7 Ways to Enjoy Vacation While Still Honoring Your Body
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If you have an unhealthy relationship with your body, food, or fitness, I know vacations can be filled with stress, guilty, anxiety, punishment, all the things. And I also know you oftentimes can't wait to get home so you can just get back into your boring routine, right? Vacation is a time to relax and NOT a time for you to stress out about “gaining weight” or “losing your progress”. That’s why in this episode, I share a few hacks on how to enjoy your vacations while still honoring your body.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it, let's go.
Hello, and welcome back to another Embrace Your Real podcast. I am so grateful that you are here spending some time with me today. Today's episode, I'm really excited about how to enjoy vacation while still honoring your body. Summertime is truly one of my favorite seasons. It's usually filled with all things road trips, camping vacations, which are all so, so fun, but to be honest, they can throw off your routine. Vacation, yes, is a time to relax and not a time for you to stress out about gaining weight or losing your progress, which is why in today's episode, I wanted to share a few hacks with you on how to actually enjoy your vacation while still prioritizing honoring your body.
Before I dive in today's episode, I had to share the super sweet review. It comes from M Zack. She said, you are living out your calling, Julie. Julie, what an inspiration you are to me and so many other women. You have encouraged me and helped me feel understood, known, and have helped me remember how worthy I am despite what the scale says. I am moving more than I was, not to lose weight, but to honor my body. I'm eating better than I was before, not to lose weight, but to honor my body. I still have a long way to go, but I wanted to thank you for all that you stand for. Keep doing your thing. It's helping a lot of people.
Thank you so much. This review is honestly everything. I read every single one of your reviews. Me and my team, we appreciate you more than you know, so if you haven't already switched over to Apple Podcasts, be sure to hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode on Monday and Thursday. Also, scroll down and labor view. It takes less than 30 seconds, but it really does help us out in the podcast world to grow the message of reaching more women to inspire and encourage them to embrace the real. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
We took a trip to Durango this past week and had an absolute blast. We were doing all things outdoors, but as we were driving home, I was talking with Josh of just how fun this vacation was and how good it felt to be outside and moving my body, but it also brought back some memories that it wasn't always like this. Vacations used to fill me with stress and guilt, anxiety, and punishment and all of those things. Oftentimes, I couldn't wait to get home just so I could get back into my boring routine. Thinking back, It really makes me sad because I was stressing so much about all these things and I was missing the actual moment in vacation. I know that of you guys may still be in this place and I want to help you get out of it so that you can finally enjoy your vacations.
Here's a few tips that I have on honoring your body while still having fun on vacation. Number one, give yourself some active rest. Did you know that it actually takes about three weeks of inactivity before you begin to lose muscle? Not one week of vacation. When you go on vacation, you don't need to worry about making gains or progress. Just focus on maintaining. You don't need to make time each day to go crush your workout. If you don't, you're not going to lose muscle or lose the progress that you made that quickly. If you crush your workouts consistently, your body will greatly benefit from rest because let's be real. If you're honest with yourself in your everyday life, you most likely don't provide your body with the rest and recovery that it actually needs. You might go weeks and even months without proper rest, which can actually be detrimental to the results that you see from working out. Taking a week off from working out and doing your normal routine could possibly be the best thing for your health and fitness progress, especially if you feel like you're stuck in a plateau.
What is active rest, you may be wondering. Like, okay, that's great. You may be wondering, okay, that's great. I don't have to do my normal routine, but what is active rest? It's moving your body without crushing a workout, a normal workout that you do and your normal routine when you're home, which brings me up to tip number two, incorporate movement into your vacation activities. For example, on our drive home from Durango, I looked at what we'd be passing through and saw it was only 30 minutes out of the way to stop at some sand dunes. Yes, please. If you guys have never been to the sand dunes in Colorado, they are incredible. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. The scenery, the experience, everything, and it was about an hour and 30 minute hike up to the top and back. It was a perfect stop on our way home.
Plus, while we were in Durango on vacation, we walked pretty much everywhere. We went on hikes and we were constantly moving our bodies throughout the day. Since I am very consistent at home with my Movement With Julie workouts, I never feel like I have to do proper workouts on vacation if I know we're going to be doing other things, especially if I know that I'm going to be incorporating movement into my vacation. It's so fun for me to move my body in different ways and I truly believe that my body benefits from a break from the dumbbell workouts and switching it up.
You may be like, "Okay, how do I incorporate more movement into my vacation activities?" Here's some examples you could rent bikes to explore the town in. You could walk to dinner instead of drive. You could take a long walk along the river or the beach. Can you find a hike nearby, that's even 30 or 45 minutes? You could do stand up paddle boarding or kayaking. Trying to incorporate movement into vacation will only add to the enjoyment of your vacation. However, would that being said, if movement is not in the plan on vacation. You might be with other people and that just might not be possible throughout the day.
I will tend to get up earlier and get it in because sometimes, like I said, movement just isn't in the plan and that's okay, but for me, I know that I enjoy my day so much more if I move my body first thing. I don't always want to do it, but I know that if I push myself to even move my body for 15 to 30 minutes before the day begins, I'll have so much more fun and so much more energy throughout my day.
Whether you're staying at your family's house, an Airbnb, a friend's house, a hotel, I can guarantee that you can get up 30 minutes earlier to get it in. You don't have to do anything crazy. You can do some body weight workouts. You can do jump roping. You can go for a walk or a run, yoga, anything to get your body up and moving. Sure, your workouts or your movement might look different from a typical and normal routine when you're back home, but trust me when I say that it's worth it. Not only will you feel better by being intentional about moving your body, you'll get to experience new things and make new memories with those who you love in new places.
Tip number three, stay hydrated. Typically, vacation will include the following two things for most people, eating out and drinking alcohol, or drinking things that you normally don't do. When eating out, you're most likely going to be consuming foods that have been heavily salted, cooked in oils, or just processed in general. Like I said, if you've been following me for a while, there are no foods off limits. However, these kinds of foods along with alcohol can cause bloating due to water retention.
Guess what? All of those symptoms can make you feel like you've gained all this weight when in actuality, you haven't gained anything at all. Staying hydrated will help you reduce bloating and water retention, making you feel more comfortable during your vacation and keep you from stressing out about your "gained" weight. I typically try to make it a goal to drink at least 80 to 100 ounces of water each day on my vacation, just simply because I feel better. I notice a difference and 80 to a hundred ounces of water minimum for me is not going to be so much water that I'm having to go to the bathroom all the time, but enough water to where I feel hydrated and it really is helping to reduce any bloat that I have.
Tip number four, eat the food that you want. When I'm on vacation, of course I eat the ice cream, I eat the pizza, I eat the French fries, I eat the foods that I want to eat, but I'm not overindulging in the foods that I want. This is the key difference here. Most people go into vacation with this all or nothing mindset. Either they're going to eat extremely clean. They're going to bring all their foods or they're going to do the exact opposite. They're going to stuff their face with all of these foods that they don't normally have until they feel sick. Yes, I still eat a single scoop ice cream cone, not a half a gallon of ice cream. Yes, I still eat a burger, or pizza or fries, but typically not the largest burger or the largest fries on the menu. I give myself permission to eat yummy foods, but I practice moderation while doing so.
You will be amazed at the difference this key thing makes. You'll realize that it's more than okay to eat these foods that you typically don't have from your normal routine and that you won't actually gain all this weight when you choose to eat them in moderation. Also remember this, when you're on vacation, you want to have all the energy to do all the fun things. For me, overindulging just depletes my energy and makes me feel lazy. I don't want you to sabotage all the fun you could have by unnecessarily overindulging. I know for me, when I choose to just eat in moderation, I allow myself to have foods that I normally don't have. Maybe it's like a special food. For example, we had this delicious chips and queso at home. I could if I wanted to, but I don't make queso at home and so it was just so amazing to have foods that I normally don't have and eat a good amount of chips and queso, but not to the point where I feel stuffed and sick. Just remember, everything in moderation.
Number five, fill the fridge. Hotels and Airbnbs typically come with a fridge and I want you to utilize it. Not every single meal and snack needs to be eaten out. Plus, if you don't eat out for every meal and snack, you'll actually save yourself some money. For us, we prepped some food prior to leaving for our trip, not only for the road trip, which was amazing because.
I don't know about you, but for me, if I eat foods that I know are going to make me feel satiated and satisfied, I will have such a more enjoyable trip, especially when we're in the car. We were in the car for seven hours and so for me, I knew that having a couple slices of bread and having a big chicken salad and some beef jerky, that's going to satisfy me versus going to the gas station and getting a huge soda and some chips. Which again, nothing wrong with that, but I just know how to fill my body to feel optimal. Especially when you're on the road and you're sitting down for long periods of time not really doing anything, having a meal or having snacks that you can preplan that you know are going to number one, be delicious, two, are going to make you feel satiated and satisfied will help so much.
Before this trip, we actually prepped some food and we filled up a cooler and then we just transferred it to the hotel fridge when we arrived. Most food that you cook will stay good for up to a week. Eating food that you typically eat a few times throughout your vacation will actually make you feel good. I know for me, just eating foods that I typically eat throughout the week and having some things on vacation, like rice cakes, and tuna packs, and chicken for chicken salad. I brought some One bars, things like that that I eat normally when I'm back home, it not only enures that I'm going to feel good and have some snacks that are readily available, but it also helps to save some money as well.
Tip number six, only eat and drink what you actually want to eat and drink. Something that I find on vacation is that when you're with a group of people, everyone is hungry at different times and they're all craving different things at different times. If you're not hungry for lunch, don't feel like you need to eat. If someone is craving ice cream and you're not, you don't have to get the ice cream. If everyone is just snacking on all the snacks, don't feel like you have to snack just because it's in front of you.
Don't just eat to eat while you're on vacation. I want you to eat with intention and eat when you want to eat. If everyone is eating and you're not hungry, order some food to go and eat it later. Have a small lunch box to put it in and keep it cold. It's super simple. Ask yourself in the moment, do I really need to eat this right now? Am I really craving this? Am I actually even hungry right now? I know it may sound silly, but it will really help you feel better throughout your vacation when you choose to listen to your hunger cues, instead of just going off of what everybody else is doing.
Number seven, I need you to forget perfection. I need you to let go of your need to eat perfectly and your need to crush a workout every single day. These things do not need to happen while you're on vacation and you should not force these things to happen. While I'm on vacation, I typically don't track my macros. Sure, I'll pay attention to what I'm eating. If I don't eat any protein at breakfast, I know that whatever I'm eating for lunch or dinner, I'll try to make sure that I'm having enough protein. If I had a decent amount of carbs at breakfast, then I'll order something that is lighter in carbs for lunch. I'm not obsessing about it, but I'm still making mindful decisions. You need to let go of your need for perfection because at the end of the day when you're on vacation, you do not want all of these worries, and fears, and doubts, and insecurities, and this striving for perfection to overshadow the incredible memories and experiences that you can make while you're on vacation.
Let me recap those seven things. Number one, give yourself some active rest. Number two, incorporate movement into your vacation. Number three, stay hydrated. Number four, eat the food that you want in moderation. Number five, bring your own food. Number six, only eat and drink what you actually want to eat and drink and when you want to eat and drink it. Number seven, forget perfection.
If you love this episode, I know you will also love episode 36, 10 ways to stay on track on the weekend. I really dive in about weekends because I don't know about you, but for me for a long time, it was a really big struggle. Just having these 10 ways to help you stay on track will, I can guarantee, ensure that you both have a fun weekend and you allow yourself to still continue to crush your goals. If you have somebody in your life that you feel like would really benefit from this episode, I just ask that you share it out with them.
I encourage you to jot these down so that the next time that you're going on a road trip or a vacation, whether it's this summer, this fall, or maybe you're listening to this a year or two years down the road, that this will help you stay on track. Most importantly, help you live in the moment and stop being in this all or nothing mentality because I want you to enjoy your vacation. I want you to feel your best on your vacation, and I want you to feel like you can have a sense of moderation while still experiencing all of the things. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the Gram, be sure to do so, JulieaLedbetter. Yes, it's with an a in the middle, for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. I'm going to leave you with one last thought, the most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth.