You don’t have to sacrifice fun to live a healthy life. Learn how to keep your weight loss and fitness goals going strong with these five tips to maintain your weight on vacation.
Consider this – you’re seven weeks in and 10 pounds away from your goal weight when it hits. It’s time to leave for summer vacation. You know that rest and relaxation await, but anxiety begins to build over your ability to maintain your success. While your trip may include foods and beverages that you wouldn’t normally consume, your vacation doesn’t have to be a dieting disaster. You didn’t work this hard just to gain it back in a week. When your weight loss goals and vacation collide, you can still be successful. Adopt these 5 tips to help lead you to a vacation victory.
Five Tips To Maintain Your Weight On Vacation
Set A Vacation Goal
While on vacation, do you want to lose weight, maintain weight or gain weight? If you’re in the middle of weight loss success, then you already know how to lose weight. Eat, drink and exercise accordingly. Remember that vacation is not an excuse to abuse your health; it is a time to relax and enjoy yourself. And, you’ll enjoy yourself more if you feel just as good after vacation, as you did before.
That said, don’t think that you have to have the same discipline on vacation as you do when your home. It’s ok to set a goal to maintain your weight. Enjoy a few extras and come home the same as you left. The key is to maintain control and determine your goal before you leave, not as a result of your behavior.
Look For Ways To Be Physically Active On Vacation
You can’t exercise away a bad vacation diet- so don’t try. But, you can increase your chances of maintaining your weight if you maintain your physical activity. Rent a bike, take a brisk walk on the beach or rollerblade on the boardwalk. Playing Frisbee or volleyball on the beach are fun options, too!
Pack Healthy Food And Snacks
The slice of boardwalk pizza is going to look and sound great if you allow yourself to get too hungry – so don’t. Invest in a mini cooler and hit the beach with your own supply of healthy food and drinks. Packing mini-meal’s (A.K.A. healthy snacks) will keep your hunger in check and hold you over until meal time. Remember that a mini-meal is a combination of food groups. So, forget the bag of chips and go for ½ turkey sandwich and an apple. That’s what a balanced and nutritious snack looks like.
Count Liquid Calories
Sipping Pina colada’s and Strawberry daiquiris by the pool may sound like the perfect vacation, but beware. Just one Pina Colada could easily contain 500 calories. Spoiling yourself with a few of those sweet treats will likely spoil your mood when you return home. Limit yourself to one drink, on occasion. If alcohol is your vacation splurge, go for it. Just don’t over-do it.
Be Mindful, But Don’t Deprive
It’s vacation! This is a time to relax, have fun and dive into the other cultures. Whether you’re enjoying a Philly Cheese Steak in Philadelphia, a slice of Key Lime Pie in the Florida Keys or New England Clam Chowder in Boston, savor a small portion and move on. If you stay somewhat on track, you’ll be able to dive right back in when you get home.
Adopt these tips and you’ll have no problem maintaining your weight loss goal on vacation
Hi, I’m Heather – a registered dietitian, busy mom, consultant, adventure junkie and travel addict who has mastered living healthy on the go. My blog is where I share simple recipes and healthy living tips to help and inspire others to live their best life.
This is amazing. Your blog is very informative. This is really a big problem for many of us.
Whenever we go for vacation, either we loss or gain weight. This is not easy to maintain weight on vacation, but your tips look beneficial. I will surely try your tips on my next vacation.