It’s the week before your long-awaited vacation.
You have the plane tickets booked, your itinerary in hand, and all the excitement that can fit in one suitcase.
But you have been working really hard on your diet and have made such great progress.
Let’s face it – you are a little worried about slipping up on your diet while on vacation.
Everyone knows how awful it feels to reverse all the great progress they made up until this point.
But that doesn’t have to be you.
Should you diet on vacation?
Yes, you should.
And yes, you can.
With my 5 secrets to staying in shape while on vacation, you won’t ever need to fret again.
Portugal: My Most Recent Vacation & Diet Experience
My girlfriend and I took a trip to Portugal at the beginning of September.
We both knew that if we didn’t implement some sort of strategy – all the delicious pastries would end up exactly where we didn’t want them – streamlined into our cells as fatty deposits!
We committed to our diet on vacation.
But we also knew that we were not willing to give up trying Pastel de nata which is a delicious Portuguese custard pastry dusted with cinnamon.
It’s heavenly, to say the least!
All in all, we knew that eating lots was going to be on the itinerary in addition to seeing all of the beautiful sites like the Sintra Palace and the Moorish Castle.
Secret #1: Book a Place With a Kitchen
I always book an Airbnb ahead of time and make sure it has a basic kitchen setup.
You don’t need a lot of supplies to cook healthy meals, just the basics!
Unfortunately, even the nicest hotels often don’t have a kitchenette to work with and this is a ticking time bomb when it comes to your body composition.
Believe me, we would have loved to stay at the Barrio Alto Hotel situated right in the heart of Lisbon – but despite the gorgeous rooms and amenities, there were no rooms equipped with a kitchen.
If you want to diet on vacation – trust me, get the kitchen!
Secret #2: Put That Kitchen to Use!
Now that you have the room booked with a kitchen, you need to use it!
When we were in Portugal, of course, we ate out at amazing restaurants like Taberna da Rua da Flores.
However, restaurants were not our 3 meals a day choice because when you eat out – it is incredibly difficult to estimate the caloric value of the food you are consuming.
That’s because you simply do not know all of the ingredients that went into the dish.
If you read this article, you know that the most accurate way to track your food is by breaking each meal down into its individual ingredients.
So what did we do?
Compromised and ate out 1 meal per day but then cooked our own food for the rest.
The best part?
Portugal had incredibly fresh ingredients and we ended up cooking fresh seafood dishes that were honestly better than most of the dishes we ate at restaurants.
Now that’s the way to diet on vacation!
Secret #3: Grocery Shop as Soon as You Land
Make going to the grocery store the first on your itinerary.
Nobody wants to find healthy food options once they are hungry.
Do it ahead of time to stay on track of your diet.
Right when we landed at the Lisbon Airport, we picked up the rental car and drove to the local grocery store and stocked up before we checked into our Airbnb.
Yes, we were tired and exhausted but when we woke up the next morning, we were happy to enjoy a healthy breakfast overlooking the beautiful cobblestone streets of the Alfama from the terrace.
I wrote the grocery list on the airplane also to save time and mental energy.
Once we got to the store, I knew exactly what we were going to buy.
I may have thrown a few extra unaccounted treats into the cart as well – but I still tracked them in my calorie tracking app!
Secret #4: Explore to Burn Calories
Portugal is a country that requires you to walk – A LOT.
So we used our daily exploration as a means to burn extra calories and stay on track with our diet.
And let me tell you – walking up to the top of the Moorish castle was no joke and by the end of the day, we had clocked 7 miles total of walking.
No matter where you travel, you too can burn extra calories by exploring the grounds on foot. It’s easy to take a car everywhere but the real exploring and calorie burning happen when you walk.
Secret #5: Find a Local Gym
Now look, I understand you are on vacation and you may not exactly be dying to go to the gym.
So don’t feel pressured to give up precious exploring time for a concrete box with fluorescent lighting.
But what I will say, is that even just hitting the weights a couple of times on your vacation is going to go a long way in terms of keeping your progress thus far.
When we were in Portugal, I only hit a gym called “Lift Fitness Lagos” twice but it really helped keep my metabolism boosted.
Additionally, when I got back to the states, I hadn’t lost any strength.
You would be surprised at how much you can maintain with just a couple of sessions while on a vacation.
Gyms are not going to be available everywhere depending on where you go on vacation however, a quick google search will show you all of the options you have available within walking or driving distance.