When you are trying to lose fat or are trying to eat healthily holidays become a bit difficult. While you want to enjoy yourself you also don’t want to let your habits slip or lose any progress you might have made. The reality is that one week of eating “badly” is not going to have a lasting impact. That being said you can still do little things to make a difference. I went on holiday with every intention of eating super healthy and going to the gym at the hotel loads…when I got there however this didn’t really happen.
I started the holiday super healthy – fruit and veg being the main component of every meal – and I ended the holiday with the majority of my plate being deep-fried food.
This post is a sort of food diary with a few things I found helped me to stay on track while still enjoying myself.
DAY 1
Up at 3:00am (ouch) at the airport by 4:30am breakfast at 5. I do not cope well with early starts, who does! If I don’t eat within a certain amount of time after I get up I feel really sick and if I am travelling will be sick so it was really important that I had breakfast. So we went into wetherspoons. Now I know what you’re thinking ‘spoons is not the healthiest BUT they did this delicious granola with berries and yoghurt.
We got to the hotel around midday which only meant one thing… LUNCH! The hotel wewere staying in ran an all-inclusive buffet for lunch as well as for breakfast and dinner. For my first lunch I had a salad with some salami, chargrilled veg, cheese and afocaccia style olive bread roll followed by chocolate cake with strawberries.
After a lazy afternoon by the pool before dinner I decided to investigate the gym. Obviously the main attraction for people for this sort of holiday is not to spends hours in the gym so it was only a little one. A couple of treadmills a bike and a few strength machines as well as a selection of dumbbells is not a lot to choose from. That being said you can still get a killer workout just using dumbbells. After a short upper body session it was back to the room to get ready for dinner.
Dinner was a bit random. I just picked up a little bit of everything that I fancied. Spring rolls, scampi, a prawn, paella and carrots. Then dessert. Apple tart and pineapple. For every meal during the holiday I had some sort of fruit for dessert. My way of convincing myself I was being ever so slightly healthy.
DAY 2
First experience of the breakfast. Naturally I had to try lots of different bits. So I started with a plate of fruit (there I go being healthy again) and followed it up with a couple of pancakes with strawberry sauce and a chocolate muffin (bye bye healthy).
Lazing around all day by the pool is such hard work I had to reward myself with lunch. Seafood paella – which apparently needed translating to fish rice – and focaccia. I didn’t have any dessert this time because I wasn’t too hungry. Not only did I only have one plate of food but after a lazy afternoon I went to the gym again! This time to do a lower body workout. Again I just used dumbbells but I was still stiff the next day.
Dinner consisted of fish, chargrilled veg and deep-fried cauliflower. Now I know what you’re thinking deep fried cauliflower sounds weird but honestly it was delicious even if it’s not particularly good for you. Although I didn’t photograph it I followed this up with a bowl of fruit (and maybe some cake I can’t remember…so there was probably cake).
DAY 3
Given that I ate pretty much the same thing for breakfast every day I didn’t think it would be worth boring you with photos of the same thing constantly so we will move straight on to lunch. Another plate of fish with vegetables but also focaccia and the deep-fried cauliflower. The main issue I had with the buffet was the lack of vegetable options. There were plenty of meat, fish and potato based things but there was only ever one or two vegetable choices which made life a bit tricky.
The hotel ran a variety of activities during the day to keep everyone entertained and in an attempt to get people up and moving and in the afternoon there was a game of water-polo which I joined in with. Not the most active game of water-polo but it did at least get me off my sun bed and doing something different.
For dinner I helped myself to half a plate of mixed veg which mostly consisted of carrots with deep-fried cauliflower (I had a lot of deep fried cauliflower this holiday ok it was soooo yummy) marinated pork and cheese. Again I’m sure there was a plate of cake and fruit after this but I was starting to forget to photograph things…
DAY 4
Same breakfast as usual. Lunch was probably paella and who knows what I had for dinner. I didn’t document any of my food all day, but there is more to life than photographing every scrap of food I eat. I did however try the aqua gym class…and I never did it again. Wasn’t really my thing and didn’t really feel like I was exercising but again I suppose it got me up and moving for an hour when other wise I probably wouldn’t have.
DAY 5
Again useless with documenting food but I did manage to capture my dinner. A healthy balance of chicken nuggets, fried squid, chargrilled veg and potatoes. A random selection but buffets always are!
After dinner we went for a walk down to the beach so that was my activity for the day!
DAY 6
Got up nice and early and headed to the beach for the morning, which made a nice change from lying beside the pool. The water was such a gorgeous colour and lovely and warm. Naturally we had to be back in time for lunch (couldn’t miss that all-inclusive buffet) so then spent the afternoon by the pool – shock. To add a bit of variety instead of having dinner at the hotel we went into the town and had dinner at “The Travellers Inn”. I had a mahoosive pizza and a Pina colada that came with sparklers and a straw too long to drink out of in a cup with a funny face on.
DAY 7
Our last day. Mixed it up and went for a cooked breakfast. Instantly regretted it. Bacon was too soggy so I went back and got my usual plate of fruit. For lunch I had chips and green beans with some sort of meat (again I can’t remember what it was – my memory is truly appalling) with lots and lots of mayo. I put all that mayo to good use in the gym later and did myself a little upper body session.
For dinner I had Paella, chargrilled veg, a veggie spring roll and some calamari. Calamari is one of my most favourite foods. When I was little it was all I would eat if we went on holiday. I still will always pick it if it is on the menu. We had to get up so early the next day that breakfast wasn’t on. So I had a large Burger King when we got to the airport… epitome of health amirite. Then it was back home and back to normal life.
HOW TO HOLIDAY HEALTHILY
So what did I do to avoid being super unhealthy. One week was never going to seriously hinder me but I wanted to make an effort to not go too off track. I aimed to eat at least one portion of fruit and veg with every meal and to get up and do something active every day. As you can tell from my food diary some days were healthier and better than others but I didn’t want to stop myself from having a good time or be worrying about it constantly. Overall by the end of my holiday I felt a bit fluffier but didn’t feel significantly larger and none of my clothes felt too tight. So I would call it a success.
Top tips for gym newbies
It’s 2018! New year and time for New Years resolutions, here are my top tips for sticking to your “get healthy and go to the gym” resolution.
What’s in my gym bag
My gym essentials. The things that live in my gym bag and I couldn’t live without them! As a new gym goer I had no clue what I needed and over time I’ve worked out what I need to have the best workout!
Gym bag item number 2 – BCAA’s. Now it took me a while to get on the BCAA train and I think it is very important to remember that supplements are NOT necessary to make progress. BCAA’s or branched chain amino acids are very popular within the fitness industry and you will see lots of fitness bloggers and the like promoting or talking about them. Your body doesn’t produce all the proteins your body needs, some of them have to come from your diet and BCAA’s contain 3 of those proteins which help to maintain and grow muscle. I drink them during my workout but you can have them before or after it just depends what you want to do. My favourite flavour so far (I’ve only tried 3 so it’s not that difficult a contest) is the MyProtien Tropical Storm flavour. I bought the smallest pouch nearly 6 months ago and I’m still not half way through it! I also bought this little tub from them to store it in instead of the pouch that it comes in because it is so much easier to transport. Fair warning though it makes a right mess trying to get it into the tub! I use the MyProtein active women mini shaker because 1 – it’s purple and 2 – its perfect size for a workout drink. Fair warning though the colour of your BCAA’s might end up staining the top of the lid…it comes off in a couple of washes though so it’s not the end of the world!
Gym music – I either love it or hate it. Some days they are playing all the tunes other days…not so much. For those days There is nothing better than a good pair of wireless headphones. I tried the wired ones…did not end well. I am lucky enough to own a pair of Beats and they are amazing but obviously a bit on the pricey side. There are plenty of cheaper options on Amazon if you shop around a bit. I also had an unfortunate incident where my headphones ran out mid workout. So I now keep my old pair in my gym bag as well as a spare pair should that happen again! These are great though they really block out all other sound so you can really focus on you and what you’re doing.
I know I’ve talked about this water bottle before but I honestly don’t go anywhere without it! If I’m doing quite a high intensity workout I need more than just my BCAA’s so this big water bottle comes in handy. I suppose I could just go to the fountain and back but that’s a lot of effort and I could lose my spot and I would definitely lose my rhythm and concentration (I’m easily distracted). The little hook means I can hold it on one finger as well so it’s easy to move around even though I also have my BCAA’s (all of the fluids – gotta stay hydrated).
Last but not least my final gym essential is my set of resistance bands. I love taking inspiration from other peoples workouts on Instagram and youtube and a resistance band is somewhat a must have. I can never workout where they are in the gym so I have found it easier to just bring my own. This pack contains 4 bands of varying strength – light, medium, strong and extra strong. Personally I use the medium and strong the most. Resistance bands are also great for at home workouts.
a blog by lottie 