Most of us like to cut loose and relax while on holidays however this can lead to a decrease in our progress that we have been working on in the gym. Simple small changes that we can make while on holidays can make a big difference in the amount of weight gained while away. Half the people out there could come back with as much as a stone of weight gained due to the excess amount of calories consumed. Take a look at the video below that Mike did live on our facebook page
When you go on holidays a lot of people book hotels which include all you can eat breakfasts and therefore eat as much as they can so as to get value for their money. This first meal of the day can make a massive difference as it usually includes fried food and food covered in sauces which are high in calories. However you can make smarter choices when it comes to eating at a buffet breakfast by keeping your protein intake high and going for leaner meats and wholemeal bread. A good example would be scrambled eggs and wholemeal toast.
Another problem then arises when you come into lunchtime. Most tourist spots have a lot of convenience type restaurants where you might order a sandwich that nearly always comes with chips or crisps. This nearly doubles the amount of calories in your meal and it all becomes carb heavy. A lot of these convenience meals that people order also includes burgers, spaghetti bolognaise and pizza which are all high in calories. For example a pizza contains nearly 1000 calories! Whereas if you were at home 1200 could be your maintenance calories for the day! So in that one meal you have consumed nearly all your calories for the day.
Then as the day goes on after lunch you start to feel very hot and crave a nice refreshing snack and ice-cream is the ideal solution. However this is a meal of its own with calories reaching as high as 500. So you’re already in great excess of your calories intake by lunchtime and then dinner comes around and you’re adding extra calories on top of that again.
With all these things there are much better options available and ways of keeping the calories down. For example at lunchtime a good meal choice to have would be a salad with some smoked salmon or chicken which are great sources of protein and are low in carbs. Having a meal like this allows you to feel less guilty about having a bit of ice-cream afterwards. It’s not about cutting it all out it’s just about taking it in moderation. Then for dinner try and keep it as far away as possible from convenience foods that were mentioned above and stick to high protein fish and chicken based foods with lots of vegetables. With dinner then also comes alcohol which just shoots up your calories. The main idea is just to try and limit it down and control how much you’re eating and drinking.
So as you can see the calories keep climbing and climbing throughout the day which will add up if you’re away for seven or more days. Of course this causes you to put on a stone or two, depending on how bad you were. So if you can try and pick healthier options for breakfast from the buffet and not overdo it, have a nice light tasty lunch then you can have a few drinks and enjoy yourself at dinner. There are also smarter options of drinks available such as avoiding fizzy drinks with your alcohol and switching to tonic water or sparkling water.
So the main idea is to try and limit yourself by choosing smarter food options and controlling your portion sizes.
