Travelling Overseas
and Maintaining your Weight.
All of us have travelled overseas and thought “Yes, time to
relax, time to unwind and enjoy ourselves.” The amount of times, I have always
said to myself: “I am going to be good whilst overseas.” Then BANG I’m
surrounded by amazing restaurants and cafes, cheap alcoholic drinks and
indulging in cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. I come back home and I’ve
gained 3kg and increased my bodyfat % Who has ever had this happen to them? I
am going to expect a majority of us.
After that painful experience of putting on weight from our
first holiday, we then do a 10 week detox program. Where we reduce our calorie
intake, eat hardly any carbs and go to the gym everyday for 2 hours. We have a
goal to drop weight and look lean and “fit” for our next holiday, we go away
again but put on even more weight then the first holiday and so the cycle goes
on.
This is something that I always did. It became a habit and
what I thought was the correct way of dieting, I was really putting my body
into a very stressful state, stressing out about what I was eating, then
putting a lot of pressure on myself which then resulted me being paranoid about
enjoying myself overseas.
It took years later, after meeting my mentor, who taught me
to eat more, to train weights and how to maintain a healthy looking body.
Only this year, was the first time, I could go overseas, eat
healthy yet still enjoy myself but still continue training. Why? Because I
stopped stressing. I stopped worrying about losing weight. I continued my
training, if I ate bad I wouldn’t stress and just be at the gym the next day. I
always ate regularly and always had my fats, protein and carbs in each meal.
I am here to tell you In 5 simple steps on how to maintain a
healthy body whilst travelling overseas.
1.
DO
NOT GO ON A STRICT DIET 12 WEEKS BEFORE YOU GO OVERSEAS.
This is something that so many people do.
They go overseas, where they’ll be parading in a bikni for most of their trip,
so they want that “hot summer body.”
What happens is, a very poor trainer
advices them to eat 1200 calories or less, to lose weight. They get given a
program to stick to for 12 weeks. Yes they lose weight and look fantastic. What
they don’t get told is, they have stuffed up their metabolism by limiting
themselves from certain foods, as well as slowing it down. So when they go to
eat a burger overseas and start drinking heavily, the body doesn’t recognise it
and the metabolism goes crazy! It will hold on to all the bad food you put into
your body and you end up storing it more and gaining even more weight then what
your previous body looked like. What is worse, people then think they have to
keep repeating such a shocking diet, which causes a yo-yo affect on the
metabolism, putting a lot of stress on the body. You’ll never be able to enjoy
food out, if you keep doing this to your body. You’ll also do permanent damage
mentally and can lead to eating disorders or disorderly eating.
The best outcome, is to train your body and
your metabolism up so I’ts able to enjoy food out. It all comes down to
moderation. If you are healthy and clean during the week, have the weekend not
to be BAD but more relaxed, where you can enjoy that Spaghetti Bolognese out.
Just always do weights training 4-6 days and minimal cardio. The key is
MODERATION
2.
HAVE
A TRAINING PROGRAM MADE FOR WHEN YOU GO OVESEAS
To be organised is something that helps
people stick to something. If I didn’t bring a training program in to do whilst
overseas, then I would get lazy and just half-ass do my training as I haven’t
put it onto paper and planned it in. I am not saying you have to kill yourself
overseas, but if you’ve worked so hard back at home and you stop training
overseas for a good month, then you will feel sluggish and weak when you come
back home and set yourself back from your training. Having more days off
oveaseas and training 3 days instead of 6 IS A GOOD PLAN. Because your body
probably needs the rest, it deserves it but to completely stop won’t help you
when you get back. Program in, your rest days and training days. When you come
back, chances are you’ll be 10x stronger because you’ve rested and still
continued to give your body a moderate training session.
3.
STILL
DRINK ALCOHOL BUT KNOW WHAT TO DRINK
A holiday isn’t a holiday if you are not enjoying a drink
here and there. The problem can be, because alcohol in most countries, are
cheap as chips than Australia, so we go overboard.
Beer is a popular drink, but extremely high in calories PLUS
makes you more bloated. Have you heard of the expression ‘beer gut?’ If you
just drink beer your tummy will look like a pregnant woman’s tummy.
The drinks I recommend Is having dry wine, or your spirits.
Vodka and Lime, Gin and tonic. If you decide to have cocktails, don’t go
overboard, as there is a lot of sugar, added fructose and milky ingredients
into them.
4.
HAVE
THE CAKE BUT NOT EVERYDAY
If I restricted myself to something for a long time, the result
is I will then go on a massive binge and eat something more than I should’ve.
As humans, we put so much pressure on ourselves because we care about our image
and how we look. Don’t stress about your body and put so much pressure on
yourself. If you have been good and eaten clean, you deserve a slice of cake.
Just don’t eat the whole cake and don’t do it everyday. Give yourself a mini
goal that you’ll eat healthy and factor in one or two cheat meals. If I am
going to go out for dinner, I will eat clean that day and train then enjoy a
nice pasta for dinner with a glass of red. I wouldn’t do this everyday, but I
don’t restrict myself. I limit myself. Two different things. Key is MODERATION.
5.
TRAVEL
WITH PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT YOU
Travelling with a loved one, friends or family can really
test you and your mental strength but you also need them to either a. Do what
you do, or B. Support you. I have travelled in the past with people and I
wanted to go eat elsewhere or train and they’ll either not agree with me, or
make me feel guilty for wanting to look after myself while I am away. Those
people you DON’T want to travel with. Find someone who wants to train with you,
eat healthy with you or do the things you love to do. Even if you don’t train,
enjoy a hike or a walk together. Go ride a bicycle together. Or even if the
other person doesn’t want to train, know that you can spend a few hours apart
doing your own thing and they won’t get angry at you for leaving them.
Never forget, this is your holiday too! You deserve to have
fun and do the things you love. Don’t change your routine for someone else.
