I also generally don't make time for running when I'm on holiday. Now I didn't say I didn't have time, because we all know we have time we just have to make time - so there you go, I just don't make time for running when I'm on holiday. I'm too busy holidaying.
Before I went to Europe, I buckled down and watched what I ate and exercised like a mad person. I lost quite a bit of weight. I was really proud of myself, plus I fit into those damn jeans. I figured I would gain it all back with all that food. I also wouldn't care because hello, holiday.
But.. nope. The day after I got home, I weighed myself. 3lbs heavier. A couple of days later, after settling back into normal food and workouts, I was the same weight as before. I was definitely a bit softer and my jeans were a bit more fitted, but not bad.
When we went to Australia, we ate a lot and I gained quite a bit of weight. Like, way more than what I gained (or didn't) in Europe. I'm too embarrassed to admit how much but I will tell you it was a 2 digit number. It also took me forever to shift the weight.
So what was the difference between the 2 trips?
We walked.
Woah. Mind blowing, right? But seriously. In Australia, we drove everywhere, caught the train or the bus. Sydney and Melbourne are walkable cities, but in both cities we stayed with family outside of the city. You can't walk from my childhood home to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It would take you all day, but also you'd get run over or thrown into the back of a cop car. But we did a lot of sitting and laying around. We weren't really there for sightseeing though.
But Paris, Rome and Dublin? We walked (almost) everywhere. Except for getting to and from the airports, we walked to the majority of our destinations. No hop on hop off buses, no taxis, just a little bit of metro. We basically did 4 sightseeing tours - Versailles, where we biked 10 miles. Rome, 2 tours where we walked the entire time. Dublin, this was the only tour on wheels, and it was the Viking Splash Tour and it was pretty fun.
For everything else, we used mastercard. Wait, sorry. We walked everywhere else. I planned our itineraries and grouped things that were closer together. If I didn't plan, we might have gotten overwhelmed visiting Sacre Coeur because it was about 5 miles away from our hotel. But because I planned how we could walk there and things to see on the way, we barely noticed.
I totally believe that the best way to see a city is on foot. I know some cities aren't walkable, and sometimes it's midnight in a strange place and you don't feel like walking back to your hotel. I get that. But I know what I'm like, and if I am metro-ing to all the things I want to see, I'm going to hop off the metro, walk to the place, take a photo, hop right back on the metro. I know that is completely my fault and not the metro's fault, but I recognise my laziness and choose not to give myself that option.
I don't want to pretend we didn't use the metro at all in Europe, because we totally did (and it was super easy!). I had crazy allergies our last day in Paris and didn't feel like doing all the walking, so we did a mix of walking and metro. Overall though, I'd say the holiday was 80% walking and 20% other means of transport, which I'd say is pretty good.
As for sightseeing though, I have no desire to do a hop on hop off bus when I could walk everywhere myself. If things are far away - different story. But if it's somewhere like NYC, Rome or Paris? Everything is walkable! Or bikable.
However, we all know abs are made in the kitchen and though I don't particularly care to have a six pack, I'm not delusional enough to think that walking everywhere means I can eat everything in sight.
I love good food when I travel... and by good food, I really mean bad for you food. Desserts especially. I wish I could say that every single meal was bad (and therefore awesome) but continuously eating bad food makes me feel lethargic and grumpy, not to mention the whole celiac thing.
But I'm not missing out on all the good food, so here is what I do:
- I try and have at least one good, healthy meal each day. Like eggs for breakfast, a salad for lunch, lean meat and veggies for dinner. But not all in one day otherwise that would be boring.
- Don't forget fruits and veggies - I normally forget that these exist on holiday. But I made sure to eat fruit with breakfast if there was an option, and veggies with lunch or dinner. It doesn't offset the bad stuff, but it means I eat less of the bad stuff, so basically, yeah it does. You can see there are berries in the above cake. Promise.
- I try and limit my snacks to two a day. I would say one a day but let's be real. This is me we are talking about. Some days I did one, but only because a main meal was just as decadent as a treat. Some days I did more than 2, but hey gelato is basically water. Or whatever.
- I made my eyes smaller than my stomach. If that even makes sense. I am the worst at getting way more food than I can actually eat. I also eat snacks or dessert even when I'm not hungry. So if there was a 'half' or smaller portion, I chose that. It might not have completely filled me up, but I knew I would be snacking on something sooner rather than later, so it evened out. My instinct is to get the biggest serving (like 4 scoops of gelato) but I tried to be sensible and just get 2 scoops... and then another 2 scoops a few hours later because hello I was in Rome.
I refuse to 'diet' on holiday. I know some people (including KC) don't want to ruin all their hard work or healthy habits, but I want to enjoy my holiday. I know there are a bazillion 'hotel workouts' and what not, but that's not for me. I don't enjoy working out on holiday. I have before, definitely. If there is a hotel gym I'll jump on the treadmill. But I prefer not to. However, with all that walking and the whole I'm not 18 anymore thing, my body gets super tight and sore (especially after biking around Versailles in skinny jeans) so yoga is a must for me. Nothing crazy, just a little bit in the morning and night.
I'm not gonna come back fitter than when I left just because I walked everywhere. It's not going to make me lose weight. But it does make me feel a bit better, thus helps me make better choices. But let's not get too crazy here, we're on holiday!
Linking up with Alyssa and Tracy!
Do you do any kind of exercise when you're on holiday?
