How to Stay Healthy on Holiday

Hello everyone! 

One of my most FAQ's over this Summer has been 'How can I stay healthy over my holiday?'. 

The first thing I will say is that you cannot magically get a 'beach bod' by quickly switching to a healthy, balanced diet during your holiday after eating a crappy diet for weeks in advance. You cannot just magically undo the effects of a poor diet through having some watermelon for pudding every evening during your holiday. But, you can still enjoy your holiday whilst simultaneously kickstarting a healthier lifestyle. And I am going to tell you how by sharing with you how I maintained my lifestyle, whilst enjoying myself, during my week-long holiday. In fact, I can even tell you that I surprisingly managed to lose 1kg of body fat during the week that I was away.

Diet 

This is just a little snapshot of what I would eat on the day-to-day whilst away. The beauty of being abroad in hot climates is there are a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables on offer in hotel restaurants  If you are on a self-catering holiday fruit also tends to be a lot cheaper, especially if it is grown in that location.

 The main reason people tend to pile on the lbs during their holidays is either an overload on fats and carbohydrates, and also excessive alcohol consumption. Due to the heatwave, I did not consume much alcohol during the day as it dehydrates your body and also causes bloating, especially beers and ciders. Instead, I stuck to water or Diet Coke if I needed something with a bit of flavour. When drinking during the evening, I stuck to drinks consisting of spirits and diet mixers. 

 With regards to carbohydrates and fats, hotels know that the Brits are suckers for chips, pasta, chicken nuggets, pizza and all that. People are often ignorant of the fresh fish options, local curries, roasted vegetables, fruits etc. Granted, I had some treats. I'm on holiday and have worked hard for the past year. Why the hell not? But I didn't want to completely undo this hard work and have to work extra hard to get back on track when I arrived home again. 

 I managed to lose 1kg during my holiday as I stuck to three filling meals, I didn't snack in between and I stayed very, very hydrated. Here is a general idea as to what I'd eat during the day. 

Breakfast

3 slices of melon

Yoghurt, oats and raspberries

1 Nectarine

Small plate of scrambled egg with roasted veg

Coffee 

Lunch

Roasted vegetables

Chicken Breast/Grilled, fresh fish/Local curry (mainly consisted of meat and mixed veg with an aromatic sauce, they were never overly creamy and thick!)

Rice 

1 Nectarine

1 Scoop of Pistachio Ice Cream (3 of the 7 days) 

Dinner 

Pasta

Red meat option (shredded steak, pork, duck, whatever was on offer)

Roasted veg (may have overdone the roasted veg whilst I was away, but it was seriously tasty!)

Cheeky small slice of vegetarian pizza (3 of the 7 days) 

2 slices of melon

TIP: Putting your meals on smaller plates will allow you to feel more full once you have eaten your meal, as it will make it look and feel like you have had a larger helping.

Drink

Rosé and lemonade

Whisky Sours x2

Diet Coke x 2

2 litres of water 

Exercise

This does not have to be performed every day to a high intensity. As I always say, fantastic results start in the kitchen/at the meal table.

I mainly performed a lot of exercise purely because I have, over the past year, just become an incredibly active person and cannot sit around doing nothing all day. Going to the gym is my 'me time' and just something that keeps my mind and body occupied. Also, the resort we stayed at offered HIIT classes so I was definitely taking on that opportunity.

But you can get your exercise from swimming and long walks on the beach easily! Even just a few lengths in the pool first thing in the morning, and then you can spend the rest of your day relaxing knowing it's done! 

I had a gym session on five out of the seven days, and completed four HIIT classes. I also did swimming sprints every morning up and down the pool for about half an hour. I kept up with my targeted weight sessions, so did two leg days, two arm days, and a long ab session.  All of these sessions were forty minutes before breakfast, but I usually did my swimming straight after. I also went for a long, leisurely walk on the beach pretty much every other day with my Mum and for a swim in the sea. 

It's important to remember...You are not on holiday to punish yourself. You're there to enjoy yourself. But this post is just here for those who want/need to know that it is still possible to maintain a healthy lifestyle whilst abroad. Having your treats is necessary because you have essentially paid to have a good time, but that does not mean you need to overload yourself with unnecessary crap just because it's there. Enjoy yourself wisely! 

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Thank you so much for reading this post! I hope you stick around for more and get some motivation out of this blog. Make sure to follow now so you don't miss a thing and I will be writing the next post as you read this, so keep your eyes peeled!  

Liv xo