Enjoy vacation without gaining weight

Enjoying your vacation and still not gaining weight is not a contradiction. At least not if you keep the following things in mind.

Targeted training break

If you don't want to or can't train on vacation, think of this time as a purposeful training break - sort of like a deload.

While it would probably be better for physiological reasons to exercise at least a little during the deload, if you do take some time off, it will probably have the least negative impact (if any) on your body composition during a deload that you are planning anyway.

Ideally, you plan your training so that you are also ready for a deload at the beginning of your vacation - in other words: train really hard and with a lot of volume in the weeks before your upcoming vacation! That way, you won't feel bad if you don't do any strength training for 1-2 weeks.

Activities

But if you want to and can train on vacation, then go ahead and train! On vacation, you usually take time for the things you enjoy. And if you enjoy strength training, then there is nothing at all against training on vacation (even if this is unthinkable for some).

In this case, you do not need to plan your training in advance so that the planned deload falls on the vacation. By the way, in almost every gym abroad you have the opportunity to do 1-2 trial workouts or buy a 10-day membership.

Also, be active on vacation! If you go on vacation and the activity is the focus - such as a skiing or surfing trip - then of course you do not have to worry about this.

However, it becomes critical with a typical "lying on the beach all day" vacation. Don't worry: This doesn't mean that you can't lie on the beach or pool for a few minutes (or hours).

But it's best to ask yourself: Do you really need to lie around on vacation the WHOLE day in order to recover from stressful everyday life? And ask yourself this even more if you have a job where you are not physically active.

On vacation there are usually so many great opportunities to be active. For example, what could be better than jogging on the beach early in the morning at sunrise or going for a long walk? If you don't like that, you can also go swimming in the sea for 15 minutes (not splashing - real swimming!).

Lying on the beach afterwards will feel even better. Alternatively, you can try sports you've never done before: how about tandem skiing, snowboarding, surfing, windsurfing, or Frisbee, or playing tennis or volleyball? There are so many great sports. Be creative!

Maintenance mode

Besides physical activity, it is of course also important how you eat on (and indeed before) your vacation. One of the biggest mistakes is to diet on vacation. Then either your diet success or your vacation quality will suffer. Both of these are outcomes to be avoided. Diet harder beforehand and eat in maintenance mode when you're actually on vacation.

Ideally, you will have completed your diet as many as 4 weeks before your vacation. This gives your body time to recover from the diet so that you are not constantly hungry on vacation and don't run the risk of eating too much.

Very few people track their calorie intake on vacation (which is of course perfectly understandable!). The combination of no calorie counting, a lot of hunger and a large selection of super tasty food can lead to weight gain in many cases.

So it's best to be done with the diet early so that you can reduce the risk of overeating as much as possible and spend the vacation in maintenance mode.

By the way, you should not plan a mass phase for your vacation (provided you do not plan to train). Due to the lack of training stimulus, the calorie surplus would only go into your fat tissue.

Planning

Surely you know the tip to have no sweets in the house in the first place, so as not to be tempted.

It's similar with the choice of vacation type. Either you choose the all-inclusive hotel with super tasty food (have the sweets in the house, so to speak) or the vacation apartment where you have to cook for yourself (have no sweets in the house - it is much more time-consuming to cook yourself as tasty or as much food as the cooks in the hotel).

If you really want to avoid the risk of overeating, it's better to opt for a vacation rental or Airbnb accommodation where you have to cook for yourself.

It's best to ask yourself while planning your vacation whether the focus will be on food. If this is the case, your chances of maintaining your weight on vacation are not very good.

Instead of adjusting your daily schedule to the hotel's menu, focus on spending time with your friends, having time for yourself, and experiencing something different or simply relaxing. This all works wonderfully, even without eating all day.

Attentive eating

By the way, all this should not make you afraid of eating on vacation. Quite the opposite: You even have the opportunity to learn how to eat healthier on vacation - WITHOUT suffering!

At first glance, this may sound contradictory. But think about how you eat on a typical workday. You probably eat either in front of your laptop, while watching TV, while typing on your phone, or with time pressure between two meetings.

The result of such distracted or stressed eating behavior is usually that you eat too much, too fast, and the wrong things. Of course, these are not healthy habits.

How can you fix them? Take time to eat! Instead of focusing on bans during your vacation, focus on what is good for your body.

Assuming you are at the dinner buffet, you can take your plate and put together a nice salad. During the meal, you can put your phone in flight mode and focus all your senses on your food. You can see the bright colors of the peppers, onions, and lettuce leaves, smell the balsamic dressing, and taste each ingredient by consciously just being with the food.

This is not easy, and it takes practice! Of course, you can also talk while you eat (after you have chewed?). This will ensure that you eat more slowly and give your brain the necessary time to initiate the feeling of satiety.

Once you've eaten the salad, you can move on to the main course with your (small) appetizer plate. Many people pack their (large) plate far too full. Even though they don't really feel hungry after half, they still eat the rest - out of politeness and out of habit.

So you can do damage control by putting the main dish on a small plate. You can also take more breaks from eating, since you'll probably go back for seconds several times. This again ensures that your feeling of satiety can set in faster.

You can then fill your plate with lots of vegetables, complex carbohydrates (e.g. sweet potatoes), and a relatively fat-free protein source (e.g. chicken). Then, eat the main course in the same style as the appetizer.

If you are still hungry for dessert after the main course (okay... dessert is always good...), then go ahead and get dessert. But eat it as mindfully as all of the earlier courses. That way you don't have to blame yourself after the meal because you didn't enjoy it AND you are full.