5 Tips for Healthy Travel
Traveling soon? Don’t sweat it, these tips will have you enjoying your vacation -without stalling your progress.
Vacations are meant to be enjoyed - but that doesn’t mean you have to ditch your healthy lifestyle - or miss out… Here are my top 5 tips for staying healthy on vacation.
TIP# 1: Your location and accommodation choices matter
Browse for a location that has a lot of bars and restaurants nearby - ditch the Ubers and plan to walk! Next, narrow your search for a hotel with a gym. You can always find a gym close by if you prefer, but hotel gyms are typically free, and if it's free, it's for me.
Most hotels have virtual tours, or at the very least pictures of their facility. Check those out and see what type of equipment you’ll have access to and plan your workouts. How many days are you staying, how many times do you want to work out? And worst case scenario - body weight exercises and tabata intervals will always kick your butt.
TIP #2: Practice Intermittent Fasting (also known as IF)
First, what is intermittent fasting anyway? In layman's terms - all IF means is that you eat all your meals within a certain timeframe. A common split is 12 hours, so you would eat from 7am to 7pm, or 8am to 8pm etc. and then fast (no food water is okay) from 7pm to 7am or 8pm to 8am etc. We are always surrounded by food, and most of it is processed and easily accessible - therefore it's very easy to NEVER stop eating. With IF there is a built in structure to your eating window, ensuring that it’s harder to overeat.
Now if you are a seasoned IF pro - you can extend your fasting window from 12 hours to 14 or 16 hours - which cuts out breakfast completely saving you time and money.
Now, I know what you are thinking - and I thought it too - breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and you cannot skip it, let alone skip a meal all together. But intermittent fasting is not a new concept, breakfast is. Let me know if intermittent fasting is something of interest and I will write a detailed blog for you guys on all of the amazing benefits!
TIP #3: Portion Control
Have your cake and eat it too - just not all of it. When I travel - I do not skimp on food. Ever. I typically order 2 appetizers, an entrée (for myself), and 2 desserts for our family of 4 but I NEVER finish a meal. I will have a few bites of each appetizer, half of my entrée (which I box up and take the other half home, money saver again), and sample the desserts. I promise you will leave the restaurant feeling satisfied, but never like a stuffed sausage.
TIP #4: Plan ahead
Pick activities that align with your healthy principles & load up your hotel room or house with healthy snacks. Here are some great examples of activities that I love doing on vacation. If I’m looking for a great tan, instead of napping on the beach ALL day, I’ll take a nice walk on the beach to get some steps in, or swim, fish, snorkel, paddle board the options are endless. Going somewhere cold? Ski, snowboard, cross country ski, hike, indoor swimming, all of these activities can be enjoyed with family, and in non exercise settings. MAKE IT FUN!
One thing I always have handy in the hotel room is water (pick up a few gallons) - hotels NEVER have enough, so just pack a refillable water bottle - and fill up as you go!
As far as snacks, pick up some healthy fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, beef jerky, anything that is minimally processed and easy to store to hold you over between meals.
And last but most certainly not least…
TIP #5: Take a mental and physical break
Do you ever feel like you need a vacation from your vacation? Me too. Every time. We’ve all been there - you want to maximize every waking moment of vacation before the dream ends - and sometimes we end up coming home more tired than we left.
Here’s the trick - PLAN - for your last day to be a rest and recovery day. Once you plan it, 1. You won’t feel guilty about it and 2. It’s more likely to happen.
Let me give you an example… Just recently my family and I flew into Phoenix for our annual family trip. We did a ton of walking and hiking. On the last full day we had, I was ready to carry on with the previous activities and take in the last bits of scenery that I could, but my family was ready to throw in the towel. The old me would have balked at the idea of doing nothing, especially on our last day of vacation. We can do nothing at home! But can we?
Time to pivot.
What is so wrong with doing nothing on vacation? NOTHING - That’s what vacations are for. RECHARGE! It also allows you the time to make coming home from vacation that much easier. So here’s what we did on our last day…
slept in
cooked all meals at home or finished leftovers - the last leg of our vacation we rented a house so we had access to a full kitchen - so cooking our meals at home or just reheating leftovers saves time and money
finished ALL laundry - who hates going on vacation just because of the pile of laundry that appears when you get back? ME! This way the laundry was free and no pressure.
played games
watched movies
napped
Point is - whatever you need to do to take that break - do it - that’s what vacation is for.
Those are my top 5 tips for healthy travel - just remember - don’t sweat the small stuff. Have principles, not rules, go with the flow, and don’t let a diet dictate your life and steal the joy that food and vacation can bring. Now, where to travel next?
