When you’re on vacation, it can be easy to make every meal a cheat meal if you don’t come prepared, and often it doesn’t 
end up feeling worth the simple carbs, sugar, money, the groggy feeling during your adventures, and ultimately, the extra inches on your waistline at the end of the trip. Save all that for the places you’ve heard you have to try: the best breakfast in town, the raw bar, the authentic key lime pie, perhaps some boat drinks, and don’t eat a cheat meal just because you’re hungry and short on options. Try these tips, and you’ll go home feeling rejuvenated and healthier – and isn’t that what vacation is really for?
Pack fruit and almonds.
They’re nature’s most portable foods!
Take Allergzyme with offending meals containing grains or dairy that you expect to have a negative effect on you.
This is my favorite supplement to use when on vacation, or for a Sunday pasta dinner. While I don’t have a gluten allergy, I’m sensitive to gluten, and bread and pasta leave me with brain fog, feeling uncomfortably stuffed, and can even affect my skin. I take this before a cheat meal and the enzymes help break down difficult to digest proteins, like those from bread and dairy, and stop those symptoms in their tracks. There are similar products out there, but Allergzyme is the only one I’ve used, know is high quality and works like a charm.
Bring a jump rope and timer for tabata intervals, and don’t forget about pushups!
These are two exercises you can perform anywhere that will put a huge dent in your fat storage during the trip and only take about 6 minutes out of your vacation day. I learned a lesson this week: Don’t lug a 25 lb. kettle bell to your hotel. I never touched it. Tabata intervals are a fat-blasting exercise that revs up your metabolism with only 4 minutes of intense effort. You can perform them anywhere with a jump rope, sprinting, on a bike, or with many other activities. You go for twenty seconds hard and then rest for 10, performing 8 repetitions and finishing in only 4 minutes. I use a tabata timer app on my phone.
Pushups effectively work all your major muscle groups when done correctly and slowly, and all you need to bring is your own body and excellent form. Doing resistance exercises like pushups and squats actually make insulin receptors in your body more readily able to utilize sugar and carbs and make you less likely to store them as fat. For maximum benefit, try to do a set or two (10-12 reps) right before meals and within an hour afterward.
Pack meal replacement or protein shakes and greens.
I love PaleoMeal or Whey Cool, but if you shop around, first read my article about how to choose a high quality shake to reap their full benefits. Shakes are easy to mix up quickly before you go sightseeing or surfing, will keep you satiated for a long while, and help stabilize your blood sugar. You can bring your shaker bottle with you and just add water on the go. If you don’t happen to be eating a bunch of vegetables during your vacation, add a tablespoon of greens powder into it, which will help reduce inflammation in your body caused from having too much sugar, grains, or alcohol, and will give you healthy fiber to help keep your digestive tract in better shape while you’re assaulting it with offensive foods.
Use a natural zinc face stick and a non-toxic sunscreen, but also get a moderate amount of unprotected time in the sun.
You should always protect your face from the sun, but letting the sun on your bare skin between certain hours for 15-30 minutes will optimize your vitamin D levels and minimize your exposure to harmful rays. UVB rays are the beneficial type that improve your vitamin D levels and are strongest around midday, generally between the hours of 10:00 and 2:00. Even a low SPF sunscreen almost completely eliminates your body’s ability to produce vitamin D. Vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins for overall health and immune function and also the most deficient in the general population, no matter what type of climate you live in. Appropriate sun exposure actually decreases your risk of skin cancer.
Research shows that many of the popular sunscreen brands, while decreasing risk of the less dangerous forms of skin cancer, actually increase the risk of the more aggressive forms due to the harmful ingredients and additives, like vitamin A. Higher SPFs have been shown to be no more effective and users actually are exposed to the same amount or more harmful ultraviolet rays than those who use lower SPFs.
Some things to avoid when choosing sunscreen include: Vitamin A (retinyl palmate), oxybenzone (a hormone-disruptor), fragrance (petroleum-based and linked to organ toxicity and allergies), high SPFs, and sprays that use propellants and may be harmful to your lungs.
Safe sunscreens protect against UVA and UVB rays and are titanium dioxide and zinc oxide based, protecting against the most damaging rays while not penetrating the skin. “Non-nano” products do not have small particles that are easily absorbed into the skin and bloodstream. If your sunscreen is scented, it should be with essential oils. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s Sunscreen Guide to check your sunscreen and look for ones with a rating of 1-2.
Indulge in a yummy pina colada or daiquiri by the pool, but then switch to mixing your cocktails with soda water and a little splash of juice.
Too many sugary libations will leave your feeling dehydrated, bloated, and doubly hung-over. While still not healthy, 100% agave tequila or potato vodka are usually the lowest glycemic, cleanest options for mixed drinks. Most importantly, when you’re indulging, don’t forget to continue to drink plenty of water, especially when you’re out enjoying the sun. You should drink about one ounce of water for every two pounds of body weight.
Resources:
Maximize Your Push-Ups with These Simple Tips
Tabata Intervals: The 4-Minute Fat-Blasting Miracle Workout
Environmental Working Group’s Sunscreen Guide
New Study Shows Many Sunscreens are Accelerating not Preventing Cancer
The Ingredients in Sunscreen Destroying Your Health
Related Supplements
Allergzyme: An enzyme complex that aids with the digestion of difficult to breakdown proteins such as gluten, gliadin , casein from dairy, and others, such as those from soy and rice. It makes the proteins more easily digestible and accessible to the body. I take one with any gluten-y meal that I know will hit my body hard, like pizza or a big pasta dinner.
PaleoMeal: PaleoMeal is a meal replacement shake designed for optimal nutrition and including the same protein complex in the Whey Cool protein shakes, which hits all my criteria for a healthy protein shake explained in my blog article, Getting Whey Smart. It comes in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, and also in dairy-free versions for sensitive individuals using pea protein instead of whey protein.
PaleoGreens: PaleoGreens is made with over 90% organic fruit, vegetable and berry ingredients. It’s gently, minimally processed in a way that’s heat-protected and non-oxidizing to preserve beneficial nutrients and enzymes and does not have any inexpensive bulking agents or fillers which account for 40-60% of many other greens powders.
