & how that number may make you feel?!?

Sure, at the end of the day, it is what it is & you weigh what you weigh, but your vacation & experiences out-weigh perceived costs.

TLDR

Striking balance between enjoying your vacation & not destroying progress is possible.

Plan ahead, make good conscious choices, set boundaries, identify non-negotiables, & establish bare-assed minimums so you can enjoy an amazing vacation with minimum collateral damage.

You’re not going to undo everything you accomplished just because you’re vacationing, but the longer you delay getting back into your normal routines & healthy habits, then progress suffers.

** A note on body dysmorphia – body dysmorphic disorder is the obsessive feeling that your body is flawed, even laser focusing in on perceived body part flaws. This often leads people to innately believe that their body is very different from other peoples to the point that it interferes with daily activities, joy, your mental-emotional state, opting out of life events or vacation, & even impacting your relationships. It can cause shame, anxiety, loneliness, & other serious symptoms & outcomes that vary person to person.

If you’re a parent, being a healthy role model is important at home & on vacation. Kids pick up on everything - comments you make about your body or body parts; how you’re fully covered on the beach; how you hide in photos or make excuses for why you’re not in them; how you talk about food & eating & calories & carbs making you fat…

When the memories start to fade, those beautiful photos – that you’re not in – is all you have left. As you age, as your kids grow up, as you & your partner grow old together…and when you’re gone, there will be little trace of you & your beautiful life.

If this resonates, consider seeking professional help & support from a therapist who specializes in this area. This is a complex issue to work through & it will take time, but don’t let life pass you by & don’t let your joy be stolen one moment longer.