Time and again I hear my clients and participants stress about vacation. I always find it so ironic that we get stressed about vacation! It's supposed to be a time to rejuvenate and de-stress. But the fact remains that many of us find that we can work diligently on a healthy body and diet for weeks or months, but as soon as our minds perceive "Vacation time" we eat and drink ourselves into a state of feeling tired, bloated and more run down than when we left for vacation!
Often I send Fitness Freaks Clients away on vacation with my tried and true "Travel Workout" (pssst.....you can email tracy@fitnessfreaks.ca if you want to learn more or purchase a copy of my Travel Freaks workout).
Other times I have participants in my classes wave goodbye and tell me with a pensive look that they will see me in a week or two and 'warn' me that they will be losing all their hard work! That's definitely not what I want to hear, or what they want to see! In fact, I've had many people come home from vacation 3, 5 or even 10 pounds heavier.
So, although summer is behind us and all the summer vacations are done, ahead lies a cold, rainy winter with many people planning their winter escapes already. I want to provide you with a few tips, some gear ideas and share my own experience of this past summer vacation with some other fitness freaks.
Top 5 ways to ward off the Extra Vacation Baggage
1. Let the boozy Mcboozersons be the people you watch with amusement, not be you! Of course we all want to relax and enjoy vacation, but we don't need to get to a state of constant "buzzness" to do that! One glass of wine or a sleeve of beer runs between 100 and 150 calories. Similar for a shot of any hard liquor. Spreading those out from mimosas in the morning to special coffees at midnight can easily add up to 1000 -2000 calories PER DAY! Try to save your drinking for specific times of the day and savour it with food.
2. Dressing on the side please :) If you know where you are staying, it only takes a few clicks to find out the best local fare and not hard to figure out which spots are just greasy spoons and which ones offer some chance of lighter fare. NEVER be afraid to ask for adjustments to a meal. After all, you're a tourist - they expect you to be a pain in the ass ;). Also, usually restaurant servings are HUGE! consider sharing with your husband/wife/boyfriend/buddy. Splitting an appy and a main can save you tons of calories and moolah!
3. Plan your splurges. Whenever we go away, I like to get excited about some sort of special food or treat that we'll be having where we are going. On our most recent vacation, we knew that the resort had an Ole Fashioned Milkshake Shoppe right beside the pool. I knew from the moment we booked that I'd be ordering up a milkshake, but I also decided right then, that I'd only be having 1 over the 4 days we were there. Every time we talked about our upcoming trip, in my mind, I thought about that milkshake and that I'd only be having one. And you know what - I really loved that one milkshake and had no problem sticking to the plan because it was so ingrained in my head. If you know there's a luaou, campfire smores, the best pie shop in the country etc etc, just know you will enjoy it, but make it part of your plan!
4. Stick to your regularly scheduled program. If you usually eat 3 meals and 2 snacks per day, try to maintain that habit on vacation. By eating frequently and using the 80/20 rule (80% of your choices will be the healthy ones, 20% will be splurges), you'll be full and satisfied throughout the day and there's less chance you'll be heading for the all you can eat French Fry bar at 4pm.
5. Water isn't just for playing in. Drink it up folks. On vacation, with all the sun and fun (and booze and food) you're going to need at least the usual 8 cups of water and probably at least another 4 to maintain proper cell function, avoid dehydration and help you process any rich indulgences you partake in. Besides, water is a great way to stave off a craving...at a least for a little while!
Those five simple rules can stop you from having your vacation turn into a need for a brand new wardrobe when you get home!
If you want to really feel like a fitness freak on vacation though, you'll throw in some exercise! I have never in my life (until my most recent trip to Texas with a sprained ankle) gone away for a week-end, week, month or longer without exercising regularly on my trips. Exercising in far away places is fun and exciting and helps you feel fantastic in your swimsuit or a little better about the pit stop at "World's most fabulous Taquito Stand".
If you don't feel you can commit to your regular routine, then find a travel workout that you are ready to give a try. At the very least , you can find the staircase in your hotel and perform a vareity of stair running drills, pushups and squats. Even 10-30 minutes a day will help you prevent any loss of your fitness stamina and strength. Without doing anything, muscles begin to atrophy within a week, and cardio gains begin to disappear around 10 days! Don't let this be you!
On my recent family vacation to a family resort in Oreville, Washington, I was so excited about going with our good friends Dave and Ana, and their daughters. Long ago in a far away land (called pre-children), Ana and I were running buddies. We met on a summer semester in France and had a shared love for the old running shoe. Dave and Michael share a history of mountain biking together but more recently Dave has found a love for Yoga, and they both enjoy a great round of golf. We spent many telephone conversations leading up to our trip laughing and smiling with excitement at the prospect of running together again and Dave and I talked about doing some Yoga by the lake.
In our 4 days at the resort, Ana I got out for 2 runs. The first morning, we realized that to get to the road, you had to literally run uphill along a switchback for over a kilometre. But we mustered our strength and took off for a fabulous run. All we could feel was thrilled to be alive while we knew we had the rest of the day to enjoy our families and some great food and drinks. Here's Ana at the top of the big climb.
Dave and I got to do one hilarious yoga class together (we were the participants and the yogis) while our pair of 3 year olds heckled us and the wind blew our mats to high heaven. we didn't get any pictures of our yoga experiment, but I did capture a great one of Dave at the marshmallow roast, when his inner Fitness Freak called out to his Inner Yogi and he jumped onto the playground.
And as fabulous as it was that we got to do our planned workouts on vacation, it would have been fine if we had only been able to do the walk(s) that we did with the kids, the tag that we played, or the water fun of throwing children in the air. The point is that we MOVED our bodies and fed our bodies well. And at the end of the night, when the children were tucked in and we had the house all to ourselves......no one felt a bit guilty about cracking open a beer!
So next time you head out on vacation, just spend a bit of time figuring out how to best HONOUR your body, yourself and all the hard work you put into it day after day, month after month. Vacation should make you feel great and you should come home ready and able to jump back into that fitness routine.
Now, go dig out those travel brochures and get planning!
