A lot of my clients often go away on vacation. And because I’m a nice guy *cough cough*, I like to measure their body fat their first workout back. Especially their knee measurement (if you’ve ever worked with us, you’ll know what that means).

Most times, clients groan, and complain and resist. But I’m from the Soviet Union. I have no sympathy. So I measure their body fat anyway.

Original source: here.

To their surprise (but not mine), their body fat often goes down. After all, they weren’t eating all that healthy, and they were drinking a bit more than they would at home. But there’s a simple explanation here. Typically, on vacation, they’re exercising 2-4 hours per day. Except they don’t call it “exercise.” They call it “swimming” or “hiking” or “dancing.”

But occasionally, there’s the client who has a penchant for vacations to Las Vegas whose body fat actually increases after a vacation (especially the famous knee measurement).

And if you’re one of the folks whose body fat actually increases after vacations, what can you do to minimize the damage?

Strategies to Minimize Vacation-Related Damage

Here are a few strategies:

  1. Do what everyone else does. Walk around (go sightseeing), swim, go dancing, etc.
  2. Bring your supplements along with you. At the very least, it’s not a bad idea to bring a multi-vitamin, fish oil and the B complex.
  3. Try to have your worst meals after walking or swimming or dancing.
  4. Yeah, enjoy your food, but have some veggies and meat/fish/seafood first (which you should enjoy anyway). Then eat whatever else you want.

And if all else fails, just induce vomiting by drinking lots of alcohol. Sorry. Bad joke.

 

Quick Summary

  • To minimize damage done on vacation:
    • Move around a lot, whether it’s walking, swimming, dancing, etc.
    • Bring your supplements along with you. At the very least, it’s not a bad idea to bring a multi-vitamin, fish oil and the B complex.
    • Try to have your worst meals after walking or swimming or dancing.
    • Yeah, enjoy your food, but have some veggies and meat/fish/seafood first (which you should enjoy anyway). Then eat whatever else you want.