Handling a vacation?
 

I'm on vacation and have found it difficult to eat right and impossible to walk daily as I've been doing. I am worried that much progress will be lost, and I will be horrified by the scale reading when I return.

Do you quit dieting on vacation? Do you quit exercising, quit working out?

Or if you keep up diet and exercise, just curious how you work it all in. Tips may help me plan better next time.

weirdly, i'd always lose weight while on vacation (cause i saved my unhealthly daily habits for my day to day routine!)

How that happens is
1) i walk. a lot. everywhere! over 5 km a day. It's a great way to sight see. and it's cheap (have i mentioned i tend to be broke so am always doing vacations on the cheap). since it's part of the holiday, i don't even notice all the exercising, it's just part of the trip
2) i eat much less and i eat healthy. Again partly since i'd rather spend that £10 on a ticket to a museum then on a meal. I shop in supermarkets rather than eat in restaraunts (so eat fresh fruits etc and grilled meat). this whole being broke thing really helps. Normally sea food is better when i travel, so i'm having grilled fish etc
3) be very very careful with desserts. So make sure that I don't buy fudge everytime i walk through the market, or start having gelato daily. It's easier to resist since there's the incentive to try a local speciality - and i'd rather it be a savoury dish.
4) I don't drink alcohol. and i don't drink soda. Plus tap water's free and necessary with all that walking.

so weirdly, am normally too busy on holiday being active and having fun to eat badly.

have a great time on your next vacation and good luck

Superfluous, I'm leaving for an extended vacation next week and the same question is on my mind. I hope to not be unhappy with the scale when I get home too. We will be doing tons of walking, so hopefully that helps. But I also want to feel like in on vacation, so will definitely be indulging a little too. Just know you're not alone.

Same here. I'm vacationing for 2 weeks bak home in boston. I live in England. I don't want my whole vacation to be about what not to eat because I am looking forward to my old favorites. ( roast beef sandwiches, lobster, seafood ) at our hotel we have a workout room and I plan on using the treadmill to keep with running or walking. It's VERY hot this time of year so running outside can be dangerous. I don't want to undo the hard work but I want treats too? Lol. Hopefully I can find a nice balance. Good luck!

I'm leaving on Saturday to see my parents in the States and my main goal is to keep healthy and just maintain for the 3 weeks I'm there. If I lose weight GREAT, but if I stay the same (shouldn't be too hard), I'll still be very happy. New clothes in the U.S. Fabulous no 20% tax Psyched!

The important thing is to get back on plan when you get back from vacation. Don't let any gains, water weight or otherwise make you throw in the towel.

This is for the long haul, sometimes you're going to have little upticks.

I've noticed that as time goes in I don't go off the rails in the same way while on vacation, so there's that to look forward to .

Best of luck, and don't be too hard on yourself, whatever happens :sunny:

I make it my goal to maintain on vacation. I definitely indulge but I don't go overboard. No reason to have a gigantic splurge meal for every meal. I try to work out once or twice during the week. Swim in the pool with the kids instead of just watching, walk places when possible instead of driving, etc.

Every restaurant I went to while on vacation had salads. Even for breakfast. And every restaurant seemed to always have guacomole, chick peas and raosted red peppers..even if the items were not on the menu. So I had enormous kick-a** salads while on vacation.

I am going to Oregon in August for a week and have been trying to figure out my plan of attack for staying on course.

I looked at things to do in the town we are going to and found that they listed two 5k routes. One at their town square and one at the harbor. So this will make great sightseeing while the men are out fishing.
We are also going to walk on the beach since it is right across the street and go horseback riding on another day.
We are also going to tour a cheese factory and ride ATV's at the sand dunes.
So hopefully we keep busy enough that we aren't overeating and get our exercise and a day or two of just relax and do nothing.

Us ladies agreed that I will do the cooking and they will do the cleaning and dishes, so I have some control there.
Since we are on the coast I do plan to eat lots of seafood. But it will be seafood and salads.
I hope my plans work and we will see :)

seafood and salads sounds great! And you will be with good freinds who will respect you and your food choices!
Vacations can be spring boards for a committed healthy life style!

My only advice would be to pick and choose your splurges. Not every single meal has to be decadent or special. Even if you don't have the best options, try to choose the better choice for some meals. But also, it's OK to enjoy yourself and have some special foods that aren't your norm.

If you don't go truly overboard -- like thousands and thousands of calories in excess of your maintenance level -- then you won't put on much, if any, "real weight" from your vacation. But be prepared for a scary number on the scale when you get back. A lot of bodies don't do well with a big disruption in routine and wowza-amounts of water weight show up.

Hope you're having a pleasant vacation. :)

I know this isn't Facebook, but I wish this forum had a quick "Like" button feature. Kelijpa and Desirderata, you have made me feel better about going on vacation. I'm going to go on vacation, enjoy myself, and eat moderately.

What sort of vacation are you going on that doesn't involve walking every day? What will make it impossible to "eat right"?

Who is in charge of your activities?
Who is in charge of the food?

I recently went away for a few days with my dad and sister and her kids. We stayed in an inn (no fridge in my room) and spent the days at my dad's cabin. I planned ahead by having grapes, small rolls, hard cheese and juice in my inn room so I could have breakfast before we headed to my dad's around 10am. I also took a little walk around the town in the mornings.

At my dad's he would make bacon or eggs or something and I'd have a little bit of egg and maybe a bite of bacon. Then we'd work in the yard all day.

We had some restaurant meals. I had a steak sandwich, and took half of it home. I had beer and wine, in moderation since I was the driver back and forth to the inn.

We went to the city one day and walked all around (my fit bit was very happy that day) again I made sure to have plenty of water and we sort of grazed at different spots along the way, then had lobsters and steamers for dinner!

Yes, there were lots of things to eat around me, but I was still in control of what went in my mouth.

I did come home with some water weight from the long driving (and a tick bite that gave me lyme :devil:) but other than that it was pretty much within my control.

Hopefully you can have enough say over what you do on your vacation that you enjoy it and don't feel like you've lost control of your choices.

For me, when on vacation I remind myself that food is not recreation. (YES I know you disagree with me vehemently, WTBS) Food doesn't make my vacation fun. Seeing new things, meeting new people, doing new things, THAT is fun. Usually I stay pretty much on plan, while allowing some deviation for something that maybe I cannot get at home. But I don't just go "Oh well, it's vacation! Eat all the cake and fried things!" I've done that in the past and all that proved was that I still viewed my weight loss as a diet (something temporary) rather than a new lifestyle, and as with 99.8% of diets I'd end up failing in the end and regaining everything. I'm not doing that to myself anymore. I'm reminding myself that life is about people and experiences, (and being healthy enough to enjoy those things, rather than fat and miserable!) not what I can shovel into my gub.

So, I guess my best advice that I can offer is this: if you're going to eat something bad for you, make SURE it's something unusual, or something that you cannot get at home. It should have to prove to be something special, worthy of the calories and worthy of the work it will take you to undo any gains. Not just any old piece of chocolate cake, or whatever. You can get chocolate cake at home, you know? One of those things that years from now you can say "that was the best *whatever* that I think I've ever had!" Anyhow, that is how I think about things on vacations.

I went on vacation at the end of June. I gained 2.5 lbs of water weight that took a couple of weeks to shake.

I was able to cook 90% of my meals. When I ate out, I didn't always splurge just because I was eating out. But I did have everything I had my heart set on. You're going to eat s'mores when you camp and you're going to eat seafood at the beach.

I didn't count calories, but I did pay attention to how my stomach felt. I didn't want to get used to larger portions, then deal with being hungry all the time when vacation was over. One thing that's really helped me so much this time around is understanding that even if I have the calories in my budget, I don't want to eat until I'm stuffed.

Hope that helps! Enjoy your vacation!! :D