For all you Vacation “Chefs”

While on our Spring Break we had a lot of fun meeting some other families also on their break. During a conversation that I had with this particular couple from Canada, the husband stated that “it’s dangerous for us to travel with our friends (who we also met) because my wife and their friend’s husband are excellent cooks and when they get together they put on a show with their cooking and the food is magnificent!” Sounds like perfect traveling companions to me! I found myself telling him that, as well as stating my usual “quality versus quantity” adage. My response included that just because the food is fabulous doesn’t mean that you have to eat a ton more of it.

I think I surprised him with my response. It was after this statement that I told him that I write a weekly column in our local paper about health and fitness. So here I was on an island off the Gulf Coast of Florida giving health and fitness advice, geez I can’t get away from it. Anyhow, it turned into a great conversation regarding eating and vacations.

If you think about it, when you go to a very expensive restaurant and pay for “fine” dining what kind of serving size do they usually serve? From my limited personal experience, yet my vast reading experience about “fine” dining, the serving sizes of meals are usually small yet impeccably presented. Think about dining in other countries, where “personal” sized servings are truly “personally” sized. Unlike the “Super-sized” everything we usually experience! It’s crazy the serving sizes that most restaurants serve!

Our conversation continued into the dangers of having superior “chefs” among you while on vacation. Very dangerous, I agree but not impossible because I keep going back to the proven fact that we all have limited sized stomachs and typically “chefs” aren’t going to cook these extravagant meals three times a day, every day of their vacation. So knowing that you’ll have “chefs” among you and/or (like the rest of us) you’ll be in a situation of drinking and eating more than you usually do, you plan your schedule to eat appropriately to minimize the damage of weight gain when you return home from your vacation.

If you are a “12 O’clock somewhere” kind of person, like I sometimes find myself being on vacation. Then prepare yourself by limiting your consumption (both food and drink) and engaging in your exercise sessions prior to that 12 O’clock deadline. Same idea with cooking and/or being cooked for; you know it’s coming (that marvelous meal) therefore prepare to eat that meal by eating smart earlier in the day and/or engaging in an activity (a form of exercise) that will help counter those additional calories.

Which brings me to the point of exercising during vacations; it’s a smart thing to do! But it’s difficult to do! I know! I’ve been there many times. Being pulled out of your normal routine, away from your familiar equipment, your favorite instructor and facility makes it super hard to get exercise done. It’s even difficult and often not safe to even walk or jog in an unfamiliar location. I’m here to tell you today its O.K. that you did not, nor did very little exercise on your vacation.

If you did very little or nothing on your vacation, it’s more important than ever to get back to it now that you are back into your regular schedule at home. Research shows that general strength starts to reduce after 3 to 4 weeks off from regular strength training. What we experience before that is a reduction of endurance, which can be felt after a week or two off, which is more of the cardiovascular effect. We are still strong enough to lift the weights we were lifting prior to vacation we just might not be able to do as many repetitions with that same weight. We will also find it harder to maintain the same workout “time” on the cardiovascular equipment but can most likely keep the same training intensity.

As punishment, which our bodies naturally inflict on us, you will be sore after those ten days to three weeks off. I figure that the soreness is our body’s way of saying “I hope you had a REALLY great time on your vacation! Welcome home! Now let’s get back to work!"

 

Deborah Holmes

March 18, 2008