Vacationing Without Neglecting Your Fitness Routine
Hello Fitness Family! Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Kate and I am an employee at Collage Video. I am passionate about maintaining a healthy lifestyle; however, my body has had its struggles keeping up with the level of physical fitness it used to handle with ease. I’ve realized that it is far more difficult to get back on a fitness regimen after stopping, than it is to push through when you just don’t want to. I recently went away to Florida and I tried to implement a (reasonable) fitness plan that could work with - not against - my vacation. I am here to tell you some of my takeaways – the do’s and don’ts that I learned along with some tips so that you can plan for your vacation with the peace of mind knowing you aren’t giving up fun in the sun or your thighs and buns! You’ll also find these takeaways & tips applicable to your everyday life!
Firstly, plan ahead! I took the time before my trip to plan out my vacation days and I highly recommend doing this. I made sure to know what days I was doing what, and plan both the amount of time spent on working out as well as which zones on my body I would be targeting, based on the activities of that day. For example – I spent a day at the beach and a day at an amusement park. I made sure to allow more time to do intense cardio on my beach days since most of those days were spent laying out relaxing. On the day we visited an amusement park, I knew I would be walking around all day – so I focused more on upper body exercises and stretching.
(Disclaimer: Not me..but I wish!)
I brought along a couple workout DVDs to play in the condo we rented (I am a Collage employee after all!). However, I really wanted to take advantage of my surroundings, especially when we stayed at the beach. I normally watch my yoga or stretch videos in the morning, so I got up and performed some poses to the early morning sun on the beach. Admittedly, I only got to my DVDs once... but I found success using my phone and watching workout ideas on YouTube. If you have a phone or tablet, they can be immensely useful for working out while away from home.
One of the things that I had to accept was that I would not be able to exercise the same amount of hours as I would on my normal schedule. If for no other reason, because I wanted to spend as much time relaxing on this vacation as possible, while still maintaining a certain level of physical activity to keep up with my routine. It’s all about a reasonable balance. I also knew it wasn’t realistic to bring my dumbbells or weights with me, so I brought a resistance band and used it sporadically. As a side note, you can utilize home objects to sub-in for exercise equipment too - like an (unopened) gallon of water to supplement a kettlebell (within reason!). Being resourceful can be fun when supplementing away-from-home versions of your workouts!
I certainly hope my tips help you plan a strategy to fit in your fitness activities with your vacation time! Remember you can always make time to have fun, relax, and stay fit! You can do it all!
