Thursday, July 10, 2008

Back from vacation

To all, I just came back from my vacation. While my family was on vacation we were overwhelmed with the junk that is served at the amusement park food stands AND restaurants. It took an extreme effort to find healthy food and even then most of the times the options we ate were NOT what we would of chosen - given options.

Here is how we did it. Maybe some of our methods could help you.
* For our little girl we brought a whole lot of food from home: healthy snacks, fresh fruit sliced up, organic milk, organic/no sugar fruit roll-ups, pretzels, healthy cereals, yogurts etc.

* For our son we packed pop-tarts as a healthier snack at night in the room then cookies or cakes and dried fruit snacks he likes.

* My wife and I winged it and figured we could find right choices there.

To make matters worse and make our nutritional choices even more important was the fact that the hotel did not have a fitness room. The hotel did have agreements with surrounding resorts that allowed us to use their gym for a small fee. I managed to get to the gym just once in 7 days. Having a fitness room miles away made it very very difficult to schedule it. Ex: A one hour workout turned out to be a 2 1/2 hour ordeal.

So in order to maintain some fitness we performed a full stretch routine I developed nightly. It made us feel a little better about missing the gym and still gave our bodies some conditioning. Later on when I write about hotel workouts I will share some of that routine with you. The quick point I am making is no matter what challenges to your nutritional and fitness needs you face you can always make small differences to get some good health - even on vacation.

BUT, we did not restrict ourselves either. We ate pizza a few times, had some premium sundaes, and even enjoyed a hot dog or two.

It takes a lot of work to eat right on vacation and we took almost a suitcase of food with us to make it happen. The fact that airport security took us side and asked us about all the food and searched our bags attest to the fact that very few people travel with their nutrition in mind - or for that matter have a desire to deal with more stress.

Tomorrow I will go back to writing about flexibility testing.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When trying to eat well on vacation, does it make a difference to take the buns off of the hot dogs?
What are the best ways to eat sweets on vacation. Is it to limit the amount of times you eat or how much you it per serving.
What about breakfasts, whats the best quick meal?

Eddie said...

Brian, To answer your first question The way I handle this is to strip everything off a meal that is not needed. If you really do not need the bun then you could eliminate alot of calories and sodium. The same goes for condiments added to it. Basically If it is healthy do not eliminate - if it is not then eliminate. If you are unsure eliminate anyway.

Ahh sweets on vacation. I do not eliminate them just enjoy them in moderation. Heck, your on vacation and should enjoy yourself. Think of it as a reward for all your hard exercise. Again, you could use what you you learned above. Have a sundae with bannanas, no whip cream or toppings - choose frozen yogurt (it really is pretty tasty), have a capuchino with no whip cream and skim milk. Enjoy your sweets - just eliminate as best you can. As for servings stick with realistics ones. Do you really need a three scope ice cream sugar cone when a one scoop on a wafer cone would please you just as well?).

As for quick breakfasts that pack a punch and are quick I eat the following and they provide incredible energy and a provide me with a full feeling in my stomach for a long time.

I usualy eat one of the following:
1) Cold cereal with skim milk and fruit, orange juice, unbuttered wheat toast with jam on it.
2) Oatmeal with cinnamin (current research suggests that cinnamin controls low blood sugar), some kind of sliced fruit in it, orange juice, and a yogurt.

Both meals are almost always available when you travel so they fit the bill most times.

Remember vacation is a time for fun, stress reduction, and loving life. Be smart in your food choices and you will be able to enjoy your vacation, be a little bad - just do it smartly. By having you enjoy some treats or bigger meals on vacation your memories and relaxtion will be even more fulfilling.

And one other plus for you - think of all the calories you might be expending on your vacation. If you remember a former post of mine you should recall that for every 10,000 steps you take you burn roughly 500 calories. That is roughly five miles of walking. When I went to Disney my pedometer was showing we at 30,000/40,000 steps per day. I was burning around 1,500 - 2,000 calories per day just walking. When I wanted that hot dog I felt no guilt. :)

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT