Some thoughts and discussions from me.
Healthy Travel Ideas: My #1 Tips for Eating and Moving While on Vacation
Last night I got home from a week away in Sarasota, Florida.
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you probably know that I’m not super rigid when it comes to nutrition and working out while traveling. I choose to spend my energy enjoying the culture and location I’m at and who I’m with while I’m there.
That said, I don’t throw good nutrition and movement out the window as soon as I hop on a plane. They’re part of my lifestyle, and even if I’m much more lax while traveling, I do give them thought. What I don’t do is waste precious time and energy obsessing over what I’m going to eat and how I’m going to fit in my workout. Honestly? I don’t see myself ever doing this.
I do, however, have a couple “big rocks” that I follow when it comes to eating and moving while vacationing. Let’s start with the eating part.
[Tweet “Healthy Travel Ideas! My #1 Tips – via @TrainerPaige”]
Nutrition
When it comes to nutrition, my biggest tip to avoid immense overeating is to practice intermittent fasting.
Now, this is completely NOT structured or rigid, and I’d be more apt to call it inadvertent fasting than intermittent. I don’t set a specific “feeding window” – nor do I actively make myself stop eating at a certain time. Rather, I simply skip a meal.
Admittedly, my meals while traveling tend to be a little larger and more indulgent than those I eat on a regular basis. So, I’m really only hungry for 2 meals, anyway! But practicing this style of eating on vacation works for me for a few reasons:
1) My meals are larger, as I just mentioned, so I don’t need them to be as frequent
2) It saves money only buying 1-2 meals a day
3) I’m not into vacations that revolve around eating at all points of the day. I wanna go DO stuff!
4) It allows me to come back home without feeling bloated, lethargic, and stuffed
I also practice NOT having guilt over any meal, drink, or dessert.
Workouts
I could say a LOT on this topic, but when it comes down to it, I have one main motto for working out on vacation:
I do it if I feel like it//if it’s convenient, and I don’t if it’s not. AND – I make use of what’s around me.
Truthfully, I know I’m going to be active on vacation regardless. Working out is part of my lifestyle, so I can’t imagine I’d ever want to take a vacation and be sloth like the entire time. Don’t get it twisted – I’m ALL about taking it easy, sun bathing, and relaxing, but I also like to get out and adventure!
Two different examples are my most recent trip to Costa Rica in March, and then this vacation to Casey Key last week. In Costa Rica, I used the resort gym once. Just once!
I typically like to check out the fitness room where I’m staying, at least once. And in Costa Rica, we were so active with hiking the rainforest and seeing volcanos that I didn’t feel the need nor the desire to do many formal workouts.
On the contrary, while in Florida, I worked out just about every day! I was visiting my parents, and went for morning beach walks with my dad, and then joined my mom at her gym mid-morning. And I even went trail run/waling with my dad one day!
[Tweet “My #1 Tips for Eating and Moving While Traveling – via @TrainerPaige #fitfluential”]
I’d LOVE to hear your input! How do you workout and eat on vacation?
Vacation is so challenging for people who are trying to maintain a healthy diet and exercise routine. I love your attitude about taking it easy and just naturally fitting the exercise in. I’m not a big fan of so-called fasting, but what you describe is actually very in line with what I do on vacation (or even sometimes on the weekend) and a balanced diet. Often vacation breakfast is later and bigger than usual, which means lunch is sometimes not a full meal and there’s more of a snack between breakfast and dinner. It all balances out in the end!