Staying Healthy on Holiday, While Still Indulging, Can be Easy with Some Common-Sense Reminders   

Let’s face it, one of the best things to do on vacation is to eat and drink. That’s especially true when visiting a new state or country, or a town known for its local cuisine or drinks. And when on vacation, isn’t it just easier to rationalize indulging? But If you worked out every day for the last six months and cut back on calories so you could look good in that bikini, you don’t want to gain it all back in one trip. You worked too hard to get here! Below are some tips on how to enjoy the local foods and/or drink on vacation while still maintaining control.

Get Used to Good Eating Habits in Advance

There is no rule that you must lose weight before a trip so that you can overdo it at the dinner table while on holiday. That’s actually a bad idea. You don’t want to come back from your trip all sad because you ruined your diet to any degree. Nobody likes starting over. However, working to change habitual patterns, so that they include reasonable portions and healthy foods, can help train you to make good decisions about what to eat while enjoying the local cuisine while traveling.

Note: Before you consider changing your diet, you should really check with your doctor to help you make a plan. There isn’t really a one-size-fits-all dietary plan for all. There are averages, but some people require different amounts of certain nutrients to maintain their health.

Use Portion Control So You Don’t Miss Out on Local Delicacies

When visiting the South, you’ll find plenty of menu options that include fried foods —from Louisiana’s beignets and po’ boys to Tennessee’s fried catfish, fried chicken and fried [insert your vegetable of choice here]. These foods are very tasty, but if they are not part of your regular diet, it’s wise to eat them in small portions. Keep in mind, according to FatSecret.com, a shrimp po’ boy has over 600 calories and as much as 35 grams of fat, not to mention 50 grams of carbs because of the French baguette bun. To sum it up, about 56% of the calorie breakdown is fat.

So, maybe try either sharing or simply minimizing how many fried meals/items you eat per day. For example, if you are dying to have the fried shrimp po’ boys, either share the sandwich or leave at least a third uneaten, and opt not to get fries (156 calories, 8 grams of fat, and 20 grams of carbs) and the Café Du Monde beignets (527 calories, 11 grams of fat, AND 102 grams of carbs) on the same day.

Most popular restaurants in New Orleans offer some healthier sides as well as the main dishes. For example, maybe get blackened or grilled po’boys instead of fried. If you are only in New Orleans for one night and want to try both the po’boy and beignet, opt to have the beignet in the morning, and you may want to order a glass of milk or juice instead of sugary drinks.

Lastly, if you need a cup of coffee to get your day started, try drinking it without sugar. You don’t want to have a sugar-crash during your mid-morning guide tour.

Consider Your Wine/Beer Intake

For decades, California has been known for its wineries, Napa Valley being ranked #2 on the recent Best Wine Vacations report by U.S. News Travel. These days the state is also now becoming well-known for the craft beer breweries. Because each brewery places its own twist on the craft, it is easy to get carried away tasting it all.

First things first: the cost of drunk driving can be very detrimental to your experience while vacationing. County lock-up will not be the best place to experience the local cuisine!  Secondly, keep in mind that beer and wine do not necessarily love the waistline either. In a 2015 Live Science article, the calories in different alcoholic drinks are broken down. An average 12-ounce beer is around 153 calories; if you drink three of these beers, you’ve consumed 459 calories.

If you vacation in New Orleans, where drinking plays a prominent role in nightlife culture, calories can add up quickly. Let’s say you have a shrimp po’ boy and two beers, that’s over 900 calories, not including the sides. If you are trying to maintain a 1,500-calorie diet, that doesn’t leave you much room to eat much for your other two meals. Not to mention, no room for snacking!

However, that doesn’t mean you should starve yourself so that you can consume a lot of calories of alcohol. Anyone who has experienced drinking on an empty stomach can tell you that doing so is the quickest way to end a day of fun, and your head will tell you about it later.   So be smart about what, and when, you consume.

Be a Restaurant Researcher

You can find all kinds of information on the web. Many restaurants now post their menus online, giving you an opportunity to research the caloric information prior to arriving at the restaurant. Some may even post nutritional information on the menus. You can sometimes find menus on Yelp, which allows you to read restaurant reviews and meal suggestions and to view photo-ops of diners’ meals, allowing you to see what the food looks like; and determine whether there are any healthy options. In fact, sites such as Calorie King regularly update their restaurant menu information, giving you the nutrition breakdown. This site does require a membership, but it offers a lot of information about different the nutrition breakdown of foods even beyond restaurants. You can get the breakdown on different products at grocery stores as well. This can be useful if you want to buy snack during your trips.

Another option is to ask locals for restaurant recommendations. The hotel staff can also be a great resource: they live in the city you are visiting, so find out where they go to eat. This is a good way to check out menus or food options to help you make sure you are picking a place that has not only the desired food item you want, but also offers other healthy items to go along with it.

See the Sights by Strolling off the Calories

But what if all else fails on the front end? For lunch you ordered the shrimp po’ boy with fried okra (because you wanted a healthy green, right?), washed it down with a couple of wheat ales, and topped it off with a large order of beignets. Now you’re staring at your bloated image in your hotel room’s bathroom mirror, bemoaning your failure and lack of self-control. Rest assured: your vacation isn’t ruined. Neither is your body. You just need to work off those calories. One convenient way to do this is to run it off on the treadmill or swim in pool at the hotel.

However, if the weather permits, an even better way to work off the calories while on vacation is to go on a walking tour. To ensure you are really taking in the sites, make sure you bring your walking shoes. This way you are not only burning calories, you are seeing the city at the same time. If you end up buying a bunch of souvenirs, even better because they’ll serve as additional weight training as you tone up your arms, carrying all those bags back to the hotel. In fact, you might consider taking a backpack with the intention of occasionally rucking around to keep the body toned and the calorie intake in check. The more you opt to walk to places versus taking a cab or driving, the better you’ll feel at the end of your trip.

Goal: Enjoy Both Your Food and Vacation

You don’t have to crash diet ahead of your vacation trip to enjoy the local cuisine. You just have to be smart at how you consume the tasty delights by enjoying them in moderation, and then mix in a few healthy options with your diet.  And if all else fails, pull out the walking shoes and do damage control.  Remember, the most important thing about going on vacation is to have fun and enjoy eating wisely!