One week from today my family of five will be hitting the
road for a trip to Wisconsin. This means a total of four days on the road with
three children, four nights in a hotel, and one wedding. Can you hear the
health/fitness freak in me panic?! What does this mean for someone who preps
her food, eats at just about the same time every day, and works out 1.5+ hours
5 days a week? Not to mention the biggest challenge of all…WATER! My daily consumption
of water requires many trips to the bathroom; my husband will surely
wish bad, painful things upon me if we need to make countless stops for me to
go tee-tee! This panic inside me got me thinking…what is the best way to find balance between "good" and "bad" while we are away from home? After a lot of
thought, I may have found a few helpful ideas to stay on track.
1. DON’T panic…
I am racking my brain to come up with this
grand reason for a real panic attack. We are talking about six days away from
home, and a normal routine. This should be a time for fun, excitement, and
making memories, not counting every calorie, macro, and H2O intake. All are
equally important to me, but there are times in our lives when only a few of
these should mean more than the other. That being said, when we have goals we want to achieve...good health being one of them, it's important to still be mindful of what we are putting into our bodies. It doesn't have to turn into a free-for-all leaving us feeling sick, tired, and disappointed in ourselves!
2. Find a balance…
Pack healthy foods and snacks for the entire
family. It is not written in stone that while on the road you have eat chips, candy,
donuts, and drink one soda after another! Avoid fast food, plan ahead to find a
good restaurant with healthy options.Yelp will help! To save marriage, drink a “normal” amount
of water while on the road. Stop at rest areas to run around with the kids,
even just for 10 minutes. Use the hotel gym, or even your hotel room to squeeze
in a quick workout. Get your family and friends involved in something fun and active!
3. Live a little….
So let’s just say on our way up to Wisconsin
we take exit 53 in Oklahoma for an amazing fried pie…maybe, just maybe it is okay
to eat half a slice of dark chocolate fried pie! Is it the end all-be-all if
we choose to enjoy this slice of pie? No, it isn't. You can enjoy all things in moderation, as long as you don’t allow it to take over, and lose control with
it.
Often times, vacations, holidays, family
visits, reunions, and many other occasions come up and we automatically throw
all of our healthy behaviors out the window, which then sets us back, followed by losing our motivation to ever get
focused again. Or equally worse, we don’t stop to enjoy the event we are
celebrating. We avoid even trying to find the balance, which usually causes
some resentment if we are not careful. Either way, we are being unproductive. When you put in the time, effort, and focus to can always find a balance between both worlds.
My wish for this vacation is to just enjoy
it, have fun with my family, and old friends, and not beat myself
too much over doing so. I hope everyone can at least come home from vacation and not have a pile of requests and "I wish I hadn't...." facing them. It takes away from all the wonderful memories made!
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