5 Ways to Lose Weight on Vacation
My all time favorite thing about vacation has always been the food. I love going out and trying new cuisine from places I visit. I like the experience of taking a couple hours to make an event out of a meal. I like trying something from every course and I plot out what I can't wait to eat and look forward to it during the rest of my vacation. I do, of course, realize that these are not ambitions that jive with losing weight.
Luckily I don't go on vacations a lot but my recent trip to Atlanta proved to be a good test on my progress. Before I tell you how it went, let me say that I started the trip out at 196 and I ended it at 196 so my title is pretty misleading. Don't worry about that. Know that if you follow my advice, you can lose weight, or maintain your weight depending on how much you are willing to sacrifice.
So let me start out by saying that sacrificing is not really my idea of vacation and so I just maintained my weight and didn't make an effort to keep losing it for the week. I did decide that the progress I've made is important enough that I would not go overboard and I'd keep it reasonable.
1. Be Late for your Plane
This one is really important because it really gets your vitals and metabolism going. How much weight you want to lose should determine how late for your plane you should be. The more you want to lose, the later you should be. In my case, I forgot my ID (yea, the ONE, absolutely crucial, thing you need to board airplane was left at home) and I realized it half way to the airport. We had to travel about 45 minutes back home and another hour and a half back to Portland. Being late for the plane means you have 15 minutes to get to the gate before the door shuts your are SOL and not Atlanta (or where ever your vacation destination is) bound. Thanks to killer running skills across an airport parking lot while carrying luggage weighing at least 30 lbs you'll burn your first 200 calories. Once you get your boarding pass (after waiting in line behind a guy who's plane doesn't leave for hours and has the most questions of any passenger EVER) you're off sprinting again toward the security checkpoint, up an escalator (take the stairs if you're being a badass) and burning another 75 calories. Once at the checkpoint, you strip out of your belt, kick off your shoes, unpack your liquids, and hold the TSA yoga pose in the xray machine. This burns about another 25 calories depending on how elaborate your belt and shoes are. After holding the TSA yoga pose you sprint back to you belongings pack everything back up, grab your 30 lbs of luggage and sprint toward the gate.
If this tactic is done right you will arrive at the gate exactly 4 minutes and 38 seconds before they shut the airplane door and send you off to cry away the pounds. In my case, I arrived at the gate with about 5 whole minutes to spare because the plane was delayed just a little. When all is said and done, you will have burned almost 400 calories and you haven't even gotten on the plane yet!
2. Stay with friends and family, not at a hotel.
The advantage of this tactic is exponential! In my case, I have a super cute mini poodle Nephew that likes to play fetch and stay active. Staying with friends and family also gives you the opportunity not to eat out for every meal. Offering to cook dinner one night while you're there means you can debut a healthy recipe you've created and control your calorie intake and nutritional density of the meal. If you are visiting awesome family they will make you a super healthy and ridiculously delicious meal that makes you feel like you're not sacrificing at all. In my case Amy made a killer chicken marinade, that was then grilled to perfection with a homemade rub and orange slices. This was paired with steamed green bean salad with onions, garlic, and olive oil. Staying with family also encouraged me to go out for a walk to explore their neighborhood and grab coffee before anyone else got up.
3. Get lost often
This tactic rocks. When you get lost, you discover so much more than you otherwise would have. You get to see new places and even if those places are bad, you can run your ass away and burn more calories. We didn't really get lost because our guides knew right where we were going but it still occurred to me as a good tactic because we walked from a parking lot where you couldn't see the building. I would have gone in all the wrong directions and burned a ton of calories just figuring out how to get where I was going.
4. Walk instead of take the car
Depending on where you are visiting you can use a traffic jam to your advantage. Being a little country bumpkin I had never been in a REAL traffic jam... until vacation. If we had chosen to walk to the John Mayer concert instead of driving we could have reasonably arrived at the same time. Amy lives 11 miles from the venue. We drove and it took 2 hours. If we had walked and averaged a good pace we would have burned a lot of calories and gotten to drink even more beer once we got to the show!
5. Pick things to do that keep you moving
Going to a concert and dancing or walking around at the Zoo or Aquarium keep you walking while you enjoy vacation. This is an actual thing that I really think works. We did a lot of walking and it was great because I never even noticed.
I had a blast on my vacation and I don't feel like I missed out on anything. The focus was on having a great time while I was there doing whatever. I didn't plot out my food stops and this was the best vacation we've had in years!
<3 Katie
Tuesday 10/1/13
196lbs
Feeling like I really still want to be on vacation.....
Luckily I don't go on vacations a lot but my recent trip to Atlanta proved to be a good test on my progress. Before I tell you how it went, let me say that I started the trip out at 196 and I ended it at 196 so my title is pretty misleading. Don't worry about that. Know that if you follow my advice, you can lose weight, or maintain your weight depending on how much you are willing to sacrifice.
So let me start out by saying that sacrificing is not really my idea of vacation and so I just maintained my weight and didn't make an effort to keep losing it for the week. I did decide that the progress I've made is important enough that I would not go overboard and I'd keep it reasonable.
1. Be Late for your Plane
This one is really important because it really gets your vitals and metabolism going. How much weight you want to lose should determine how late for your plane you should be. The more you want to lose, the later you should be. In my case, I forgot my ID (yea, the ONE, absolutely crucial, thing you need to board airplane was left at home) and I realized it half way to the airport. We had to travel about 45 minutes back home and another hour and a half back to Portland. Being late for the plane means you have 15 minutes to get to the gate before the door shuts your are SOL and not Atlanta (or where ever your vacation destination is) bound. Thanks to killer running skills across an airport parking lot while carrying luggage weighing at least 30 lbs you'll burn your first 200 calories. Once you get your boarding pass (after waiting in line behind a guy who's plane doesn't leave for hours and has the most questions of any passenger EVER) you're off sprinting again toward the security checkpoint, up an escalator (take the stairs if you're being a badass) and burning another 75 calories. Once at the checkpoint, you strip out of your belt, kick off your shoes, unpack your liquids, and hold the TSA yoga pose in the xray machine. This burns about another 25 calories depending on how elaborate your belt and shoes are. After holding the TSA yoga pose you sprint back to you belongings pack everything back up, grab your 30 lbs of luggage and sprint toward the gate.
If this tactic is done right you will arrive at the gate exactly 4 minutes and 38 seconds before they shut the airplane door and send you off to cry away the pounds. In my case, I arrived at the gate with about 5 whole minutes to spare because the plane was delayed just a little. When all is said and done, you will have burned almost 400 calories and you haven't even gotten on the plane yet!
2. Stay with friends and family, not at a hotel.
The advantage of this tactic is exponential! In my case, I have a super cute mini poodle Nephew that likes to play fetch and stay active. Staying with friends and family also gives you the opportunity not to eat out for every meal. Offering to cook dinner one night while you're there means you can debut a healthy recipe you've created and control your calorie intake and nutritional density of the meal. If you are visiting awesome family they will make you a super healthy and ridiculously delicious meal that makes you feel like you're not sacrificing at all. In my case Amy made a killer chicken marinade, that was then grilled to perfection with a homemade rub and orange slices. This was paired with steamed green bean salad with onions, garlic, and olive oil. Staying with family also encouraged me to go out for a walk to explore their neighborhood and grab coffee before anyone else got up.
3. Get lost often
This tactic rocks. When you get lost, you discover so much more than you otherwise would have. You get to see new places and even if those places are bad, you can run your ass away and burn more calories. We didn't really get lost because our guides knew right where we were going but it still occurred to me as a good tactic because we walked from a parking lot where you couldn't see the building. I would have gone in all the wrong directions and burned a ton of calories just figuring out how to get where I was going.
4. Walk instead of take the car
Depending on where you are visiting you can use a traffic jam to your advantage. Being a little country bumpkin I had never been in a REAL traffic jam... until vacation. If we had chosen to walk to the John Mayer concert instead of driving we could have reasonably arrived at the same time. Amy lives 11 miles from the venue. We drove and it took 2 hours. If we had walked and averaged a good pace we would have burned a lot of calories and gotten to drink even more beer once we got to the show!
5. Pick things to do that keep you moving
Going to a concert and dancing or walking around at the Zoo or Aquarium keep you walking while you enjoy vacation. This is an actual thing that I really think works. We did a lot of walking and it was great because I never even noticed.
I had a blast on my vacation and I don't feel like I missed out on anything. The focus was on having a great time while I was there doing whatever. I didn't plot out my food stops and this was the best vacation we've had in years!
<3 Katie
Tuesday 10/1/13
196lbs
Feeling like I really still want to be on vacation.....
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