Summer is almost over and Back to school is around the corner. You're back home after a much-needed vacation feeling rested and recovered. Oh and with a completely derailed diet.
Whatever your R&R of choice—whether it was a week in the tropics
or a holiday weekend at the shore—when you think of a bikini-clad
vacation, there are many things you do want: to catch up on sleep, read
a new book, spend time with your friends and family, and enjoy the
outdoors. A paunchy belly is not one of the things on your wishlist.
We totally get that time off from work might feel like time to treat
yourself (you've earned it, right?), but that doesn't mean you have a
free pass to go overboard. Unfortunately, the deadly duo of your toes in
the sand and a cold one in your hand is the kill-switch that causes
many of us to throw our diets by the wayside. It may not wreck our
health, but a long weekend spent indulging in booze and burgers
day-in and day-out can spell bad news for your belly—leaving you
looking a bit less chiseled than you did before you left the house.
In fact, according to a study done by the University of Georgia's
College of Family and Consumer Sciences, Americans gain an average of
one pound during their one to three week-long vacations—and that weight
sticks around even after six weeks of being home. A mere pound may not
seem like much, but keep in mind one to two pounds are typically gained
over an entire year! Don't feel too guilty, though; the good news is
there are easy ways to ditch the fresh flab and revitalize your
neglected diet. So what can you do to bounce back to your better-body
self? Lets Go over some ways to cure this.
1
Get Back To
Your Routine
Take a shower when you get home. Unpack your bags. Set your A.M.
alarm. Have a cup of tea before bed. Set yourself up to be able to do
whatever it is you normally do every day. This way, you'll be able to
shift yourself—and your body—back into fit mode.
Eat This! Tip:
You might be wiped, but unpacking your bags on day one will ensure
you have clean clothes for the week ahead, will clear your mind and the
stress you may have later in the week about the extra load you'll have
to do (on top of the work your boss just sprung on you), and it's a good
way to remind yourself you're no longer on vacation. Once that's done,
make a point to get to bed at the same time you normally would before
work—even if you get home from being away a day early. Studies have
found that those who keep the same sleep-wake cycles are more rested and
less apt to have their diets undermined by exhaustion-induced munchies.
If you've been away for more than a couple days, you likely don't
have much left in your fridge upon getting home. Rather than the easy
solution of just picking up the phone to order take-out, muster up the
willpower to go grocery shopping. (Yes, even if you still have these 35 Healthy Foods Busy People Keep Stocked
in your kitchen—you're in need of some fresh foods.) Having fresh,
healthy items in your fridge for the first few days home will ensure you
stick to your diet—rather than continue on the indulgent path you led
while away.
Eat This! Tip:
Your first meal back doesn't have to be anything crazy—just stick to
your favorite go-to busy weeknight meal. If you don't have one, don't
fret. We're fans of herb-and-lemon marinated chicken breasts with a side
of roasted veggies. The best part? Every ingredient can be thrown on a
sheet pan and baked for a quick meal and even quicker cleanup.
Your days of beers and buffets are long gone. Ensuring healthy items
are the most convenient foods in your fridge when you get home will make
it even easier to get back on track by encouraging you to make healthy
choices.
Eat This! Tip:
Keep pre-cut veggies with hummus in the front of your fridge, put a
bowl of fresh fruit on your counter, and hide treats like cookies,
candy, and chips on a high shelf and behind healthy foods so they are
out of sight and out of mind.
4
Don't Reach
for the Remote
When you get home after a long trip, it's natural to want to relax
(even though we hope you got enough of that on your vacay!). But just
because you're tired from traveling doesn't mean your first instinct
should be to click on the TV and get settled for a long binge-watch—especially
if you're feeling hungry. A University of Houston study found that the
more TV people watched in a setting, the worse their food choices
became. So even though you think it might be the best way to decompress
after a busy weekend, a couple hours of your favorite show could set you
back even more calories on top of an already indulgent weekend.
Eat This! Tip:
If you're definitely going to watch a show when you get home, keep it
to a 30-minute limit. Looking for other ways to stay busy? Go back to
tip #1 and do things that will help your body get back on track! Unpack
your things, go grocery shopping, reorganize your kitchen. Or if you
just want to relax, read a book, play a board game with your family, or
listen to music.
Downing pina coladas and crème brule on vacation only adds fuel to the weight-inducing inflammation fire.
That's because table sugar—which is made up of equal parts glucose and
fructose—boosts inflammation in two ways. Glucose, when eaten in excess
(even during a single sitting of daiquiris on the dock), can increase
levels of pro-inflammatory messengers called cytokines. Concurrently,
fructose is the sugar molecule which most easily creates advanced
glycation end-products (AGEs) in the blood. AGEs occur when fructose
causes proteins to haphazardly glom together, creating cellular junk
that your body tries to dispose of by increasing defensive receptors and
more inflammation markers. While it may be challenging, nixing the
sweet stuff when you're back at home is a great way to shed those unwelcome belly jiggles.
Eat This! Tip:
Eliminating added sugars and foods made with white flour can help you
get back on the weight-loss bandwagon because it'll stop stoking your
inflammation fire
and encourage you to eat healthier foods—many of which actually decrease inflammation.
A simple swap is subbing out high-glycemic foods (which spike and crash
blood sugar) for low GI alternatives, like whole grains and foods with
healthy fats, protein, and fibers. A study in the
Journal of Nutrition actually found that a low-GI diet reduced levels of the inflammatory biomarker C-reactive protein.
Boozing on vacay and flying home from the trip both cause
dehydration, which can increase hunger and cause poor circulation. In
turn, you'll likely feel bloated and really sleepy. And that's not
all.
Add a calendar reminder or set an alarm every few hours to remind
yourself to hydrate! Aim to consume half of your body weight in ounces
throughout the course of the day. You'll likely feel rehydrate after a
few days of this regimen.
Eat This! Tip:
The easiest way to hydrate is by drinking a cup of water upon waking. New research from the
Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics
showed that people who increased their water by a mere cup a day ate up
to 205 fewer calories and 200 fewer milligrams of sodium daily. So not
only will sipping on an extra 8 ounces in the A.M. help you minimize
overeating to shed that extra vacay pound, it will also boost your
energy and help your body flush out salt and leftovers that are
lingering in your colon.
7&8
Resume
—and amp up—
Your Exercise
Routine
Getting back into your exercise routine will be a huge help in
shedding those pesky post-vacation pounds. Many of us "forget" to pack
our sneakers and gym clothes when we go on vacation, leaving us few
options when it comes to maintaining our fitness routine. According to
experts, taking a week off won't cause you to lose all your strength and
endurance, but this break will cut down 50 percent of the improvements
you made in the weeks prior—making it feel like you've reached a weight-loss plateau.
To counter it, be sure to head back to the gym, and begin with higher
intensity workouts than you may have been doing to activate new muscles
and ramp up the calorie burn.
Eat This! Tip:
"The most effective workouts are high intensity and combine a bit of
cardio and weight training," explains Kaufman. Check out classes like
cardio-boxing or boot camps, which are typically held at local gyms but
can also be found in online videos. Just remember, while no amount of
fitness will undo a bad diet on its own, when you get back into a weekly
exercise routine and make a point of incorporating in some
extra-intense drills, you'll be fueling your diet-centric weight-loss
efforts. Cycling in new, high-intensity exercises often in your exercise
routine is also a critical step in ensuring you don't regain lost weight.
Whether it's because you never seem to sleep well unless you're in
your own bed or because you're totally wiped from all the sun you've
gotten over the past few days, you may return home from your trip
feeling both exhausted and a little softer around the middle. Why? When
we're sleepy, the production of leptin (the hormone that tells us we're
full) decreases, which can lead to overeating and weight gain. Not cool.
To help the weight back come off, be sure to fit in between six and
eight hours of sleep per night once you're back home.
Eat This! Tip:
If you've got your goals set on getting back to your more slender
self, cut your nightly Netflix session short an hour before bed—it'll
minimize your exposure to melatonin-disrupting blue light and remove
stimulation which keeps your brain awake.
10
Boost Your
Immune System
Travel is immensely taxing on your body—even just the sitting in a
car for hours part. That's because coordinating schedules, packing,
leaving home, all cause stress along with the need to constantly be
alert. All that on top of lounging in the sun all day, working up a
sweat hiking around town, and a lack of sleep causes your body's energy
stores to become depleted and your immune system is put in jeopardy. To
compensate for a lack of cold-fighting-power, try to emphasize fruits,
veggies, and meat-replacing legumes at each meal to boost your immune
system, while staying away from calorie-dense items, ultra-processed
foods, and animal products. This will help you maximize fiber intake and detoxification.
Eat This! Tip:
Medicating with vitamins from whole foods is much better than meds
when it comes to rebooting a compromised immune system. And blueberries
are one of your best options: researchers from Oregon State University
recently took a look at over 400 compounds for their ability to boost
the immune system. The standout? A compound called pterostilbene, which
is found in abundance in the little blue fruits.
These were a few jump starts that can get your body back into a normal routine. Play with these steps along with
CUTTING BACK ON ALCOHOL and you should see your body gradually getting back to normal.
Thanks for Reading............
