9 Vacation Tips To Maintain Your Goals For Losing Weight
Use these 9 tips to maintain your goals for losing weight when on vacation while still enjoying a much-needed break.
Watch the show or download this podcast episode below for later!
Have you ever wondered if there are tricks to maintaining fitness and nutrition goals while on vacation, or is it better to just let loose?
We love vacations. Summer rolls around and we take every opportunity to enjoy the break and summer sun. This summer we have 7 getaways planned. Our family cabin, the beach, and camping, to name a few.
Whether you are going to the beach, a hotel, a lakehouse, camping, or on a cruise – wherever – I am sharing 9 tips that my family uses to enjoy a healthy vacation that maintains your fitness goals without sacrificing a much-needed break.
For more healthy living tips be sure to check out:
9 Vacation Tips To Maintain Your Goals For Losing Weight
#1. Keep the right perspective, and stay off the freakin’ scale.
Tip number one and the most important tip of all is to understand that you do not gain body fat in 1 week.
You cannot physiologically undo months of fat loss and metabolic change in one week despite what a scale may say.
If you’re new around here, then you need to understand that I hold NO STOCK in tracking body weight as a means of reflecting one’s health and wellness.
My Faster Way to Fat Loss clients have heard me say it a million times -ditch the freakin’ scale.
Unless you have one of a few chronic medical conditions or are pregnant, the average adult does not need to weigh his or herself.
A number on the scale is merely a reflection of your relationship with gravity and not an accurate indication of disease risk or overall health. #ditchthescale
Be sure to read my post on the importance of tracking body fat % as opposed to body weight, but as a nurse practitioner with 20 letters behind my name (it’s true), you need to trust me when I say that this is a much more beneficial number to measure from a health and wellness standpoint than the arbitrary, irrelevant number on a scale.
Learn How to Measure Your Body Fat Percentage at Home.
The point is this – for most bodies, it is going to take approximately 4 weeks to see a significant change in body fat.
The only way you are going to mess up months of hard work on one vacation is if you mentally believe you have, and I am telling you right now – you haven’t.
Enjoy your vacation in moderation and then discipline yourself to bounce back.
Fight the all-or-nothing mentality with disciplined flexibility that shows grace for a week of fun but is without excuses come the following week.
9 Vacation Tips To Maintain Your Goals For Losing Weight
#2. Practice intermittent fasting with disciplined flexibility.
Notice that concept of disciplined flexibility again?
It seems like an oxymoron, but it is the name of the game when it comes to a sustainable lifestyle of wellness.
For those of you who haven’t done my FASTer Way program or have no idea what intermittent fasting is – it is a schedule of when to eat that has been scientifically proven to effectively promote fat loss, preserve lean muscle mass, and improve insulin sensitivity especially when combined with the proper nutrition and exercise regimen.
I am a proponent of the 16:8 method which means we eat all of our nutrition in an 8-hour window and fast for 16. I tend to maintain an eating window of 10a – 6p.
So how do I balance this while on vacation?
If someone is making homemade cinnamon rolls smothered in a creamy homemade vanilla frosting (like this cinnamon roll recipe), then you better believe I am not going to be skipping breakfast that day because that is a rare treat in our house.
But if someone brings donuts from the local gas station that aren’t the cream of the crop, then I am going to pass because a so-so donut is not worth breaking my fast for just because I am on vacation.
I maintain my fast as normal unless there is an exceptionally worthy treat to break it for.
I will also tend to push my eating window back over vacation to 11-7pish because most people do not eat dinner at 5p like we routinely do at home.
A note for those who are not already practicing intermittent fasting – do not start while on vacation.
This tip is for my clients and those who are routinely practicing IF. If you normally eat breakfast, then make sure to adhere to tip #3.
Read on, friend!
9 Vacation Tips To Maintain Your Goals For Losing Weight
#3. Plan ahead for the food that you are in control of.
Whether it is a long weekend away with friends, Thanksgiving breaks with my extended family at the cabin, a week at the beach, or camping with friends and family – the typical food breakdown is to bring your own breakfast and lunch and take turns providing dinner for the group.
Now if you practice intermittent fasting as my clients do or as Zach and I have for the last 4 years, then breakfast is already taken care of. You just skip it.
But if you routinely eat breakfast, then the idea is that you should plan ahead for the food that you are in control of with low carb, high protein options to set yourself up for success the rest of the day because empty carbs are where people get themselves into trouble.
If you know someone is making a big pasta dish for dinner on Tuesday night or you are going to your favorite Italian restaurant, then be intentional during the day about limiting your carbs and loading up on fresh vegetables and lean protein to give yourself room for all the yummy carbs in the evening.
Keep breakfast lean and high in protein – eggs, protein shakes, etc.
9 Vacation Tips To Maintain Your Goals For Losing Weight
#4. Walk and bike to your destinations.
“Stay active” is a recommendation frequently thrown out into the fitness universe, but how does one practically apply this concept?
The idea is to be intentional about moving as much as possible in order to improve your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (N.E.A.T.) or to paraphrase – burn more non-exercise-related calories.
For example, if you want to go out to eat at night choose restaurants that are within walking distance or consider renting bikes for the week and biking to dinner as a family.
If you need to run to the grocery store, again, consider taking your bike and hanging the bags on the handlebars. or take a large backpack.
Walk to a park.
Take a sightseeing bike ride instead of a tour bus.
Obviously, a lot of this depends on the kind of vacation you are on, but the point is that when able choose to use your body to get to your destination as opposed to automotive transportation.
9 Vacation Tips To Maintain Your Goals For Losing Weight
#5. Limit caloric drinks including alcohol.
As many of you already know, I have never been able to stomach the taste of alcohol in any form. In fact, the only way I consume it is in my favorite dessert – tiramisu – which I understand doesn’t really count.
That being said, I realize for many people alcohol is part of relaxing and indulging while on vacation but understand that alcohol is basically empty carbs.
I am generalizing here as it depends on the type of alcohol being consumed, but the point is, limit your total intake.
Your gut will thank you too.
This concept also applies to soda and juice. You have to decide – would you rather eat your carbs or drink them.
Our family drinks water and flavored seltzer waters.
I, for one, would rather have that piece of Tiramisu.
9 Vacation Tips To Maintain Your Goals For Losing Weight
#6. Protein, protein, protein.
The easiest way to promote nutritional moderation on vacation is to limit empty carb intake during the day by prioritizing veggies and lots of protein so as to give yourself more wiggle room to fully enjoy a meal at night.
Ok Ahna, give me some examples of protein, protein, protein.
I’m so glad you asked.
Download this Protein Macro Cheat Sheet chock full of protein-rich food ideas and get creative about ways to incorporate them into your vacation meal plan during the day.
My go-to’s include wrapping spinach and a mozzarella cheese stick in turkey slices, Greek yogurt, beef jerky, pre-made protein shakes, meatballs, pre-cooked grilled chicken strips, almonds, peanut butter . . .
9 Vacation Tips To Maintain Your Goals For Losing Weight
#7. Have vegetables readily available for easy snacking.
I don’t know about you, but one of the greatest challenges to eating more vegetables is the time it takes to prep them.
I love salads, but just the thought of prepping one makes me tired. Is that pathetic or what. #momlifebelike
Having vegetables readily available for easy snacking while on vacation is an easy way to help curb the consumption of empty carbs.
Again, we want to save those carbs for a delicious, vacation-quality kind of dinner. #noguilt
Look for packs of veggies that are already cut or come in mini sizes such as cherry tomatoes, mini-cucumbers, snack-sized peppers, and baby carrots.
I buy all of these at Costco.
For an extra tip, consider bringing snack-sized guacamole or hummus packs to dip those veggies into. Zach prefers the hummus, and I prefer the guac.
9 Vacation Tips To Maintain Your Goals For Losing Weight
#8. Play active games.
Similar concept to tip #4, choose active pursuits with your family and friends.
We love sitting and playing games together at the cabin or relaxing with a good book on the beach, but no matter where we are or who we are with you will always find us throwing footballs, tossing frisbees, playing Kan Jam, Spikeball, tennis, or even pickleball which seems to have become a beach tradition now.
The above picture was 2 years ago at the extended Fulmer beach vacation set up with spectator seating and all.
Who doesn’t love a good game of parking lot pickleball in the rain?
DIY beach chair umbrella.
9 Vacation Tips To Maintain Your Goals For Losing Weight
#9. Enjoy vacation treats.
When I came home from Costco with our vacation food yesterday, Gracie said “Mom, you are the best when it comes to vacation!”
She confirmed I was doing alright as a mom on the non-vacation days too, but the idea is that when we go on vacation I ask each person in the family what special treat they want.
Do you know what they ask for every time (Zach included)?
Cereal. Lucky Charms specifically.
Cereal is considered a treat in our house because if you haven’t checked the labels on kids’ cereal recently they are basically like eating dessert. Some bowls of cereal have as much sugar as a candy bar.
But the point is that vacations should be special.
It should include experiences (including food) that are not part of our normal routine.
This does not mean you should disregard every nutrition and fitness principle that is part of your day-to-day life.
For more healthy living tips be sure to check out:
I hope one of these nine tips helps you to enjoy a healthy vacation that promotes fitness and nutritional health while still enjoying a much-needed break!
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Transcript
Find something that you like to do as a family that is active. There’s never a better time to start than now. Be active play active games as a family, make new memories, and I’ll tell you what they will become some of the most special memories for yourself and for your kids. Welcome to the M perfectly empowered podcast with leading DIY lifestyle blogger on. Where women are inspired with authentic stories and practical strategies to reclaim their hearts and homes by empowering transformation. One imperfect day at a time. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the imperfectly empowered podcast. I’m your host on a Fullmer. Have you ever wondered if there are tricks and tips to maintaining your fitness nutrition goals while on vacation, or is it better to just let loose? Are there tips strategies that you can use to maintain your goals for losing weight? Maybe you have spent the last several months. We have vacation season coming up. And a common question I get from clients is what tips do you have for maintaining all of the work that I’ve put in while I go on vacation and not unraveling at all? Or is it better to just let loose? Well, I’m going to share nine ways to enjoy a fit and healthy vacation that not only promotes fitness and nutritional health, but also. Promotes a much needed break. We love vacations in our house this summer already. I think we have seven getaways planned summer rolls around and because my husband is a teacher and a football coach, my kids obviously are all in school. We love, love, love to take the opportunity to take a break, enjoy vacations, enjoy the sunshine. We’re here in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It’s a cold weather state. And as soon as that sun comes out, peace out we’re out of here. So whether it’s our family cabin, the beach camping, we like to do all kinds of things. And. Structure is kind of thrown out the window. When we go onto these vacations, we’re often with family we’re with friends, there are certain things that are simply out of our control and our normal fitness nutrition routine is interrupted. That being said, my husband and I, my kids are only nine, seven and four. So I kind of don’t include them necessarily in this, although they’re all to healthy body fat percentage for their age, but my husband and I are able to maintain a healthy body fat percentage. Y’all know how I feel about weight loss. We’re all about body fat here. And we are able to maintain our healthy body fat percentage all through the summer. There are tips. There are strategies, and I am going to share just a few of the things that we are intentional about on vacation, because I fully believe it is not all or nothing. And there are absolutely ways to maintain your goal. While still enjoying a much needed break. Stay tuned to the end. Hear me. Tip number nine. The last tip is the most important one. They’re all really good. They’re all really helpful practical takeaways, but stay tuned to the end because it is a must tip to maintain your goals for losing weight. Tip number one, you ready for it? You’re going to love this one. Enjoy your vacation treats. Enjoy vacation treats. Here’s an example of realistically how this works last summer. I remember I came home from Costco. I was getting our vacation food ready for the beach. When we went last year. I came home and she goes, she was looking through our food through the big box. She go, mom, you are the best. When it comes to vacation. Now she did confirm I was doing all right as a mother, even on the non vacation days. But the idea is this. When we go on vacation, I ask each person in the family, what special treat they want? Do you have any guests? What special treat they ask for every time? This is Zack included. I’m just going to take a pause here. Any, any guesses? There is one request that is most frequently asked for across the board. It is cereal. Which cereal, let me throw that one out there. Which cereal. If you had to take a guess, it is lucky charms. Lucky charms are hands down the most frequently requested vacation treat. Some of you are saying. We eat those every day, that would not be considered a treat. Well, this is another podcast for another time, but cereal is considered a treat in our house because if you haven’t checked the labels on kids’ cereals recently, they’re basically like eating dessert in truth. Some bowls of cereal have as much sugar as a candy bar, again, another podcast for another day, but I highly recommend you reconsider cereal in your home. In my home, I will in bulk make homemade oatmeal that is loaded with protein. I will include the recipe in the show notes, but you can make it in bulk. I also add some protein powder into it because protein is the key. We’ll talk about that later. But so my kids eat baked oatmeal or instant oatmeal, and they just use a couple of chocolate chips for sweetener. We don’t put any sugar in our kids, instant oatmeal, and they eat it and they enjoy it. So the point is this vacations should be special. They should include experiences including. That are not part of our normal routine. This does not mean you should disregard every nutrition and fitness principle. That is part of your day-to-day life. You want to incorporate treats with discipline. We’re not just going to totally let loose, not all or nothing in case you haven’t figured that out yet. This is not going to be an all or nothing post. Have each person decide what treats they want and incorporate them into your vacation while not just throwing every single principle that you’ve maintained at home out the window. So tip number one, enjoy vacation treats. Figure out what your vacation treats are. Tip number two, practice intermittent fasting with disciplined flexibility. Now again, I kind of mentioned this moderate discipline, discipline flexibility. Again, not all or nothing. Let me be clear if you have never done intermittent fasting, I do not recommend you start on vacation. This is especially speaking to my clients who are already practicing intermittent fasting. For those of you who have not done my faster way to fat loss program, the link will certainly be included for those of you interested in, in my virtual six week fitness nutrition program, or if you have no idea what intermittent fasting is, it is a schedule of when to eat that has been scientifically proven to effectively promote fat loss, preserve lean muscle mass and improve insulin sensitivity, especially when combined with the proper nutrition and exercise regimen in my life, as well as in my. Program, we practice the 16 eight method, which means we eat all of our nutrition in an eight hour window. And we fast for 16 hours. I personally maintain an eating window routinely of 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. I don’t need until 10:00 AM and I don’t eat after 6:00 PM. How do I balance this while on vacation again? If you have not practiced intermittent fasting, do not start on vacation. That’s not the point of this particular tip, but if you practice intermittent fasting on a regular basis, let me give you an example of how I do this on vacation. Especially if you’re a client of mine. If somebody has again, we travel with family and friends. We rarely vacation just our little family once in a while. We do, but more often than not we’re with other people. It’s the way that we love to vacation. Thankfully, we very much enjoy our family and friends. It is a blessing, not a burden. And sometimes somebody will decide to make a homemade breakfast. Listen, if they are making homemade cinnamon rolls, smothered in a creamy, homemade frosting, like my own cinnamon roll recipe, it is the best recipe known to mankind. It rivals Cinnabon. I will also include the link in the show notes. Then you better believe I’m not going to be skipping breakfast that day because. Cinnamon rolls are rare treat. That’s going to be a vacation treat for me. Here’s the difference. I’m not a proponent of slapping on the phrase. Hey, we’re on vacation because here’s the problem. Especially if you go on vacations with big families, like. If someone brings donuts from the local gas station, that aren’t the cream of the crop, they went to fill up the car, brought home donuts, brought back donuts to the vacation house. I am probably going to pass because of so, so donut for me is not worth breaking my fast, just because I’m on vacation. Now, if they are. The best donuts in the world that I look forward to every single time I go to this particular vacation spot, I’m going to enjoy a donut. Am I going to get one every morning? No. But I might three out of the seven mornings if I’m being honest. So just be careful. It’s not all or nothing. I maintain my fast as normal, unless there is an exceptionally delicious worthy treat to break it for. I will also tend to push my eating window back over vacation to more like 11 to seven, because again, most people don’t eat dinner like we do at 5:00 PM. And when we are on vacation, where often with other people and the. Set up is typically that everyone shares dinner responsibilities. So again, I’m not going to make somebody cook dinner at 5:00 PM simply so I can maintain my fasting window. I might just push it back and discipline flexibility. That is again, the concept that we are chatting about here. If you normally eat breakfast, you don’t practice intermittent fasting. You normally eat breakfast, then make sure to adhere to tip number three. Tip number three is plan ahead for the food that you are in control. Whether it’s a long weekend away with friends. Thanksgiving breaks with my extended family at the cabin a week at the beach, camping with friends and family. I mentioned before the typical food breakdown for us is that we bring our own breakfast and lunch and then take turns providing dinner for the group. This is pretty consistent among most of our getaway vacationing experiences. Again, I mentioned if you practice intermittent fasting as my clients or as Zach and I have for the last five years. We typically skip breakfast. However, if you are routinely eating breakfast, and this is part of your day-to-day nutritional habits, the idea is this plan ahead for the food that you are in control of focusing specifically on low carb high fiber. Hi, protein options to set yourself up for success. The rest of the day, because empty carbs are where people get themselves into trouble. For example, if you know that that night’s meal is going to be a big pasta day. Or you are going to your favorite Italian restaurant as a group for dinner. Be intentional during the day about limiting your carb intake and loading up on fresh vegetables and lean protein to give yourself room for all the yummy albeit empty carbs in the evening. Boil down, keep breakfast and lunch, lean and high in protein. Eggs protein shakes, meat, fresh vegetables. The list goes on and on. We’ll talk a little bit more about that, but lean and high protein tip number four, walk and bike to your destination. Stay active as a recommendation frequently thrown out into the fitness universe. Right? Move, move, move, move. There’s emojis. There’s stickers on every single social media channel with that idea of move, move it. But how does one practically apply this concept of. A whole nother podcast to come on this, but the idea is to be intentional about moving as much as possible in order to improve your non-exercise activity, thermogenesis in parentheses. Neat. It is the acronym. Neat. You have maybe seen that before another fitness websites or whatever, but to paraphrase neat is the calories that you burn that are not related to exercise. Exercise being defined as that burst of time that you’re dedicating solely to a workout. That is how I am defining exercise for some of you that might just be a brisk speed walk. Maybe that is exercise for you. For some of us that may be a very intentional high intensity training workout for 30 minutes, it could be a run. It could be weightlifting. That’s how I’m defining exercise a period of time that is specifically designated for working out. Exercise activity, thermogenesis, the calories required during intentional exercise non-exercise activity. Thermogenesis is the movement. The calories burned by your day to day. That I am specifically addressing here. This is why we want you to move or how you calculate with steps, steps, being a big thing, where you get one of those fitness trackers and you see your steps. That is ultimately what we’re talking about here. Neat non-exercise activity, thermogenesis, a whole nother podcast is coming soon. I’m going to chat about all kinds of things. Sneaky ways to burn extra calories without even thinking about it. That aren’t exercise-related. And this is what we’re going to talk about. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis your day to day movement. How can we apply this on vacation? Well, there’s several examples. I will give examples for ourselves. These are things that we personally do. Not all the time, depending on where we’re going to, et cetera, and the vacation that we’re on. For example, let’s say you want to go. To eat at night, depending on where you’re vacationing. There could be dozens of restaurants, even within walking distance of where you are, depending on where you have vacation. Consider going to a restaurant that is within walking distance. Or consider renting bikes for the week and biking to dinner as a family, Zack and I did this when we went to Hawaii, we chose not to rent a car. We rented bikes and we biked everywhere, depending on the age of your kids. There’s options here, you can do the bike seats. You can do the little bike, strollers, like a little cart that sort of attaches to your bike and consider biking. If you need to run to the grocery store again, consider taking your bike, hanging the bags on the handlebars. I have done this many times at the beach. I take a bike and I put the bags on the handlebars or wear a large backpack. Remember this little strollers that I talked about that basically attached to the back of the bike. You can put a ton of grocery bags in those. Walk to a park, but say that you’re wanting to say, see, you’re wanting to visit wherever it is. Consider walking there instead of a tour bus sightseeing tour, bus ride, consider finding a biking tour. A lot of places actually have. Believe it or not, most places that have tour guide options will also have a biking option. You might have to search a little bit harder for it, but consider doing a bike tour. Again, a lot of this depends on the kind of vacation that you were on. There’s so many other tips and tricks to improving your non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or I should say increasing your non-exercise activity thermogenesis, but the bottom line is when able choose to use your body to get to a destination, as opposed to automate of transportation. You have tried it. Worried you will never lose the extra weight or reclaim the energy you once enjoyed want to achieve fat loss without spending hours in a gym or eliminating entire food groups from your diet. Well, now you can, in the virtual faster way to fat loss with Ana. The six week fitness nutrition program, you will learn how to pair effective 30 minute workouts with all natural evidence-based nutritional strategies to leverage what you eat. And when you eat to reset your metabolism and burn fat fast, even that stubborn belly. I am a dual certified nurse practitioner, passionate about teaching sustainable strategies to promote fat loss and prevent disease. I have cheered on thousands of clients who have done just that with the faster way program in my six week program, the average client currently shed seven inches of body fat 93% report, more energy. 89% state that their mental health has improved 100% of clients report. They feel this program is sustainable. Curious to try the program, but not sure if the strategies will work for you. Try the faster way strategies for free head to www.hammersandhugs.com and sign up for my free seven day fat loss accelerator course today. And start your own transformation story. Tip number five. Limit caloric drinks, including alcohol. As many of you already know, I have personally never been able to stomach the taste of alcohol. It does not get past that little dangly thing in the back of my mouth. That is the technical term medical term for it. Of course. So alcohol is easy for me to pass up because I genuinely cannot stand the taste of it. However, for some of you. I understand that alcohol is part of the treat concept to vacationing. It’s part of your relaxation, part of the indulgence that you allow while on vacation, but understand for the most part, alcohol is basically empty. For the most part, there are many, many forms of alcohol. I am generalizing here as it certainly depends on the type of alcohol being consumed, but the point is limit your intake. Your gut will. Thank you. Soda soda and juice. Juice is one of those misleading. I feel like I could do an entire podcast on just drinks alone. Juice is one of the most misleading nutritional principles out there that was really poorly worded, but juice looks healthy. It’s bright. It’s made out of. There’s often marketing schemes around juice that make it look very healthy. It’ll say something like 100% natural, no added sugar, but you guys, fruit is sugar. Fruit has tons of sugar in it. Now it is natural sugar. Yes. So if you’re talking about picking up a candy bar versus. Eating fruit understand fruit is going to be preferable every time, but juice, even all natural fruit juice is still loaded with sugar juice should be a treat. If you have young kids, they should not be routinely drinking juice. It is misleading. The industry has misled parents and children and grandparents alike by making people think that juice is actually. All things in moderation, but the point is juice for the most part is not worth the added sugar to the diet. When you’re on vacation, a simple way of maintaining your goals is to be very, very careful with soda. Y’all know that I feel like soda should just be a no explanation. Go whether it’s diet or not. I am not a fan of soda in really any form and juice should be enjoyed sparing. In day-to-day life, but this also includes vacation. Watch your caloric juice intake. Bottom line. You have to decide, would you rather eat your carbs or drink them? I, for one would rather eat my carbs in the form of a delicious dessert. Actually, the only alcohol I like is in the form of tiramisu. Let’s just come full circle here. That’s about the only form of alcohol will consume and I love tiramisu. So I would personally rather have that piece of tiramisu than a soda or juice. Our family drinks, water and flavored seltzer waters, LaCroix being our go-to brand. Not all seltzer waters are created. Another story for another time, I shared that on a different podcast where he talked about counting calories versus tracking macros. Check that one out. I talk about my seltzer water journey. It’s rough people. It’s rough, but Hey, you find the right brand and you can get used to it. Now. It’s all we drink. Tip number six, protein proteins. Protein protein. I’ll say it a fourth time for good measure. The easiest way to promote nutritional moderation on vacation, maintain your goals for losing weight or the goals that you had already accomplished. Protein is the key limit empty carbon take during the day by prioritizing. Fresh vegetables and a lot of protein. This gives you more wiggle room to fully enjoy that carb loaded meal at night. If you want some examples of protein, especially looking for those lean protein options, you definitely want to check out that podcast that I just mentioned or go onto my blog and search for. Macro cheat sheets or macro food lists, or you can type in macronutrients because there are lists of protein options. There’s actually lists of everything. Fat carbs. But there’s a list that you can pronounce chock full of protein, rich food ideas, and get creative about ways to incorporate them into your vacation meal plan. During the day, a couple of examples. My is include wrapping spinach and a mozzarella cheese stick and Turkey slices. That’s pretty much completely low-carb Greek yogurt, beef jerky, pre-made protein shakes. Meatballs are a great protein option. You cook them in bulk. Stick them in the fridge and you can stick them in little lunch bags, depending on if you’re going out to the beach or whatever. Precooked grilled chicken strips, almonds, peanut butter, protein, protein, protein during the day, or whenever your big meal is right. Maybe your massive meal is going to be at lunchtime. You see what I’m saying? Here? Buffer your main meal with these lean protein. This leads into number seven, have vegetables readily available for easy snacking. Let me add something here. Have vegetables that you like readily available for easy snacking. If carrots are the only vegetable that you like then have carrots readily available for easy snacking. I’ll hear somebody say, oh, I don’t like vegetables and I’ll go through the whole list. Do you like anything on this list? Well, yeah, I like. Then half peppers readily available for easy snacking. I don’t know about you, but one of the greatest challenges to eating more vegetables, the fact is is that it takes time to prep them. Let’s just be real. I love salads, but just the thought of prepping on makes me Dyer. I know it’s pathetic, but Hey, hashtag mom life be like, you know what I’m saying? Prepping salads is a lot of work. Having vegetables readily available for easy snacking while on vacation. Certainly. At home as well, but we’re talking about vacation here. Isn’t easy way to help curb the consumption of empty carbs examples. I’m actually trying to think right now through some examples that we typically use. So a lot of times we’ll get stuff in mini sizes, the little mini baby cucumbers, as opposed to the massive ones. Costco has this big bag of baby cucumbers that are perfect for snacks. Cherry tomatoes are great example, snack size peppers, baby carrots, because there’s no slicing and dicing involved. Right. You just take a handful, throw them into a sandwich bag. Stuff readily available for snacking for an extra tip, consider bringing snack size guacamole or hummus packs to dip those veggies into Zack prefers the hummus. I prefer the guac. We like both of them, but they are a great lower carb, higher nutrient density option to keep you full until that big meal and their snacks, ice tip number two. Play active games. This is a similar concept to tip number four, but choose active pursuits with your family and friends. I’ll be honest. This is one that we do not have to work too hard at. I grew up doing stuff. I know that sounds silly, but going to the beach, I didn’t even understand that there were beaches where you couldn’t bring balls. Or Frisbees too, that all you were allowed to do is just lay out. And I’ll tell you this quick story, my girlfriends laugh every time, but we took this girl’s getaway to Florida. And I don’t remember the beach we were at. This is not to criticize this particular beach, but the three of us, this was post-college and we come up to this beach and there’s a sign. That has this list of rules. And the bottom line is you couldn’t throw any balls. You couldn’t throw a Frisbee. I don’t even think you could surf at this beach. And I was like, what is the point? What are you supposed to do? And my girlfriends were like on a, you lay out and you. Are you listening to music? Are you talking? I’m like, this is not why I go to the beach. So the bottom line is I grew up very active at the beach. My husband does the same way when our family is at the beach, you will see spike ball. You will see, can jam all of the yard games, get brought to the beach, no matter where we are, you will find us moving. Throwing a football tossing, a Frisbee, like I said, all the yard games can jam spike ball. We will find tennis courts and we will walk or run there. If they’re far enough, then we will ride bikes or we will drive there. My father-in-law got a pickleball. A like traveling pickleball setup. And now it’s the thing that when we go on beach vacations, we specifically look for a house that we can set up pickle ball in the driveway, or when my family went last or two years ago, now my parents and my in-laws, we all shared a house together for a week. It was amazing. And we played pickleball in the parking lot, across the street from. Bottom line, find something that you like to do as a family that is active, create new memories. If you have to, maybe you didn’t grow up that way. There’s never a better time to start than now. Find something that you can bring with you and be active, play active games as a family, make new memories, and I’ll tell you what they will become some of the most special memories for yourself and for your. So if you didn’t grow up that way, it’s a great time to start. Find something that you all enjoy. Stay active. Tip number nine. This is the best tip that I can possibly give you. I have saved the best for last. Maybe I should have put it first tip number. Keep the right perspective and stay off of the freaking scale. Pardon? My language. This is the most important tip. And here is what I want you to understand. You do not gain body fat. In one week. I have said this to clients so many times you cannot physiologically undo months of fat loss and metabolic change. In one week, despite what a scale may say again, if you’re new around here, understand I hold no stock in tracking body weight. There is a podcast coming on. This lots of podcasts coming. Y’all stick around lots of good stuff coming. I hold no stock and tracking body weight as a means of reflecting one’s health. I’m all about body fat percentage more to come on, how to calculate that at home, et cetera. But people ditch the scale. Do not come home from vacation away yourself, please. God forbid you weigh yourself while on vacation. Stop it. Stop. You cannot gain body fat percentage in one week. You might retain water because you’re somewhere hot. Maybe you’re not drinking as much as you normally do. Stay off the scale. A number on the scale is merely a reflection of your relationship with gravity and not an accurate indication of disease risk, or overall health ditch. The scale, if you’re too anxious and you don’t want to wait for the podcast coming out, you can take a look at my blog, where I teach you how to calculate body fat percentage. The important. Tracking body fat percentage as opposed to body weight. But let me just tell you as a nurse practitioner with 20 letters behind my name sounds outrageous, but it’s true. You need to trust me. And I say this as a much more beneficial number to measure from a health and wellness standpoint than the arbitrary irrelevant. On a scale. And the point is this for most bodies is going to take more like four weeks to see a significant change in body fat percentage. The only way you are going to mess up months of hard work on one vacation is if you mentally believe that you have, and I’m telling you right now, you haven’t enjoy your vacation in moderation and then discipline yourself to bounce back. Fight the all or nothing mentality with that disciplined flexibility that shows grace for a week of fun, but is without excuses come the following week when you get back home, I really hope one of these tips is especially helpful to maintaining your goals for losing weight or to maintaining your fitness goals in general, it is possible to enjoy. Healthy vacation while still giving yourself a chance to relax and enjoy those special treats. If one of these tips especially resonates with you, or if you have more tips, please drop them in the comments below. I would love, love, love to hear them. I might have to do another podcast, incorporating your tips into it and tell me what has resonated with you. And I will see you here now. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of the imperfectly empowered podcast. It is my honor to be here with you. I am so grateful for each and every one of you. If you are watching on YouTube, be sure to click the subscribe button below. So you don’t miss a show and leave a comment with your thoughts from today’s episode. If you are listening via your preferred podcasting platform, would you help keep us on the air by rating our show and leaving an honest review of your thoughts from today in case you haven’t heard it lately, your story matters and you are loved. This is your host on a former, and I will see you here next time on the, in perfectly empowered podcast.