3 Easy Tips to Stay in Shape on Vacation

Greetings from Oak Island!

Hey everyone,

Its been a little over a week since my last blog post.  We’re actually enjoying a little beach vacation with my wife’s family.  Its our annual beach trip with the girls, family and anyone else crazy enough to spend a week with us.  This year we set up shop on Caswell Beach near Oak Island, NC.  We have a house that sleeps about 20, and I swear we are using every inch of it!  So I’ll keep this post short, as our girls are turning into mermaids and can’t be away from the water for more than 30 minutes!!!

Falling Off the Wagon on Vacation?

One of the toughest things for me to do in my journey to live healthy is to not fall off the wagon when I go on vacation.  It’s so easy to spend the week eating fabulous gourmet meals from all the hottest restaurants, having a few too many cocktails and taking a brief siesta from any physical exercise … this is a vacation after all.  We need to resist that urge!

Last year, leading up to our beach trip, I was very disciplined with food, diet and exercise.  But after one week on vacation I had blown about two months of progress.  Not only had I gained a fair amount of weight, but I had lost all my momentum around living healthy.  Squander two months of progress for one week of fun???  NOT THIS YEAR!!!

Staying on the Wagon on Vacation

So this year I have a much better game plan for how to have a great vacation and still come back looking and feeling as good as when I left. Below are three ways I’m tackling vacation and healthy living this year.  I’d love to hear what works for you!

1)  Exercise!

This isn’t a vacation from exercise.  Every morning I’ve made it a point to get a 3+ mile walk or run in before the family heads down to the beach.  Running on the beach (especially during high tide) is not the most pleasurable experience, but it really gets the day off to a great start.  Its actually probably more like a cross train exercise, but there is always a willing family member to partner up with!  So far I’ve managed to get out every morning except for one, and my body has definitely appreciated the fresh start to each day.

2) Enjoy but Don’t Overindulge.  Have a Food Plan for the Day.

We try to start each day with a basic but very nutritious breakfast (oatmeal, smoothie, hard boiled eggs).  We keep lunch pretty simple. The girls love a basic sandwich, such as avocado, hummus and tomato, which we normally make with gluten-free bread. Add in some carrots and hummus on the side and it’s a pretty filling meal! Assuming we’ve stayed the course for breakfast and lunch, we’re in a much better place to eat freely at dinner time.  This is where we may splurge a bit, but always in moderation There’s a very interesting book by Mark Bittman, VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00, which is based around a similar premise.

3) Keep Your Schedule.  Keep Your Discipline.

One of our best friends in our healthy life journey is our daily schedule. A disciplined routine for getting up, eating, exercising, and going to bed helps to keep us on the right path.  Just because you’re on vacation doesn’t mean  NOW’S THE TIME TO HIT UP THE NIGHTCLUB!!!  The worst thing you can do is come home from vacation feeling exhausted.  This has happened to us in the past, so we focus on ensuring we are recharging our batteries while at the beach…not that this is the easiest thing to do with a four- year-old and a toddler!

So those are three quick tips that I’ve been very focused on this year at the beach to keep the healthy living train moving.  I would love to read some tricks that you use!

Until next time…

Brent