By Charlie Remiggio
Having been a personal trainer for 15 years, I’ve seen some common themes when talking to clients during my initial consultation. One common theme for clients is that they are losing weight on a nutrition and exercise plan and then they go on vacation and they eat and drink whatever they want. They also stop exercising. And then they gain weight. When they come back from vacation, they take their vacation habits home with them. They then give up on their nutrition plan and stop exercising and then gain more weight.
We all want to enjoy our vacations and take a break from the challenges we face in our daily life. Although, a vacation shouldn’t derail you from your weight loss goals when you’ve worked so hard. With proper planning and some strategies, you can enjoy your vacation and continue along with your weight loss program when you come home.
Here are some vacation strategies that you can utilize to keep you on track:
1) Plan a workout schedule or at least plan some activities where you’ll be moving.
Most hotels have gyms, so you can plan quick workouts in the morning and then enjoy the rest of your day. You can even do a quick body weight workout in your hotel room. You can also plan activities where you’ll be doing some walking. You don’t have to workout everyday on vacation, but it can help to keep the habit of exercise going.
2) Set a boundary on how much weight you will allow yourself to gain.
In order to do this, you will have to have access to a scale. If you do, and you don’t have any issues weighing yourself, then this can give you some feedback and keep you in check. If you don’t, the next tip can help.
3) Set boundaries on your eating and drinking.
If you’ve been on a nutrition plan and you were losing weight before your vacation, you had some boundaries with your eating. If you go on vacation and eat and drink whatever you want, you don’t have any boundaries. This is the biggest mistake people make. Every weight loss program is a boundary system in that it limits the amount or type of foods you eat. It would be beneficial to have some boundaries while on vacation, but you can allow some slack to enjoy yourself.
For example, if you were having 3 drinks per week on your weight loss program before vacation and now your having 5 drinks per day for 7 days on vacation, you went from a boundary system to no boundaries. Also, if you were limiting yourself to 1 dessert per week on your weight loss plan and now you’re having bagels and pancakes every morning, burgers and fries for lunch and dessert and bread for dinner for 7 days, you went from a boundary system to no boundaries. You’re setting the stage for bringing these vacation weight gain habits home with you. The solution would be to increase your boundaries a little bit on vacation versus having no boundaries. For example, if you were having 1 dessert per week on your weight loss plan, then maybe have 3 desserts per week on vacation. If you’re a calorie counter and you were having 1600 calories per day on your weight loss program before vacation, then maybe you can have 1800 per day on vacation. Then when you come home you go right back to your 1600.
4) When you come home, get right back to your normal eating and exercise plan.
Some people may just want to take a break from exercise and have a little indulgence with food and drinks, especially if it’s a shorter vacation. If that’s your choice, and you’re not going overboard (in other words, you have boundaries), enjoy yourself and get right back to your normal plan when you get home. If it’s a longer vacation, it’s probably best to get some exercise in. In either case, this step is key to staying on track with your weight loss plan.
If you need help with your weight loss plan or your vacation plan, CR Fitness in Wyckoff is offering a Free 30 Minute Consultation and a Free 30 Minute Personal Training Session.
You can contact us either by email at info@crfitness.com or by calling us at (973)709-0340.
Our personal training programs can help you with accountability, so you get on track and stay on track and get great results!