Fitness

5 Ways to Watch Your Weight and Still Enjoy Your Vacation

Although you may be looking forward to some much needed time off from work, the idea of relaxing likely extends beyond your physical nature and into your diet and exercise program as well.

This can cause a lot of angst if you’re trying to shed some weight and become healthy. So, how do you enjoy your holiday without gaining back all of the weight you’ve already lost or undoing all of your hard work?

If you’re like most women, you picture your time away surrounded by foods that you normally wouldn’t allow yourself. You imagine appetizers, desserts and a wide plethora of high-calorie and extremely tasty exotic drinks. You can see the smile on your face – as well as the widening of your body.

Does that mean that you have to stay on your diet and exercise program even when taking a break from reality in order to keep in line with your health and fitness goals? Not at all.

There are many things you can do for damage control that will allow you to have fun on your vacation without sacrificing your long term desires.

1. Stay active

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One of the best things about vacation is being able to take some time off from your normal, daily exercise routine. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to spend your entire holiday sitting on your backside.

In fact, not only will staying physically active help you burn some of those extra calories you’ll likely consume, but it also is a great way to create some priceless vacation memories.

Sure, it may sound good to spend all day sitting on the beach and soaking up some sun, but if you balance that with other activities, you’ll spend less time eating and be more likely to keep your weight in check while you’re away.

That doesn’t mean that you have to go crazy with running marathons or entering strong woman competitions, but a little bit of physical exertion will not only make you feel like less of a slouch, but you’ll probably have a lot of fun with it too.

Some things you can do include taking walks to scout out the area, signing up for surfing or skiing lessons and just playing around in the pool.

Look at it this way, the more you move your body, the more you can enjoy the food and drink without the guilt and shame that you may feel if you don’t engage in any sort of physical activity at all.

2. Give yourself permission to indulge

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No one wants to go on vacation and spend the whole time telling yourself that you can’t have some treats that you would normally try to avoid. That takes some of the fun out of your time away.

Instead, give yourself permission to indulge in a few of the local foods. A few indulgences here and there can help you feel satisfied versus leaving you feeling deprived and not able to enjoy yourself.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you can go wild and crazy and eat everything in sight. Not only would that defeat your long term goals, but it also isn’t good for your health.

There is a balance between letting your taste buds enjoy themselves a bit and keeping your body full of nutritious and healthy foods so that you can enjoy holidays for years to come.

3. Focus on how good you feel

If you’ve been watching what you eat and exercising, then you are likely enjoying a body that you’ve worked hard to create. Concentrate on keeping that feeling and doing things that make you feel even better during your time away.

Think of how too much high fat and high calorie food weighs you down. It saps your energy and makes you feel bad about yourself. Who wants to feel like that when you’re on vacation?

Instead of choosing not-so-good-for-you foods just because you can, remember that you want as much energy as you can muster to enjoy your holiday on the highest levels possible.

This likely involves eating more fruits, veggies and lean foods than it does pastries and fried foods. Think about the consequences of how you’ll feel before you choose to eat anything.

4. Make it more than about the food

Zip lining
Zip lining

While breaking free from reality often includes losing the diet and exercise program, don’t make that the focal point of your trip. Look at your vacation as an opportunity to create memories and do different things as opposed to just using it as the chance to eat yourself into fullness and discomfort.

Seek out activities in the area that you can’t do at home. Maybe you could go zip lining or rock climbing. Perhaps you desire to go horseback riding or hiking.

See what they have to offer and experience some of their culture. Engage yourself and you’ll get way more satisfaction than just staying at the resort feasting on their food.

5. Cut yourself some slack

Are you going to make good choices the whole time you’re on holiday? Probably not. So, why beat yourself up about it and make yourself feel bad for enjoying life a little? That’s the whole point of getting away, isn’t it? To live life?

Make a conscious effort to not be overly hard on yourself for the decisions you make while you’re away. After all, it isn’t going to do you any good to call yourself names or belittle yourself for not sticking to your diet and exercise plan.

In fact, it may have the opposite effect and cause you to fall off the healthy lifestyle wagon completely if you’re an all or nothing thinker.

Give yourself some leeway when you’re on holiday. This isn’t the time to throw stones at yourself and push yourself to new levels. This is the time to relax and enjoy yourself. You’ve earned it for all the hard work you’ve done so far.

Vacations aren’t there to cause you more stress and angst; they’re there to reward you for all your efforts that you put in on a day to day basis. Go and enjoy your time away. You’ll be back to reality soon enough.

Cover photo: world-beauty-center.blogspot.com

About the author

Christina DeBusk

Changing careers mid-life from law enforcement to writing, Christina spends her days helping others enrich their businesses and personal lives one word at a time.

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