Following a diet while you’re in the comfort of your own home is hard enough, but it can be nearly impossible to avoid food temptations while you’re on holiday. When you’re on vacation, there so many temptations and other factors working against you and your diet plan. From the constant restaurant dining, the odd hours, the social pressure to indulge – how can a dieter navigate these treacherous temptations while still enjoying themselves during their holiday?
Create A Holiday Diet Plan
The first step is to set yourself a more flexible diet plan for your travels. You’re definitely going to indulge a bit more than usual, but the goal is damage control – you want your holiday travels to have the least impact possible on your diet goals so that you can get back on track once you’re back.
Achieving this successfully may take some creativity, since you won’t always know ahead of time what you’re going to eat. The key point is being able to make tradeoffs. If you indulge in a treat during the afternoon, maybe it would be appropriate to eat a smaller dinner? Perhaps you’ll need to limit your portions in general? Or perhaps other times you’ll simply have to say no to certain foods, despite social pressure. Create a holiday diet plan that ensures that you’ll still be able to attain your weight loss goals when you come back to everyday life.
Plan Ahead
A major factor in avoiding food temptations is your ability to plan ahead. Find restaurants in the local area that serve healthy, yet delicious meals. The good news is that in many cultures, tasty clean dishes are a part of the local cuisine. Perhaps find a hotel that has a few healthy meals on their room service menu, or that has a gym.
Portion Control
Holidays tend to be a time when people feel entitled to indulge. You’re away from work and your normal routine in an environment where all you have to do is relax and enjoy – this makes it easy to fall prey to temptation. Even if you’re slightly off track of your usual diet plan, it’s not reason to overeat. Enjoy some of the spoils of being on holiday, but don’t indulge too much.
Drink Lots Of Water
When people are busy enjoying a foreign country, it’s easy to get dehydrated. The human body does a much better job of burning fat when it’s well hydrated, so be sure to drink lots of water. Remember that you should only drink boiled or bottled water in certain countries – a stomach virus or parasite would be the least thing you want while travelling.
Buy Local Groceries
Just because you’re abroad doesn’t mean you can’t stock up on some healthy necessities. Make a trip to the local grocery store and stock up on healthy snacks, fresh fruit, and veggies. It can even be a fun little unique adventure. After all, the typical tourist doesn’t spend much time buying groceries at the local supermarket while they’re in an exotic land.
Hopefully these tips help you stave off food temptations the next time you’re on holiday. Remember that the key is damage reduction – you may not be able to lose weight on your vacation, but with the right planning, you can thoroughly enjoy your holidays while making sure that you don’t undo all the hard work you’ve achieved during your previous months of dieting and exercising.
Author Bio
Nathalie Sanderson is passionate about weight loss, fitness, and healthy living. You can find her blogging about these topics and diets that work over at ExFatChicks.com.
