I love to eat healthy most of the time, but when I go on vacation (and in everyday life too!) there are certain instances where I want to indulge.

When on vacation, sometimes it can feel like everything is out of whack because you are going to sleep at a different time, waking up at different times, eating different foods, and maybe eating more sweets or treats than you would usually enjoy.

This is totally OK, and I don’t want anyone to think it’s not!  If we never went on vacation and broke our regular routines, then we wouldn’t appreciate our little routines and healthy habits…and we may go crazy (well, at least that would happen to me!).

However, when going on vacation, there are some habits that I like to bring with me so that I can enjoy the extra bowl of ice cream at night without the extra guilt.

Breakfast

We all know how important breakfast is in our regular schedule, and it is just as important while on vacation.  I found it helpful to eat a breakfast that I would normally eat to really set the tone for the day so that I didn’t feel like a slug from the get go.  On my trip to Florida, I packed a little pre-portioned baggie of Sunwarrior protein powder with me and asked my mom to add bananas, peanut butter, Greek yogurt and oats to the grocery list so that I could prepare my overnight oats for breakfast before bed each night.  It may be a little boring eating the same thing each day, but it got my day started right and I honestly looked forward to my overnight oats!

Snacks

While on vacation, meal times can get weird and I found that my family was eating dinner way later than what I am used to, so I was hungry way before it was time to eat.

One of the evenings, my mom decided to order a pizza from a local pizza place called Flippers that we had heard great reviews about.  This was definitely a treat, as I have always loved pizza but rarely eat it so that I never get sick of it.  While my tummy was growling as the pizza seemed to take forever to arrive, I made myself a little side salad appetizer as a snack so that I didn’t want to scarf down the entire pizza the minute it came in the door.   The fiber and water in the veggies and beans filled me up, but left just enough room for me to enjoy a piece of tasty pizza with the rest of my family.

Workouts

When I am at home, I workout 5-6 days a week.  The point of vacation is to relax and give the body and mind a rest.  Honestly, this is a pretty hard task for me to accomplish because I feel like my brain is always running a million miles a minute, but I find that if I plan workouts rather than schedule them it helps keep me sane!

Some mornings, I woke up and walked with mom, one morning I ran 3 miles, a couple of mornings I completed a crossfit inspired circuit that required zero equipment, and some mornings I did nothing!  Because I had a handful of workouts that I knew I could do, I was completely ok with just waking up when I was ready and seeing what my body was ready for.

After my little sweat session, I was more than ready to relax in the sun for the rest of the day 🙂

While I was searching various things on the internet, I came across an amazing workout from  Women’s Health Magazine that literally requires ZERO equipment, uses moves that we have all heard of and tried before, but puts them in 5 different exercise orders so that with only 6 moves you have 5 different workouts.  Pretty awesome if you ask me.  It’s called the “Do Anywhere Crossfit Workout” and I can guarantee that it will forever be in my workout library .

So there you have it.  I know I am not perfect, and I truly enjoyed the extra rest, relaxation, and treats, but enjoying those treats has given me more motivation to start out this month of August, and this work week on a great foot. The extra rest has left my body time to repair and left it itching to get back into the gym!

Time for You to Share:

• Do you worry about working out while on vacation?
• Do you worry about what you eat while on vacation?