10 Easy Tricks to Beat Vacation Weight Gain

Most of us spend all year dreaming about the joys of vacation, but that joy can quickly turn tragic when we let a week of relaxation turn into pounds of extra cushioning around the middle. 

Gaining weight on vacation is a common problem, but it is avoidable. When you abandon your usual schedule and travel to a foreign destination, there is a tendency to indulge. As there should be! If you work hard, you deserve to kick back and enjoy your favorite activities and food without guilt. SkinnyMs. can help! These tips help you avoid excessive vacation weight gain and work off the few pounds you do pick up quickly, once you return home.

During your vacation-

1. Splurge Once a Day Only

You deserve to splurge, but you shouldn’t overdo it. Instead of eating rich, calorie-laden food at every meal, plan just one splurge per day and eat light during your other meals. This not only saves calories, it saves money. Pack some of these healthy snacks in your bag to ensure that you’re energized and ready to take in the sights all day long.

2. Split Your Food

Sharing indulgent food allows you to eat everything you choose, but less of each thing. You cut your calories in half without feeling as if you are sacrificing any experiences.

source

Check out these Ways to Eat Healthy When You’re Eating Out for tips on restaurant eating.

3. Schedule Vacation Workouts

This might sound crazy, but you can exercise on vacation. Many people look forward to the opportunity to take their fitness regimen to another location. You can run on the beach instead of a treadmill or gain access to expensive hotel gym equipment. If traditional workouts are not appealing, schedule a few activities that get in some calorie burning. Explore your vacation destination on a bike or play a little golf. 

4. Ask for Tasting Options

Many of the finest restaurants offer small portions of the chef’s best foods. You are able to enjoy indulgent foods tapas style. This allows you to taste plenty of options without overdoing it calorie-wise. Learn more about how to manage your portions here.

Once you return home:

5. Detox

A week or two of indulgence can leave your body feeling sluggish. Help your system get back on track by eliminating toxins with a quick detox. 

6. Buy Workout Gear

Few things motivate you more to workout than stylish fitness clothes. Invest in some before you go or shop for gear during your vacation. You will be eager to hit the gym once vacation ends. 

7. Enroll in a Class

Enrolling in a class that begins once you are home locks you into a fitness commitment. It also gives you something to look forward to at vacation’s end.

source

8. Create a Contract

Make a deal with yourself about splurging on vacation and losing the weight once you return home. Put the deal in writing and include a reward if you stick to your post-vacation weight loss plans.

9. Plan Your Post-Vacation Meals

Having a week or two of healthy clean-eating meals planned for your return takes the thinking out of eating right. Your plan makes it easier to stay on track. Check out how to make Meal Planning a cinch.

10. Reward Your Pet

Chances are your dog was less than thrilled to be without you during your trip away. Plan extra walks and park time once you return. You are making it up to your pet, but also getting in a little extra exercise.

Source

Five tips to burn vacation weight gain

Carrying a few extra pounds after your fabulous summer holiday? No problem, we’ve got a few ideas on how to get you back in shape

source

I just got back from three weeks of vacation, and I have some work to do. I exercised a great deal while away, but my diet went completely off the rails. Get a bunch of family and friends together who like to cook and like to drink, mix in the awesome weather and beautiful scenery of the B.C. coast, and the calories just seem to ingest themselves. Before you know it, that bathing suit starts to feel a little snug.

This happens to me every year, so now I plan for it. I make an effort to mitigate the weight gain by keeping up my running and spending lots of time in a sea kayak. However, if you’re scarfing high-calorie food and chugging booze like the apocalypse is imminent, then you simply can’t do enough exercise to keep ahead of the weight gain — the pounds creep on.

Now it’s time for me to make those pounds creep back off.

It’s just a few pounds…why worry?
Well, part of it is vanity, which can be a powerful motivator for fitness. Sure, I’m still in the normal BMI range and this slightly higher weight makes no difference now to my overall health, but I want those pounds gone just the same.

More importantly, what happens if you always adopt this attitude? If you gain a couple of pounds on every vacation, and never burn them off, over the years they will add up. A lot.

So here is what you have to do.

1. Detox
I’m not a fan of cleansing supplements, or any type of dietary detox product. What I’m talking about here is going on the wagon. Booze will pile on the calories as well as decrease your eating inhibitions (meaning you make poor dietary choices when drinking), and also make it harder to perform on the exercise front.

source

Sure, you may be bummed about going back to the grind after a nice vacation, but don’t compensate for this with alcohol. If you were tying one on during vacation, then it’s time to give your liver a break. By itself, taking three to four weeks off from drinking alcohol is going to do a lot to shed those unwanted pounds.

2. Eat in

When I think of the amount of calories in restaurant food, the first word that comes to mind is “obscene.” “Hideous” comes second.

Restaurants want repeat business, and they get this by making their food taste extra good. They make it taste extra good by piling on lots of sugar, fat and salt. Not only does this amp up the calories to the aforementioned obscene levels, but it tastes so awesome that you lose control and overeat. This is bad.

To drop the vacation pounds, you have to come to terms with the fact that the holiday is actually over and get back into the habit of regular grocery shopping for healthy ingredients to make nutritious, calorie-restricted meals.

3. Get back into the exercise routine

According to some of the conversations I’ve had, I’m a bit of a vacation rebel in that I don’t exercise any less while on holiday. Most of the people I know really savour their gluteus-maximus time while taking a break from the job.

If this is you, then it’s time to get back to the sweaty socks and labouring lungs.

You may need to ease your way back in if you’ve totally slacked off. Either that, or just take the consequences. I didn’t lift any weights for three weeks and just went back to the iron — I will admit to being sore, but I’ll live. So will you.

source

Also, try to find ways to fit in some extra activity. This can be as simple as deciding to pack a lunch (remember the rule about not eating out — skip those lunch meetings) and taking a walk at noon with a colleague while eating something healthy.

4. Go to bed hungry

Hungry, not starving.

I believe that right before bed is the only time it’s ever okay to be hungry. You need to keep your appetite “satisfied,” not “full,” throughout the day in order to provide energy. This strategy also keeps you from losing control of your appetite later on in the evening and engaging in “night-eating syndrome.”

If you stay properly fuelled throughout the day, eat a moderate dinner, and then stop eating after that — therefore not taking in a bunch of additional calories before bed — then the pounds will really fall off.

source

Again, before bed is really the only time it’s okay to be hungry, because overnight your appetite resets and you start off with a clean slate of eating a good breakfast the next morning. Just don’t be so hungry that it affects your sleep or that you need to get up and eat in the middle of the night.

5. And finally…

Don’t be in a rush. Vacation is over and the bathing suit is packed away, so don’t fret if it takes a couple of months to get the scale back to where you want it to be. Slow and steady wins the weight-loss race.

Source