When it comes to maintaining and losing weight, travel usually tends to be a nightmare for me. The change in routine and environment makes it difficult to maintain my eating and exercise habits. I always gain weight when I travel. In the past six months, I’ve been doing better dealing with travel and instead of gaining my usual 5 pounds (or 7 or 10) in a week, I’ve gone down to about 2 or 3 pounds. Heading to Kauai, I spent a lot of time planning for my trip and really thinking about how I was going to handle food and exercise. My goal for the trip was to maintain my weight and not gain or lose any weight.
I lost a little over a pound last week.
If you’ve never struggled with your weight then you might be wondering what’s the big deal? A pound? So what? But this is HUGE for me. Not only did I not gain weight, I lost weight! On vacation! In a regular week where I’m at home, I’d be pretty happy with losing a pound or two a week (my body rarely loses any more than that). Here is what I did that helped me stay on track:
- I took some non perishable food with me – peanut butter, cereal, Kashi crackers, and Cliff Bars. Having my own peanut butter and cereal with me meant that I could still eat the same breakfast that I eat at home (For some added protein, I usually eat one to two tablespoons of peanut butter after my cereal and milk). The Cliff Bars were great quick snacks to have around when I was hiking or driving somewhere. I could always count on having a somewhat healthy snack on hand. I took the Kashi crackers since they’re a pretty good source of complex carbs and I figured I could pair them with some cheese for a snack or quick lunch.
- I went grocery shopping as soon as I found a grocery store near my hotel. I knew my hotel room had a mini fridge so I did this right before I even checked into my hotel (I didn’t want to take any chances). I’ve actually been doing this one on business trips for a while now – I’ll usually try to find a grocery store as soon as I get my rental car. I usually buy small stuff that is portable, healthy, and helps me maintain my usual eating patterns. Just to be extra prepared for Kauai, I even made a grocery list before I went. I ended up buying food like Baby Bel cheese (good source of protein and goes well with crackers, which makes for a good lunch while hiking), cherry tomatoes (quick to eat, no need to cook, easy to wash), grapes (same properties as the cherry tomatoes), apple bananas, pineapple slices, nectarines, bottled water, Diet Pepsi, and skim milk. The emphasis here was to enable eating my own breakfast, have a few things around that I could make my own lunch, have things around that are easily portable (I ate several lunches while hiking), and have enough healthy snacks around that I never got so hungry that I ended up making bad food decisions. It is a lot easier to stay on track when you’re not eating out for every meal.
- I brought some zip lock bags with me. This is one of those things that I learned from experience. It’s great to have a giant bag of grapes in your hotel room but it isn’t of much use if you can’t easily take it with you. The zip lock bags helped me make healthy food portable and still maintain some portion control.
- I stuck to my eating heuristics. For the most part, I tried to eat the same way that I eat at home. I made sure to drink at least a 100 oz of water everyday (this meant that I kept having to buy bottled water every day, which got a little annoying). I made sure to eat every four hours. I made sure to eat when I was hungry and stop when I got full. I continued to write down everything I ate.
- I usually only ate out for dinner. I usually tried to focus on eating lean proteins and vegetables. I ate a lot of fish and sushi (it helped that Kauai has some amazingly fresh seafood). And when I wanted something that I usually don’t eat, I didn’t obsess about it and just let myself have it (in moderation). For instance, one night my swordfish came with mashed potatoes. Since it was only about a 1/2 cup or cup (and I had hiked the whole day), I figured it wouldn’t cause too much damage. I usually skipped dessert or just had some fruits from my room.
- I let myself eat whatever I wanted on my birthday. I decided before I went that I could do whatever I wanted on my birthday and I think that really helped me stay focused the rest of the week. There were a few nights when I thought about getting dessert after dinner and I just figured, “Well, my birthday is in a few days and I’ll get to do that then.” Even on my birthday, I didn’t really do all that bad. For instance, I only ate about half of my entree during dinner because I knew I wanted dessert (and wanted to enjoy it instead of being miserably full).
- I maintained my activity level. Just like at home, I aimed for at least 10,000 steps, which meant doing at least an hour of cardio every day. On days that I didn’t hike, I made sure to still go for a run. I also made sure to get my three resistance training workouts/week. Resistance training isn’t my favorite thing to do so I can easily skip it or procrastinate it. Before I left for Kauai, I made sure to add the resistance training workouts to my calendar – that way, I would be less likely to skip them. On top of the hiking, running, and resistance training, I also did a little bit of swimming almost everyday.
There were also some very unique factors about this trip that made it a lot easier for me to manage. I was on vacation so I had all the time in the world to attend to my needs (not always true when I’m traveling for work). Between the hiking, swimming, and just wanting to explore, Kauai really lent itself to being active (my hometown of Edwardsville, IL, does not). I was by myself so I could take the extra time to deal with my food needs and didn’t have to deal with any peer pressure around food. And unlike going home, I had more control over my environment – I could control what I put in my hotel room (I don’t have any control over what my parents put in their fridge). I’m also not totally sure I could have continued to be so vigilant had it been a longer trip. I got a lot sloppier about my food decisions towards the end of the week. Having to plan and think about my food in a new environment (where I couldn’t cook for a week or store a week’s worth of food) got really draining! For instance, due to some lack of planning on my part, I ended up eating a bag of Gardetto’s for lunch on the flight back from Honolulu to San Jose. Gardetto’s aren’t exactly the healthiest thing on the planet and eating them for lunch made me kinda sick!
All in all, I think I did pretty well, even if the planning and thinking about food got a little tiring. I’m hoping that with more practice, it won’t continue to feel so draining.