Don’t Get Derailed During Your Summer Vacation

By: Guest Blogger Danielle Pastula

Don’t Get Derailed During Your Summer Vacation

Vacation season is officially in full swing, and you might be prepping for a week-long trip to Tulum, Mexico (because that seems to be where everyone is going lately) by hitting up lunchtime group fitness classes and eating all those veggies so you feel toned and strong in your swimsuit.

But what’s going to happen to all that work you’ve done when you go on vacation? You might lose a little muscle mass and put on a couple pounds, which is absolutely nothing to fret over, but here are some steps you can take to keep yourself relatively on track during vacation so you can smoothly transition back to your routine when reality comes knocking.

Walk to Your Destinations

I spent July Fourth weekend (just two days) in New York City and walked over 20 miles over the course of the weekend.

While not every vacation will allow you the opportunity to walk everywhere, like in NYC, if you’re headed to dinner or going to the beach, walk there if you can. Keeping your bag light and letting your feet carry you to your destination not only allows you to see more of your vacation spot, but you’ll feel so much better when you return home and know you didn’t just lie around like a bump on a log the whole time.

Of course, I know the whole point of a vacation is to relax, so I’m not saying you need to power walk everywhere, just don’t feel like you need to drive the car a half mile to the beach when you could take a nice seaside stroll there. Little jaunts can add up to lots of steps.

Drink Tons of Water

In my opinion, vacations and margaritas go hand in hand. Same with beers, daiquiris and of course, a healthy sized glass of wine.

With the “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” mentality it’s easy to consume more liquid in the form of sugar and calories than water, which is what we really need more of when we’re walking around town, laying out in the hot sun, and consuming more boozy drinks than usual.

Keep a water bottle with you all the time and be adamant about filling it up, you’ll feel much better when you return home without bloat or feeling like you need a week-long detox.

Schedule Some Active Excursions

Hiking to reach an unbelievable view, taking a surfing lesson, kayaking a river…there are a lot of ways to incorporate being active on your vacation if you’re really worried about coming back to real life feeling like you’ve unraveled your diet and fitness goals.

And if you’re really intent on not doing a damn thing on your vacation other than laying on the deck of your cruise ship all day, maybe hit the on-board or in-hotel gym for 15 minutes just to keep your body feeling energized. HIIT it hard, give yourself a pat on the back and be on with your lazy day under a cabana.

Give in to Indulgences

Listen, life is too short to not spend your vacation indulging in the stuff you resist in the name of health in everyday life. And there’s really no use in ever thinking, “man, I really wanted that dessert at that awesome restaurant we went to, wish I would have gotten it.”

Out of all the things in life we second guess, a dessert while you’re on vacation shouldn’t be one of them.

Drop the guilt, order the cheesecake and enjoy it. And then when you get back to the grind of work and life, go to your spin class, feel great about how much ass you kick, and think about how wonderful your vacation was, especially that cheesecake.