Maintaining Healthy Habits On Vacation

Many of you have made New Year’s resolutions to add more healthy habits into your daily routines. As you know, the tough part is maintaining those throughout the year. Vacations tend to have a way of derailing all the hard work you put in to create healthy habits. It’s possible to keep those habits while you’re traveling. These are my best tips for making your vacation healthy and fun.

Trip Planning

In order to keep yourself on track you’ll need to put in a bit of work to make sure you’re putting yourself in a position to succeed. This starts with travel planning. Don’t worry, you don’t need to spend hours and hours trying to find pricey wellness resorts and fitness camps. Keep it simple by choosing either a location you love or a location that’s known for your favorite activity/exercise. National Parks are a great place to start because of all the hiking opportunities. Try to stay away from the places you know will likely drop you back into bad habits. These are typically places where indulgence is welcome, like Las Vegas (all you can eat buffets), all-inclusive resorts, and party towns like New Orleans. If you do find yourself at an all-inclusive, check out my tips for how to keep your eating on track at all-inclusive resorts.

If you’re struggling with choosing a destination that’s friendly to your healthy habits or you’re looking to try a new adventure, here are a few search ideas to get your creative wheels turning:

Healthy Exercise Habits

Whether on vacation, at home or traveling for business, you’ll feel better and have more energy if you incorporate exercise into your day. There are two keys to doing this: 1. Commitment and 2. Choose an activity you genuinely like to do.

There’s no need to relegate your daily exercise to working out in a hotel gym, many of which leave a lot to be desired. Unless you’re willing and able to shell out the money needed to stay at some of the places with fantastic hotel gyms, your best bet is to focus on an outdoor activity.

Go for a run first thing in the morning or commit to walking to dinner each night. To have the biggest impact, stay active throughout the day. Set a goal of spending more time standing than sitting and plan a few activities to help you reach that goal. I enjoyed hiking, kayaking and biking during my trip to Acadia National Park. Booking tours is another great option for helping you achieve your goal. I had tons of fun on this bike tour of San Francisco.

Healthy Eating Habits

Regardless of how much or how little you exercise, what you eat has the most impact on how you feel and whether you gain or lose weight. There are seemingly endless opportunities to derail your healthy eating habits on vacation. It’s surely a battle but remember your commitment. Focus on how great you will feel when you head home knowing you followed through on your commitment and won the food battle. My tips for helping you stay on track:

• Commit to not eating fried food- this is hugely helpful!
• Make your own food- stay at an AirBnB or go camping
• Seek out a local health food store for groceries and snacks
• Visit local markets for fresh produce, salads and sandwiches
• Use Yelp and Google to seek out vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurants
• Eat a vegetable or fruit with every meal
• Decline the bread basket
• Commit to skipping dessert
• Limit drinking- choose lower calorie drinks and avoid juice and soda mixers

Remember to keep in mind that you’re on vacation to have fun and get away from everyday stressors. Don’t stress about being perfectly healthy or you won’t enjoy yourself. If you overindulge for one meal or sit on the beach reading books all day, it’s ok. Get back on track the next day and you’ll be fine. If you have any other questions about how to stay on track please leave a comment or contact me via my contact page or Facebook. I’m happy to help!