How To Stay Fit While on Vacation
Life is all about balance, but some people feel that enjoying life to the fullest while being fit and healthy is incompatible. When we think of the good times, we tend to envision rest and leisure, good food, and good drinks; all the things we are told to sacrifice to reach and keep optimal physical fitness, but is this notion rooted in truth? I say no and I’ll tell you why. Let’s explore.
I recently took a week-long vacation to Italy. It was great. My wife and I saw the sights and indulged in dining on all manner of pastas, pizza, and ice cream every single day. By the time I returned to the U.S. I had gained a whopping 1 pound. Pretty unimpressive right? One other thing to consider is that my normal diet is not nearly as carb heavy as my vacation diet was, so it’s highly likely that the added 1 lb of weight was mostly due to cellular water retention and I got home just as lean as when I left. I’ll outline how I did this and how you can too.
Gaining or losing fat is determined by energy balance. One way to tilt the energy balance to conditions favorable to your goals is to adjust activity levels. The main way I did this was by increasing my step count. Where my normal steps typically range between 10,000 and 15,000, my daily vacation steps typically fell between 20,000 and 25,000. The extra steps came from regular tourist activities such as exploring the city and visiting landmarks. My wife and I travelled by foot everywhere we needed to go that was within about a 5-mile radius. These walks were spent enjoying each other’s company, observing the scenery, and eating Italian gelato. This habit allowed us to burn hundreds of extra calories allowing guilt-free treat seeking.
What about resistance training? I decided to take a break from the weights for this week, but I did not want to be completely deconditioned so I resorted to a simple morning routine. Each day I would perform 3 sets of push ups and 3 sets of banded rows. That’s all. This provided enough of a stimulus to keep the muscles engaged without doing anywhere near the level of work I would normally do and spending significantly less time. The only other meaningful physical activity for me was dragging around my luggage. During the course of our trip we stayed at 3 different locations, so each time we left or arrived at a destination we carried luggage for at least a mile from room to primary transportation and vice versa. Talk about a workout!
As far as the diet piece of the energy balance equation, my caloric intake was much higher (by my standards). There was no way I was going to try to count calories while on vacation, but my meal strategy was simply a very light breakfast around 10AM each day and then no holds barred for the remainder of the day sometimes as late as 10PM.
As you can see, I definitely enjoyed my vacation experience. I ate everything that I wanted to and had to make little to no adjustments. In such a case it just pays to be mindful and intentional. For me, that included tweaking activity and simply not going overboard on food. I did not restrict eating in any meaningful way but I also did not stuff myself as a glutton. I just ate delicious food when I was hungry. These strategies can be used for you as well whether it’s a special event, out of town travel, or even a spontaneous outing. Give it a shot. Until next time.
-Chris