How to: Staying fit and healthy whilst on holiday

Like everyone, I do love a holiday where I just let my hair down and do nothing for a week apart from eat and tan (this was basically my last holiday). But I have been blessed to be back in the idyllic South of France just one week later, so I thought this time, I will have a healthy holiday (she says whilst writing this with a glass of rose in hand, hehe).

What I mean is, I am still on holiday mode, but healthy Tash is poking her head through every now and then throughout the day.

So, here are a few tips I am implementing this time, so I don’t lose all of my pre-holiday hard work.

Exercise

Every day I am incorporating some kind of exercise. Obviously training here is going to be very different to my regular regime, so I am just keeping it to things that I really enjoy. For example, today I did a quick 30 min HIIT workout followed by a lovely hour walk with my mum up a mountain to the most amazing viewpoint. I love fast effective HIIT when on holiday as it makes me feel great for the day and it doesn’t take long. The walk with mum didn’t even feel like exercise because we were just chatting away enjoying each others company.

When it comes to exercise on holiday I like to implement two rules: make sure you are doing something you love, and do it first thing, as soon as you wake up - this gets it out of the way and you don’t have much time to resist against your inner healthy gal telling you to get off your ass. I’m not sure about anyone else but I just naturally have a lot more energy in the morning on holiday and come 2pm I just crash and need a nap. So there is no way I will be getting anything done after lunch.

The view from our mountain walk

Intermittent Fasting

I actually did this unintentionally the first day but I think it is actually a very good thing to incorporate whilst abroad. If you go out for late dinners whilst on holiday, and then wake up, eat breakfast straight away the next day, there is not really a lot of time for your food to digest properly. Most of the time you are not even hungry so it is a waste of calories. I find a 14hour fast very beneficial when on holiday as it dramatically reduces my calorie intake for the day and allows all of my meals to properly digest.

Have one or two healthy meals a day and have one meal out:

On holiday it is so lovely to go out to beautiful restaurants. We are more of a dinner fam so we love getting dressed up and going out for a nice dinner. Usually I opt for the more healthy choices anyway to be honest, like a fish dish, as I am not really a red meat fan. For me personally, I would much rather go to a nicer restaurant where everything is fresh and homemade for my treat meal than go to a pizza place or burger restaurant, its just not my thing.

But my downfall is dessert and wine. Every single meal we have eaten out I have had a couple of glasses of wine and a dessert. Usually some form of chocolate cake. But I am not feeling guilty about this because my other meal or meals for the day are made by myself, and healthy wholesome dishes.

Below are a some dishes I had out over a couple of days:

Quality food:

I cannot stress this enough, this should be implemented at all times to be honest, at home and on holiday. Please make sure you are eating fresh, home made whole foods. Having a balanced amount of protein, fats and carbohydrates for every meal will help you stay full for longer, and reduce snack cravings. I never feel the need to snack on holiday because I am either fasting, or my meals are always balanced and big.

Don’t stress if you cant stick to it:

This is my last, and probably my biggest tip. For anyone that is trying to get fit, shed some pounds, look leaner etc, stressing about what you can and can’t eat is going to spike cortisol levels and cause you to store and hold onto fat. If you go out for every meal, so be it, enjoy yourself because you are on holiday after all. This is your time to recharge and relax. Maybe just implement one or two of my tips if you cant implement all of them.

Above all, holidays do not come around all that often for lots of us, so just make the most of it, engage in activities you enjoy, relax and have fun.

I hope this has been useful for some of you who are planning trips away, these tips really helped me this time around! But I still feel as I have fully indulged as much as I have needed to without craving anything.

I would love if you could give this post a like and comment if you have found it valuable. And please share with your friends! Thank you so much

From Tash xxx