Eat what you want but don't overeat. One of the major drawbacks to dieting is that there's an all or nothing attitude. People who go off their diets eat until they're stuffed because they know they're not going to get to eat the food that they want to eat for very long. That's how people gain 15 pounds on vacation. So order what you want but eat slowly and stop before you're full.
I think it's important to remember that most of those big gains during vacation are water weight, and will drop easily. The biggest issue is a lot of people (myself included) seem to have trouble getting back to their "normal" eating after a vacation, especially if you stretch the stomach out by over-indulging.
Overeating kind of sucks anyway, and throws a wrench in your enjoyment of the vacation/photos of you on vacation. I haven't done anything similar to the Korea fiasco (I was restricting and binging all the time then) since then and my pattern has been to lose a couple pounds or stay the same on vacation.
I tend to eat whatever I want on vacation, and maybe try to throw in some exercise if I have the time or space, but only because exercise keeps me feeling energetic.
Like other posters mentioned, I look at it as a "planned break." In fact, if the vacation is a week or shorter, I'll intentionally have some things in my fridge or freezer that will help me get right back on plan as soon as I return (i.e. veggies that last for longer than a week, pre-made frozen homemade foods, etc.).
I went to New York for a week in March, and shockingly found myself DOWN a couple of pounds when I got back, even though I definitely indulged eating-wise. And while I was coming into this thread to say "I don't restrict on vacation! Life's too short not to eat beignets in New Orleans!", reading this thread made me realize I do do little things -- some days I got so busy exploring that I'd eat one big "linner" instead of lunch and dinner, and my sister and I split a couple of meals and desserts. If someone I was with was hungry and I wasn't, I went to the restaurant but didn't eat. But I still went to my favorite gelato place in the world and the amaaaaazing donut shop around the corner from my sister's apartment twice each. I'm not going to tell myself no when I get to experience those things so rarely. But it's not a free-for-all. I said no to Starbucks pastries more than once. That would have been a silly way to spend the New York calories I wasn't counting.
You will be fine. You really do walk SO MUCH in New York (my probably-somewhat-inaccurate pedometer app said I was averaging 17000 steps a day while I was there, where on a normal day at home I'm usually at about 7000), and it sounds like you know how to eat what you want without eating an INSANE AMOUNT of what you want, and more besides, which is the real key. Have an amazing trip!!
Do you think the extra walking-all-day-long burnt-calories will make up for that slice of new york style cheesecake that I will most definitely have?? lol
I know it might sound like wishful thinking, but yes, I do think it will make up for the calories and then some. My daughter and I went NYC for the day last Sat. I found a walking calculator and mapped out everywhere we went. Not including the walking around we did in stores and parks, we clocked 10.1 miles. Easily 800-1000 calories burnt. A slice of plain New York cheesecake from Junior's ( which I HIGHLY recommend BTW ) is about 600-700 calories.
We packed a healthy picnic lunch and had no trouble finding any number of places that offered nothing but healthy choices. If I were staying the week like you, I'd probably decide what was a "gotta have " each day, then eat like normal for the rest of the day's meals.
I did not track and just tried to not go crazy on my recent long weekend away. Unfortunately, it has been pretty darn hard to get back in the calorie deficit groove. My next meal is a new chance to get back on track!
I haven't been on vacation but if i were going i would stick to eating only at meals, not drinking too much and strictly limit my sweets. I would only have maximum of say one serving of sweets per day and it would only be things that i can't eat at home. Its mainly about trying new foods.
If i were to eat whatever i wanted on holiday, i know my diet would be over and i would probably end up going back to square one. And then who knows how long it would be before i found the motivation to start again. So this weight is going forever and its not coming back.
I tend to just drop weight on vacation because I tend to walk around sightseeing. I felt like all the paranoia I felt during that vaca wasn't even worth it. Many others have reported the same. Some have gained, but its usually water weight and just some real weight that goes away over time. Vacations are an entirely different setting so it is difficult to establish forever-habits.
I'll be honest, I don't track at all when I'm on vacation. I do, however, have a golden rule for eating: If something isn't "awesome" I do not eat it. I will take a bite and if it's just okay, I stop eating. I allow myself to eat anything that is truly fantastic. I also have a travel scale I take with me and I weigh-in every day, just as a way to remind myself to not binge. We take a lot of vacations now (we never went when we were overweight) and we are super active, we walk a ton, try and do the most active excursions possible and go to the fitness center on lazy days (we take a lot of cruises).
On a 2-week vacation (cruise) we will typically gain around 6 lbs each, but we know that ahead of time and both refuse to deny ourselves when we're spending so much $$ and vacation time (both valuable commodities). I recently read that the average person gains 1 lb per day on a cruise (!!!!) - so I'm okay with gaining 6 over 14 days!
I eat whatever I want on vacation and that's always been the kiss of death for my diets. I go on vacation for a week and come home thinking "well, screw it, I've already been bad for seven days, what's another?" and before you know it, I've gained ten pounds.
It's just that I hate to think that I'm restricting myself when I'm on vacation, you know?
I find it really hard to go back on plan after vacations, because I eat what I want to and have a great time doing it when I'm away from home.
But then when I come back home, I don't want the feeling of vacation to end - so I continue to eat what I want and overindulge, trying to hold onto that feeling! This has been a problem for me.
I love the tip given above to really only indulge in special foods or meals that you would not really have access to once the vacation is over. This is a great idea!
I might be wrong, but I think the kind of vacations that lead to weight gain are the ones with people relaxing on the beach all day, going for massages and otherwise being physically inactive. Like others have said, when we go on vacation, we are moving ALL day. Walking, walking, walking, site seeing...We don't eat until we are really starved because we just want to keep site seeing. We are anxious to get done eating and get back at it, so there's no long restaurant visits with huge long meals. And by the time we get back to our room, we are so wiped, there's no staying up snacking, which is a huge issue for me at home. Night time eating. Cant eat when you are passing out from exhaustion lol, plus we want to get to sleep to get up early and go somewhere else. I typically lose weight on vacation.
We have a trip coming up in a few weeks, so I'm hoping that trend continues.
You will be walking so much in NYC that I bet you will be fine even if you splurge a lot. There's really not much for you to so where you wont be walking or moving.
I'm on vacation this week. Haven't actually left for trip yet, but I'm finding I'm having a source of an unexpected anxiety.
I've always taken a break from tracking calories when on vacation, and been glad to so. Of course, in the past I didn't meal plan daily, just tracked the calories afterwards. Now, I plan the day before.
I can't seem to bring myself to not plan ahead. I'm checking out the restaurants in the area we'll be staying, wondering if I should pack measuring spoons and cups for campfire cooking, etc. It's not that I'm freaked out about gaining weight. I'm a daily weigher, so swings due to water weight don't bother me.
I think it's a fear of lack of structure. Meal planning daily takes away the decision making stress I feel when food is in front of me. It's easy. If it's not on my plan, I don't eat it.
Now I'm facing making several on-the-fly decisions daily, and I can actually physically feel the tension from the thought. My daughter offered me a coffee today, and she said she could literally see the gears in my brain grinding. Ordinarily, "no" is out of my mouth before I ever even think about it.
Anyway, I guess I'll get used to it by the end of the week. Not gonna let it ruin my fun.
