Weight Management on Vacation

Updated: Aug 7, 2021

While on vacation did you ever feel like you may have over done it with the food you ate because it wasn’t planned out? Do you find it difficult sticking with your new lifestyle change (caloric intake and exercise)? Well, I have some tips to share which may be helpful in sticking with your new lifestyle even when temptation is around you. I’m not saying to deprive yourself from little indulgences – just be moderate in those indulgences especially when you go on vacation. You don’t want to sabotage your accomplishments.

What may help you in figuring out what food you want to eat while you’re away is to plan in your mind the types of foods you want to eat, get an estimate of the amount of calories those foods are, then stick to that plan as closely as possible. If you want to have cake with dinner, go ahead and have a small piece, but factor that into your daily caloric count. Whether you’re on a 1200, 1500, 1800, or 2000 calorie a day plan, you can keep track of the calories without too much trouble. You can purchase a calorie count book before you go on vacation to help with keeping track, or go to http://www.calorieking.com, which will help you as well. If you have a Fitbit or calorie counting app on your smartphone that will work well too. If you accidentally on purpose take in a few extra calories, that’s okay. It’s easily rectifiable by putting in a little more exercise the same or next day. What helped me when I was on vacation was sticking with food I normally eat at home. I’m such a nut about my green smoothies that I purchased a portable blender to travel with so I can make my green smoothies daily! I was able to purchase ingredients from a local food store or at Walmart. Walmart is everywhere, right? Many hotels/resorts have refrigerators in the room so your ingredients stay fresh. I’m a part of JJ Smith’s Green Smoothie Nation on Facebook, and we have a saying, “I’m about that green smoothie life!” The evidence is clear. Who goes out to get a travel blender? SMH. Sorry it was so necessary to use texting language here. Back to normal English.

Oh yes, I need to mention exercise. That was a good segue into this portion of the discussion. Whatever you normally do at home regarding your exercise plan you can do on vacation. Many people stay at hotels that have a fitness center or you may decide to bring your DVDs with you or you might decide to walk outside to take in the beauty of your surroundings. The point is you have lots of options to stick with your routine. I know many of you are saying, “Well, I wasn’t planning on exercising, I’m on vacation doggoneit.” I understand your dilemma, but if you want positive results you have to put in the work. There is no other way around it. It’s only 45 minutes to an hour out of your day, right? You have approximately 23 other hours to do whatever else you want to do! It is true that to whom much is given much is required. God places before us so many tasks. Many of those tasks can only be accomplished if you feel good in your spiritual and physical body. You can do it! It’s only an hour, right? Also, I was reading an article on Beachbody.com, and it was just a fun article about fitness and fit people. Check it out when you can at: http://www.beachbody.com/beachbodyblog/fitness/20-secrets-of-very-fit-people. Reading articles like that one help me to keep myself on track, and it may be helpful to you too. So, if you make every effort to eat as close to your regular eating plan and exercise as close to your regular exercise plan, then you will most likely be able to maintain the results you have accomplished so far – you might even lose some weight if that is your goal. Have fun while you are on vacation, and enjoy some indulgences. Be prayerful to gain strength to make it through. I know you can do it! Live, laugh, love, and pray.