How to Go on Vacation Without Ruining Your Diet
Even the most rewarding vacation can turn into a huge source of anxiety if you’re worried about hindering your hard-earned progress. But you didn’t lead a healthier lifestyle in order to become a hermit. Here’s how to enjoy the Bahamas sunshine without going back to square one.
First, let’s talk about how to actually travel on a diet. If you are participating in a weight loss program, chances are you will stunt progress to some extent. Taking a break isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but building momentum and positive feedback is one of the most important things when going on a diet. If possible, start a weight loss plan only when you have several weeks without interruption.
Understand that if you don’t back down, you make progress.
Before diving into the practical advice, let’s make sure you have the right mindset.
One of the biggest mistakes dieters make is to constantly maintain a constant “speed” of progress rather than following the natural ebb and flow of life. It’s like a consistent 65 mph cross-country speed, regardless of traffic congestion, fatigue, or the ability to go a little faster.
Let’s clarify. Let’s say you are driving from New York to California. There are times when you can drive 80 miles per hour, and there will be times when traffic can slow you down to a stop. You will also need to take breaks to sleep, refuel and eat, but this is fine; until you go back , you move towards your destination.
The diet is no different. At certain points in time, your personal commitments will become more important than meeting your calorie goals, or you may feel that your motivation is depleted. At this time, you need to move by inertia at a lower speed. Until you roll back (that is, in particular, keep calories at roughly the maintenance level), you are progressing because you are just waiting for the right chance to speed up.
This chance comes when life is improving or you feel additional motivation due to progress on the scale. This is the perfect time to take advantage of your situation by setting diet goals for many days in a row or by exercising hard in the gym.
Too many dieters force themselves to work, even when external factors do not allow it. We do not urge you to make excuses – you will have to objectively and consciously assess whether these factors are real – but you should not change the speed. Otherwise, you’re like a running back trying to play big, not a decent three-yard win with no open holes. You will only lose yards.
Take a break from your diet
Now that you understand the importance of varying rates of progress, let’s take a look at the concept of “ diet break ”, which has become relatively popular thanks to nutritionist and writer Lyle MacDonald.
Lyle points to a study in which subjects were forced to deliberately interrupt their diet. Nutrition researchers know that dieters are not good at restarting their programs after they have stopped. In this case, however, the subjects returned to their regimen relatively easily. We talked about this in our article on planning for failure : when you deliberately end your regime, you maintain a sense of “control,” which makes it easier to restart.
Know that you won’t be sticking to a regular regimen, and that’s okay. With this in mind, you can maintain a sense of “control” all the time and get back on the horse.
Move as much as possible
Telling you to move to keep progress seems as silly as telling you ” Eat less, move more ” to lose weight, but the specific context makes the rest special. Exercise is less effective if done specifically to burn calories . On the other hand, vacations are a special time when you have many opportunities to move around more for fun than exercise.
Before your first meal, consider planning more activities. Exercising on an empty stomach causes your body to release compounds called catecholamines , which can have an appetite suppressing effect. Before heading to your destination, research and plan one activity each morning.
Do one day of trivia for every two sane days.
You might be taking a vacation where a lot of food is part of the experience, such as a trip to Las Vegas or a cruise (such as a floating buffet). Obviously, you cannot expect to spend money every single day and not back down a few steps. However, if you are on a break from your diet, the last thing you need to do is count calories.
One rule I have come up with is to take a day to “splurge” every three days, provided that I spend two days eating as close to my pre-vacation regimen as possible. This means that if my regular diet consists of three meals with protein, starch and vegetables, I mimic this as much as possible while on vacation.
If you can’t find anything similar to your regular diet, another alternative is high protein / fat and low carb or high protein / carbs and low fat. This allows you to taste a wide variety of foods, but it diminishes the flavor of your choices. This is useful if you are prone to overeating. Again, every third day, allow yourself to eat whatever you want.
As with everything in fitness, balance is the key to success. With these tips, you don’t have to “get back on the proverbial horse” because you’ve never gotten out of it at all.