Post Vacation Dieting – get your body back!
Vacations are awesome, aren’t they? You come back and all you think about is how you want to lose weight after vacation. Fantastic local meals, exotic drinks and delicious desserts. However, coming back to the real world after indulging can make you feel pretty gross and bloated, not to mention the few extra pounds you have gained.
I am a realist and personally don’t watch what I eat on vacation. You shouldn’t either. It is a time to experience food of the area you visit and just enjoy not thinking about your diet for once. (Studies have shown that you are more likely to stick to your diet in the long run with a few cheats here and there.) You may not remember the diet food you eat on vacation but you definitely will remember that exotic dish that fulfilled your taste buds and created an experience you won’t soon forget. I believe life is about experiences. I like to worry about what I eat when I get home.
A week’s vacation may leave many adults with a heavier midsection—extra weight that can hang around even six weeks post-vacation.
A faculty member in the University of Georgia’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences found that adults going on a one- to three-week vacation gained an average of nearly 1 pound during their trips. With the average American reportedly gaining 1-2 pounds a year, the study’s findings suggest an alarming trend.
The study supports the notion of “creeping obesity,” the common pattern of adults gaining small amounts of weight over long periods of time, leading to increased health problems later in life.
Cooper’s study involved 122 adults between the ages of 18 and 65—average age of 32—who went on vacations ranging from one to three weeks in length between the months of March and August.
While previous studies have analyzed and confirmed significant weight gain during the holiday season, no data previously existed on weight gain during short-term vacations.
The study found that 61 percent of the participants gained weight while on vacation, with an average gain of 0.7 pounds, and that the weight gained throughout the entire study averaged 0.9 pounds.
One of the factors that likely contributed to weight gain for study participants was increased caloric intake, especially from alcohol consumption. The average consumption prior to vacation was eight drinks a week. That number went up to an average of 16 per week for study participants, which accounts for a significant increase in calories.
noted there were some benefits to vacations. Study participants showed significantly reduced stress levels and a slight reduction in systolic blood pressure that lasted even six weeks post-vacation.
Here are some tips to help you lose a few lbs when you get back to reality.
Find a detox tea
Dandelion tea is amazing! This stuff is AWESOME for reducing that first swelling or bloating after traveling. It also significantly reduces water retention after a heavily salted diet. I have found that eating out almost always guarantees salt bloat. Some other good detox teas are ginger, and yogi always has detox specific teas.
I love BaeTea. I always feel like it helps me detox. Their products are made from 100% natural ingredient sand are designed to help eliminate fat while improving your overall body health. Of all the detox teas I have tried….which is ALOT. This is by far my favorite and definitely the best value.
BaeTea is rich in antioxidants which studies have proved that increases the flow of oxygen throughout the body and rejuvenating your body’s cells. They also help your ability to focus while aiding with physical endurance.
Baetea Teatox is a delicious blend of traditional organic herbs that aids in digestion and eliminates toxins released from fat cells during weight loss. Specifically formulated to enhance your weight loss program.
Drink some detox juice
I love juicing. You feel better almost immediately after drinking juice. The science behind this is that the right combo of juice can cleanse your live and clear out bloating, leading the way to fat loss. Most people are not successful in this because they use too much fruit or have the wrong combo of ingredients. In my 3 day post vacation reboot, I have a few detailed juices that will benefit for fat loss and de-bloating
For those New to juicing, Don’t be alarmed by the green and veggies in the juices. When you add at least one fruit, it negates any taste of veggies. A GREAT way to get your veggies if you don’t like them.
Here are some recipes to try!
Ultimate Green Detox Juice Ingredients:
2 green apples, cut in half
3 stalks celery, no leaves
1 cucumber
8 leaves kale
1/2 lemon, peeled
1 piece fresh ginger
Sprig of mint (optional)
Tropical Carrot Apple Juice Ingredients:
1 large apple, quartered
1/4 (15 ounce) can pineapple chunks
2 large carrots
2 pieces fresh ginger
Green Spinach Lemonade Ingredients:
1 cup spinach
2 stalks celery
4 leaves kale
1 piece ginger
2 apples
1 lemon
Watch your carbs
I bet you saw a lot of this on vacation am I right. Inhale veggies and decrease the amount of complex carbs like fries, potatoes and rice.
After carbohydrates are digested into glucose, sugar goes to the cells that need it for energy. If the blood levels of sugar are too high, sugar goes to the liver where it’s converted into a storage form of glucose called glycogen. Glycogen is stored in the liver and skeletal muscles, so they will have an immediate source of energy when your activity level increases.
The body can only store a limited amount of glycogen, although endurance training enhances the amount of storage. Depending on your body’s capacity and the intensity of activity, glycogen can be depleted in about 20 to 90 minutes.
Glycogen molecules hold a significant amount of water. Each gram of glycogen that’s stored in your body is attached to 2.7 grams of water, reports the American Council on Exercise. This isn’t the same as water retention. When you retain water, the water is held between cells and makes you feel bloated.
The water in glycogen is part of its molecular structure. But water still adds weight, so as you load up on carbs and refill your glycogen stores, it can increase your weight by as much as 3 to 5 pounds.
Get your sweat on
The more you sweat out, the faster yours toxin leave your body. I like to sweat it out at the gym or when I am home and do not feel like leaving the house Daily burn has some killer workouts that will help with the sweat along with yoga, pilates, dance workouts and so much more. My readers get a 30 day free trial as well as a private workout group for those who sign up.
My clients who also use daily burn, lost an average of 5 lbs more in a month than clients who didn’t. How awesome is that?!
Drink your weight in water
Ok that is an exaggeration but 64 to 96 oz of water is a good goal. It is no secret that water is pretty awesome for your body. The more your drink the quicker you lose the vacation bloat, cleanse your liver and lose some weight, You liver will first get rid of toxins before losing fat so drink up. Detox water recipes are special for my 3 day post vacation reboot
Drinking water is one of the best things you can do for fast weight loss and better health, and it tastes delicious. It has no calories and fills your stomach so you don’t feel as hungry. Studies regarding water and weight loss have even shown that just drinking water raises your metabolism!
Water is an important part of any diet and exercise program, as well as every other bodily function you can imagine. It’s a big part of your muscles, and is critical for energy production. If you want to ensure that you’ll always feel your best – drink lots of water.
No eating out
While you had plenty of time to do this on vacation, its time to say bye bye to restaurants for a bit. Like I said it is almost certain that you will experience some salt bloat from restaurants
The problem with eating out in America today is that it’s making us fat. Studies done at Tufts University showed that the relationship between eating out and weight gain is very straightforward:
The more frequently you eat out the more likely you are to carry excess pounds. It doesn’t seem to matter too much where you go; statistically speaking, a healthy sandwich place seems to cause just as much overeating as fast food or your local Chinese.
Probiotic’s
Vacation always throws off your digestion. It’s the different routine, adding new foods and drinks that can wreak havoc on your bowels. Adding in some probiotic’s will 100% get your digestion back on track.
As you may already know, the friendly flora that comprise the majority of your microbiome are essential for a vast number of important functions in your body, like optimizing your digestion, supporting your immune system, balancing your moods, and boosting your metabolism.
Indeed, we rely on the trillions of beneficial bacteria (called probiotics) in our gut to maintain nearly every aspect of our health and wellness.
Detoxifying Effects of Probiotics
Your mighty gut microbes are more powerful than you may think, and they exert some big detoxifying influences on your body that can have significant lasting impacts on your health, such as:
• Reducing heavy metals. Certain strains of beneficial bacteria (like Lactobacillus) have the ability to bind and detoxify heavy metals that can accumulate in the body, like lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium.1 In one study, Lactobacillus rhamnosus bacteria were able to effectively bind both lead and cadmium in vitro.
• Breaking down pesticides. Research shows that Lactobacillus plantarum and other strains in fermented kimchi can break down and degrade pesticides commonly used in the environment (think golf courses and turf) and on crops like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and soy.
• Excreting BPA. Bisphenol A is an industrial chemical often present in plastics (like water bottles) and resins that can leak into our foods and drinks and cause issues. The good news is that probiotics work to reduce absorption and facilitate excretion of BPA, so it doesn’t build up in the body and negatively affect your health.
No alcohol
Yeah sorry about this. If I could invent a diet that had wine in it, I would be a millionaire. Alcohol stops the fat burning process and leads to bloating the next day. Alcohol is also really dehydrating, and water is used to flush out the toxins in the body
While this article is vacation specific it can also be used for after holidays when you need a quick reset. There isn’t a magic number of “vacation days” you can spend eating all the Mexican food and margaritas you want before you start to gain weight, but the good news is there are certain tactics for your post vacation diet that can help your body “recover” after a few days off the wagon.
Sources:
“A Prospective Study on Vacation Weight Gain in Adults.” A Prospective Study on Vacation Weight Gain in Adults – ScienceDirect. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Sept. 2017.
Mattes, R. D., and W. W. Campbell. “Effects of Food Form and Timing of Ingestion on Appetite and Energy Intake in Lean Young Adults and in Young Adults with Obesity.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association. U.S. National Library of Medicine, Mar. 2009. Web. 03 Sept. 2017.
Hyson, Dianne A. “A Comprehensive Review of Apples and Apple Components and Their Relationship to Human Health1,2.” Advances in Nutrition: An International Review Journal. N.p., 01 Sept. 2011. Web. 03 Sept. 2017.
Author: Monica Perry
I’m a metabolic magician, nutrition nerd, exercise expert, and motivation master. I help women get fit quickly with the most food and least exercise.
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I’m always researching, looking for loopholes that make losing fat easy… because I believe life is hard enough and getting fit shouldn’t be, ya feel me?
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