The minute your summer vacation is booked, the excitement starts to build – until you envision yourself putting on a swimsuit! With great resolve, you decide to avoid the "big squeeze"; by abruptly changing your eating and exercise habits. With a healthy and lean diet and regular workouts as your new priorities, you begin to look and feel great as your date of departure nears. The minute your summer vacation is booked, the excitement starts to build until you envision yourself putting on a swimsuit! With great resolve, you decide to avoid the “big squeeze” by abruptly changing your eating and exercise habits. With a healthy and lean diet and regular workouts as your new priorities, you begin to look and feel great as your date of departure nears. A renewed sense of pride sweeps over you as you clear your desk at work, change your voice mail, and pack for your trip. But after two months of eating carefully and firming up, you check your bags and a switch goes off in your brain — you are in vacation mode. Once in this mode, you lose traction and all the diligence and focus you have placed on eating right goes down the tubes. You know that the mere aroma of exotic cuisines will overtake you. You won’t know what to eat first!

Remember that you have a choice. You can splurge throughout your vacation and gain back all the pounds and inches you worked so hard to lose. Or, you can return weighing the same or better yet, down a pound! So let’s talk about how you can achieve that…without any reduction in your enjoyment!

Starting with a Plan

First realize that enjoying yourself is the top priority. Food is only part of your vacation experience, and the sights and sounds of your trip can be even more important than the tastes. When faced with temptation, ask yourself, “Will I even remember the flavors of fancy drinks and rich desserts two weeks after the trip? Is it worth it to memorialize this vacation on my hips?“
To manage your vacation eating, let’s start with the six Golden Rules of Weight Control

1. Start each day with a healthy eating plan. This means deciding the types of choices you’ll make when reviewing a menu. Grilled dishes should trump fried foods. Fish and chicken are better choices than fatty beef. Cocktails? Give yourself permission to have one or two celebratory drinks.
2. Drink lots of water. Keep a bottle of water with you at all times, and drink lots of water before a meal so you aren’t overly hungry when you sit down.
3. Exercise. You’ll see more of your new environment by taking a long stroll than you will by experiencing the same view from a chaise lounge on the beach.
4. Eat slowly. Not only will this allow you to savor the dining experience, it will enable your body to know when it’s full before you inadvertently overindulge.
5. Keep a food diary. This will raise your awareness of what you’re putting in your mouth and help you avoid mindless munching.
6. Get plenty of rest. Isn’t that part of what vacations are all about relaxing?

If you can’t do anything else, start each day with Golden Rule #1: a healthy eating plan. You may not know the exact choices that await you, but you can decide on the types of foods — and how much — you will eat and drink each day.

Getting To Your Destination

Whether you’re traveling by car, plane, or boat, be prepared by bringing your own snacks so you don’t feel limited by offerings of peanuts and other high-calorie treats. If you’re flying, call the airlines 24 hours in advance to request a low-cal or vegetarian meal. Taking a road trip? Make healthy food choices by packing a cooler in the car with your favorite low-cal munchies. You can buy ice at gas stations along the way to keep your food and drinks chilled.

Once arriving at your destination, beware of the mini bar. It is a minefield for high-calorie junk. By calling in advance, some hotels will clean out the mini bar for you. Some hotels will even re-stock the mini bar with fruit, rice cakes and other low-cal choices. You can also fill it up yourself with your own safe foods. After you get settled, case out the property to see what exercise facilities and activities are available and consider what types of exercise you most enjoy. Do you want to go for a morning run? Utilize the hotel’s workout facility? Or take a yoga class, play tennis, go swimming, or play golf? Planning exercise that you enjoy will help you stick to your plan. And always pack a good pair of gym shoes so you can go for a run or walk!

Eating Less, Enjoying More

Just because you’re watching your waistline doesn’t mean you can’t have fun! New taste treats are part (but not all) of the vacation experience, so there’s no reason to be deprived. You can order foods you don’t normally eat; just be careful of the portion size. The best advice is to always leave a third of what you are served.
Other great tricks to eat less on vacation are to order two appetizers instead of an appetizer and an entre, or share an entre with a travel companion to help you with portion-control. Seek out foods you really love and pass on those you don’t. Bread baskets and chips are so addictive, it’s best to skip them. Overall it’s wise to avoid butter, sour cream, oils, and cheese. I know that takes some of the fun out of it, but coming home from vacation and still fitting into your tight jeans will make it all worthwhile!

When I think about vacation, I picture fancy drinks with brightly colored umbrellas as garnish. But beware of the calories you drink. Fancy drinks like margaritas, Singapore Slings, and Pina Coladas average about 50 calories per ounce! Lower calorie options include wine, lite beer or a vodka-based cocktail which average 80 calories per ounce. For mixers, use club soda instead of high calorie cola or tonic. Better yet, instead of drinking, schedule a massage or another spa activity as your treat. It lasts longer than a drink and it’s calorie-free!

While touring, it’s easy to stop for fast food and, this may surprise you, but that’s okay! Simply check out the nutritional values at your favorite fast food restaurants so you’re aware of the best choices. Each fast-food restaurant has a list containing the nutritional breakdown of each menu item — just ask for it. For example, at McDonald’s, the Parfait is only 160 calories and is great for breakfast, lunch, or a snack. Ordering a small hamburger and passing on the fries is less than 300 calories. Always keep in mind that you don’t need a lot to satisfy a craving; you just need a taste to savor.

When you look at a menu, do you go straight to the salad section? Be careful, my friend, some salads have more calories than a Big Mac with fries. Always ask for low-cal dressing on the side and avoid salads topped with fried food or creamy dressings.

Final Thought

Look at your trip like a big checkbook. Women have 1200 calories to spend each day and men have 1700. Spend them wisely because seeing the scale lower on your return home is much more rewarding than the food you won’t even remember eating!! Vacations can still be fun when you eat less and even more fun when you come home a little lighter! All it takes is remembering the do’s and don’ts of mindful vacation eating. But remember the most important “do” of all — to have a blast and travel safely!

By Judy Weitzman, © 2014