Strategies and tips for your summer holidays

Losing weight / healthy eating can be hard at normal times but when you throw in your long awaited holiday into the mix, it can seem all too difficult and can often be a trigger for people to simply give up and / or lose motivation to continue when they get back home. This can be especially true if you’ve worked really hard to get to a specific goal for your holiday and the minute you get back, all that motivation you had in the build up has simply vanished!

Holidays are special occasions just like Christmas, Easter and your birthday. You may be lucky to have multiple holidays each year or like me, in particular after the past few years, I’ll be heading off for a week in Turkey at the end of June 2022 and it will be my first holiday for over three years. The key with all special occasions in your year is to see them as just another part of your weight loss journey. They aren’t a signal to give up or to forget everything you’ve worked to achieve.

In this week’s blog, I’ll talk through some tips and ideas to help you navigate your summer holiday but I’ll state this at the start, whatever you decide, please make a promise to yourself before you go away, that when you get back, you’ll get yourself right back on track with your normal eating plan and not use your holiday as an excuse to simply give up.

Before you even leave home!

Spend some time thinking about your eating / drinking plan whilst you are away

Whatever sort of holiday you are going on (self-catering, bed and breakfast, camping, all-inclusive etc) have a think before you actually set off as to how you are going to approach it and what would you be ok with seeing on the scales when you get home.

This pre-thinking will help you arrive on holiday with a bit of a plan – even if that plan is to eat or drink whatever you want! I’ll come on to that in a bit!

Having a plan puts you in control and removes feelings of guilt, failure and removes that ‘giving up’ mentality.

Share your plan with your fellow travellers – let them know what you are going to be doing in terms of your weight loss / healthy eating to avoid awkward questions, get extra support if needed

Make a decision on ‘when you are back on track’ after your holiday

To ensure you are setting yourself up to get right back to your normal eating patterns, make a decision when you are getting right back to normal before you’ve even left home.

For me, these are my ‘back on track’ decisions:

If I’ve been on a plane holiday, I’m back on track the second the plane lands in the UK
If I’ve been away in the UK, I’m back on track at the start of the journey home whether that’s in the car or train.

Having a clear ‘life returns to normal’ deadline really helps you to stop that additional damage which can be done when we’re feeling a bit blue that our holiday is over!

Prepare dinner for your first night home and stick it in the freezer

This is a great tip and really makes getting home that much simpler especially if it’s a late arrival home!

Simply make a big pot of something before you go away and make sure you make enough to freeze enough for a quick and easy meal for when you return home. For us, it’s always a chilli – I can literally stick in the microwave to defrost and heat up and stick some rice on and dinner’s done with no effort whatsoever.

Sort out an online food shop to be delivered for your return home

I stole this tip from one of my former clients who books her ‘return from holiday’ food shop in advance and then confirms it from her sun lounger on the last day of holiday so that she doesn’t have to worry about heading to the shops or facing an empty fridge for long! I think it’s a genius idea!

How to tackle your holiday – what’s your eating and drinking plan going to be?

Let me say right away at this point, there is no right or wrong answer to this and it’s completely your choice. I wanted to pull together a few tips which may help and also offer complete reassurance that whatever you decide to do, the most important thing is that you enjoy your holiday without any guilt, without the negative voice in the back of your head telling you that you shouldn’t be eating or drinking that if you want to!

There’s a great quote which is often shared at Christmas which says something along the lines of ‘It’s not what you eat between Christmas and New Year but what you eat between New Year and Christmas that matters’ and I think this can completely be applied to your holidays too.

Holidays are special – we work hard all year, we save hard and we look forward to our breaks wherever they may be and again, I’m going to repeat ‘ENJOY’ and what you decide is right for you, is absolutely ok!

Stick to your healthy eat / weight loss plan

I’ve absolutely done this in the past 9 years – I’ve gone on holiday and simply carried on eating according to the plan I was following (I was a Slimming World member at the time). I’d not reached my goal weight but I was really close and I decided that reaching my goal was more important to me at that time than any sort of food or drink so I simply stuck to plan. I explained to my friends I was holidaying with, they were completely supportive and I still had an amazing holiday and I lost weight on my return and reached my goal weight a few weeks later.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with deciding to stick to your healthy eating plan, enjoy the healthy options on the menu and enjoy a small treat each day and have a wonderful holiday!

Eat and drink whatever you fancy

There are two key things I need to mention if you go away and just forget about your weight loss or weight maintenance whilst away:

You will gain weight
You absolutely should not feel guilt about doing so

Guilt is one of the most dangerous emotions out there and can cause so much more worse damage to your long term weight loss goals than the actual holiday itself!
If you accept that you are going to gain weight, tell yourself it’s ok and that as soon as you are back, you’ll get yourself back on track then you aren’t ruining the memories of a fabulous holiday and any weight gained can be lost very quickly!

I followed this strategy on a one week cruise with my husband – all food was included in the price, was available 24 hours a day. We’d not had a holiday for a couple of years so I just decided that I was going to enjoy what I wanted when I wanted. I gained 9lbs (which I was actually quite surprised with as I thought it was going to be a lot more!) but I’d decided that was what I was going to do, I had a wonderful time away and that gain was lost within a couple of weeks of being back home and back to my normal healthy eating plan.

Take a flexible approach

This is my favourite strategy and the one I use personally the majority of time (not just for holidays abroad but for meals out, social events, Christmas etc).

Basically, for me this is how it works – the important thing to note here is I don’t drink alcohol and I love desserts / sweet treats.

I eat healthily for breakfast, lunch and dinner
By this, I choose healthy options off the menus / buffet tables. I always add fruit, vegetables and salads to my plate, I’ll remove excess fat from the meats, I’ll skip the heavy sauces, breads and fried foods. I don’t actually find this hard at all as my stomach doesn’t really like these foods anyway anymore and I really enjoy eating nice and fresh foods and I make sure I’m filling up on delicious choices.
I’ll drink mainly water or sugar free drinks the whole time I’m away and if there is fresh watermelon juice available, I simply can’t resist that as its my favourite so I’ll have one or two of those
I will have dessert every day and I will enjoy every single mouthful!!! I’ll also have an ice-cream if I fancy one.
I do avoid things like croissants at breakfast and stick to fresh fruit, yoghurt, muesli, eggs, mushrooms – I know I’m going to be having dessert later and I don’t need to have that first thing in the morning.

The key to being flexible is ‘pick your poison’! If you like a drink, then have a drink (or two) but make sensible choices for your food. Or switch it around – one day stick to soft drinks, the next day have the dessert and ice-creams. You don’t have to miss out on anything that takes your fancy its just about finding balance around it with the rest of the day. For example, if I did go to Italy on holiday, I’m pretty sure I’d have to try a piece of pizza (it would be rude not to!) but I wouldn’t have dessert that day.
There’s no strict rules but it’s just about being mindful about your choices and being prepared to say no to something so that you can have something else that you’d really love to eat or drink instead.

A few other tips

Keep Active

Instead of just lying by the pool, get in and do some laps!
Go for a long walk on the beach or to do a bit of sightseeing each day
If there’s a gym at your hotel, don’t feel bad if you take your gym kit and get a half hour work out in! People often say ‘I can’t believe you’re going to the gym on holiday’ but if you enjoy it, why not! (I’ll be taking my running kit on holiday with me and I’m really looking forward to a nice early morning run on a few days along the beach)

Keep hydrated

Important at all times but especially if you are in a hot country, the NHS guideline is to drink 1.5 – 2.5 litres a day (on a normal day!) but definitely up this if it’s hot!

Water is good for our health in so many ways so keep your glass topped up and make sure you aren’t dehydrating!

Ask the waiters for changes to the menu

I used to be far to self-conscious to ask for meals to be changed however, now I pretty much change every dish I order! Ask for sauces on the side, ask for grilled instead of fried, ask for a jacket potato instead of chips. You’ll find pretty much everyone is accommodating to your preferences in most places so its worth asking!

Travel Food!

This is not something I’m prepared to gain weight for!!!

Firstly, I begrudge paying £11 for a sandwich on a plane and secondly, it’s not going to be something that I particularly enjoy! I choose in advance what I’m prepared to gain weight for and it’s certainly not going to be a quick option at the airport! So, I’ll find the healthiest options I can, sushi, fruit, soup, salads are great examples – I’m staying in control of my travel food options!

If I’m getting a train or a car journey for a UK holiday, I’ll make something to take with me to eat on the way – again it’s choice power – I’m not prepared to gain weight for something grabbed at a service station!

Bin the guilt

Whether you make a plan of how to approach your holiday and things don’t go according to your plans or whether your plan is the ‘eat and drink whatever I want’ approach, the one thing that is not invited on your holiday and certainly not allowed in your home on your return is guilt!!!

Whatever happens in terms of your weight loss or healthy eating plan whilst away, please don’t let negative feelings over what you did or did not eat ruin what is a special time away.

There will always be things that don’t go according to plan, simply accept them and do the best you can in that situation.

And finally, if you are heading off on your holidays this summer, have a wonderful time!

I hope this post helps with a few tips and I’d love to hear from you if it helps!

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