Before the kids were born, I exercised pretty regularly, but once Johnny was born, it got a little harder. Still, I managed to squeeze it in, but once Maureen came along, all that went out the window. For almost a year after her birth, I had terrible pains in my joints that made it difficult to even walk through the neighborhood, much less try anything more intense. When the joint pain finally went away, I was really out of practice, plus it was winter and the weather kept us indoors a lot. Finally, after a year of sporadic workouts and a few injuries, we took the plunge and joined a gym. That was in April, and except for one week when I was horribly sick, we've been going 4 to 5 days a week.
I'm very pleased with my progress and getting in my exercise has become crucial to my day. So when we planned an 8 day vacation to North Carolina, I wondered how I would do away from the gym for that long.
It ended up working out great, and some pre-planning was essential to making sure it went well.
Here are 4 ways to maintain your healthy eating and exercise routines while on vacation.
**Make your own meals--We almost always rent a house when we go on vacation, and that makes it easy to cook many of our own meals. Last year, when we traveled to Mystic, CT, we stayed in a hotel that had a mini fridge, but no cooking facilities. The hotel had the usual eggs and bacon breakfast in the morning, but for other meals, we had to eat out. By the end of the vacation, I couldn't wait to get home and cook my own meals. For this trip, I split the cooking with my MIL, and we also ate out one night. I packed any spices or ingredients I already had at home, and shopped for the perishable items when we arrived. The menu looked like this:
Saturday--Spaghetti and meatballs (My MIL made the meatballs at home ahead of time and transported them in a cooler. Pasta cooks quickly, and we also had fresh bread.)
Sunday--I made Chicken with Quinoa, a recipe from Little Stomaks, and served it with extra steamed peas, salad and leftover bread.
Monday--leftovers
Tuesday--My MIL made roast beef with gravy, mashed potatoes and green beans.
Wednesday--Hot Chicken Salad, watermelon, steamed corn and side salads.
Thursday--We traveled to Beaufort, NC for the day and ate dinner there.
Friday--Beef and Spinach Lasagna, steamed corn, watermelon.
The key to doing this was some pre-planning. All these meals could be prepared either partially in advance or in a short amount of time. For lunches, we ate leftovers, or sandwiches made from either leftover roast beef or tuna fish. If you need ideas, check out Take 5, from Rachael Ray, which are all recipes that are made with 5 or less ingredients, or peruse Mommy, What's For Dinner? for no-cook recipes or those that can be made in less than 30 minutes.
**Sneak in exercise--Plan activity into your day! Swimming in the ocean and playing frisbee on the beach are great ways to get moving while also having fun.
**Indulge in vacation treats, but in moderation--It's vacation, go ahead and treat yourself, just watch your portion sizes. Get the small milkshake or split an order of fries with your kids.
**Bring your exercise routine along--I usually use the treadmill and elliptical machines at the gym, but for this trip, I strapped on my running shoes and iPod and headed out to run on the actual road. This was a new experience for me--when I run outside at home, there is always plenty of light. This time, I went running after the kids were in bed and it was DARK. The one night, there was a stretch of road where no cars drove by and I had to pay special attention to the shadows so I wouldn't accidentally step off the side of the road. I also had to dodge roadkill, which has never happened in Baltimore. In place of exercises that use bulky equipment, adapt a routine to lift body weight, practice some yoga, or use easy props in place of weights. For example, I love this arm workout from self.com. In place of weights, I used full bottles of water and increased the amount of reps I did. This butt and thigh workout was fun to do on the beach. And if you don't have a lot of room or you're not a runner, toss a jump rope into your luggage. It's a cheap and packable way to get some cardio in between fun activities.
I returned from vacation feeling refreshed and relaxed, but also like I did my best to keep up my healthy routine.
How about you, any tips to add?
I'm very pleased with my progress and getting in my exercise has become crucial to my day. So when we planned an 8 day vacation to North Carolina, I wondered how I would do away from the gym for that long.
It ended up working out great, and some pre-planning was essential to making sure it went well.
Here are 4 ways to maintain your healthy eating and exercise routines while on vacation.
**Make your own meals--We almost always rent a house when we go on vacation, and that makes it easy to cook many of our own meals. Last year, when we traveled to Mystic, CT, we stayed in a hotel that had a mini fridge, but no cooking facilities. The hotel had the usual eggs and bacon breakfast in the morning, but for other meals, we had to eat out. By the end of the vacation, I couldn't wait to get home and cook my own meals. For this trip, I split the cooking with my MIL, and we also ate out one night. I packed any spices or ingredients I already had at home, and shopped for the perishable items when we arrived. The menu looked like this:
Saturday--Spaghetti and meatballs (My MIL made the meatballs at home ahead of time and transported them in a cooler. Pasta cooks quickly, and we also had fresh bread.)
Sunday--I made Chicken with Quinoa, a recipe from Little Stomaks, and served it with extra steamed peas, salad and leftover bread.
Monday--leftovers
Tuesday--My MIL made roast beef with gravy, mashed potatoes and green beans.
Wednesday--Hot Chicken Salad, watermelon, steamed corn and side salads.
Thursday--We traveled to Beaufort, NC for the day and ate dinner there.
Friday--Beef and Spinach Lasagna, steamed corn, watermelon.
The key to doing this was some pre-planning. All these meals could be prepared either partially in advance or in a short amount of time. For lunches, we ate leftovers, or sandwiches made from either leftover roast beef or tuna fish. If you need ideas, check out Take 5, from Rachael Ray, which are all recipes that are made with 5 or less ingredients, or peruse Mommy, What's For Dinner? for no-cook recipes or those that can be made in less than 30 minutes.
**Sneak in exercise--Plan activity into your day! Swimming in the ocean and playing frisbee on the beach are great ways to get moving while also having fun.
**Indulge in vacation treats, but in moderation--It's vacation, go ahead and treat yourself, just watch your portion sizes. Get the small milkshake or split an order of fries with your kids.
**Bring your exercise routine along--I usually use the treadmill and elliptical machines at the gym, but for this trip, I strapped on my running shoes and iPod and headed out to run on the actual road. This was a new experience for me--when I run outside at home, there is always plenty of light. This time, I went running after the kids were in bed and it was DARK. The one night, there was a stretch of road where no cars drove by and I had to pay special attention to the shadows so I wouldn't accidentally step off the side of the road. I also had to dodge roadkill, which has never happened in Baltimore. In place of exercises that use bulky equipment, adapt a routine to lift body weight, practice some yoga, or use easy props in place of weights. For example, I love this arm workout from self.com. In place of weights, I used full bottles of water and increased the amount of reps I did. This butt and thigh workout was fun to do on the beach. And if you don't have a lot of room or you're not a runner, toss a jump rope into your luggage. It's a cheap and packable way to get some cardio in between fun activities.
I returned from vacation feeling refreshed and relaxed, but also like I did my best to keep up my healthy routine.
How about you, any tips to add?
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1 comment:
sounds like a great trip. running on the beachis so great an exercise its harder to run in sand and really tones those legs. Swimming is the best exercise out there. I lvoe jumproping, thoguh it embaresses my teenager at tiems:-)
Glad your all back.
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