HOW TO: Get On Track With Your Diet After Vacation

The summer is a great time to start your lifestyle transition, as the days are long and sunny, and working out doesn’t seem so bad.

Plus, since many people have less of an appetite in the hot weather, salads and fruit are more appealing than filling dishes.

However, summer is also vacation time for many, and while this means you get a well-deserved break from your daily life, it also means you are at risk of breaking the good habits you’ve started with your diet.

Here we give you some tips on how to get back on track with your weight loss journey after your vacation is over.

Plan and Replenish

You will probably have to return to an empty fridge, but your cupboards and freezer should not be bare!

If you can’t get to the supermarket right away, at least have some frozen fruit and vegetables, frozen lean meat, some brown rice or whole wheat pasta, and packets of nuts and seeds in stock so that you can prepare a meal and have some snacks to tie you over.

Then, when you do have the chance, go shopping and replenish your supplies of fresh produce, as healthy meals are much easier to make when you have a well-stocked kitchen.

Get Back Into the Routine

Your sleep patterns will probably be off, you’ll likely feel down after your great vacation, and the last thing you’ll feel like doing is waking up early to do a workout.

However, you should really make the effort to get back to normal as soon as possible. If you don’t get back into the routine, these bad choices will become bad habits. 

The longer you stay in vacation mode, the worse it will be – you don’t want those five pounds you gained to turn into ten!

Exercise will lift your post-holiday blues and give you lots of energy, which you may lack after a vacation.

Depending on how long you were away, you could find the exercise levels you were used to much harder, but don’t give up! Push through, and you’ll soon be back up to speed.

Have an Early Night

Making healthy choices is much easier when you’re well-rested.

Although it may be tempting to hit the snooze button, get up at your usual time and exercise (if that’s what you normally do), and go to bed earlier in the evening.

Getting your sleep cycle back to normal will give you the energy you need to stick to your healthy routine.

Lose the Guilt

Don’t beat yourself up about the bad choices you may have made on your vacations or since you returned.

You can waste time thinking about the ice cream you ate on the beach or the hotel buffet you couldn’t resist, or you can move on and make better choices today.

Holding on to this food guilt will only start a cycle of unhealthy eating; you need to break the cycle, eat ice cream, move on, and make a better choice next time.

Say ‘No’ to Alcohol

Not only does alcohol have a lot of calories, but it’s shown to cause poor dietary choices.

Alcohol is also a depressant, which means it can depress your motivation to exercise as well as your body’s ability to burn fat and build muscle.

When you return, you need to give yourself and your liver a break, so steer clear of alcohol for a few weeks and try to undo some of the damage you did by the poolside at cocktail hour.

Weigh and Measure Yourself

It’s likely that you gained weight during your vacation, so you should assess the damage as soon as possible to plan how to make up for this slip-up.

Seeing the number on the scale should help motivate you to get back on track, and you never know; it could be better than you expected.

You should also monitor your changes through body fat calipers, a tape measure that pinches your body to measure the amount of fat in a specific area.

Doing this can motivate you even when the scales are not being kind to you.

This is because lean muscle weighs more than fat, and numbers on the scale can hide these positive changes, whereas body measurements can give you the full picture.

Introduce a Supplement

No one should be ashamed to seek help.

This is why non-prescription diet/weight loss supplements are a great option because, more often than not, people need a bit of help to stay on track.

For this reason, we have started recommending PhenQ, which suppresses appetite and cravings and increases energy.

We would love to hear about the vacations you’ve taken this year and your experiences with trying to stick to your weight loss plan while you were away from home.

Also, if you have any tips of your own about how to get back on track when you return, please comment below!