While even modest weight loss can provide numerous health benefits, finding healthy food options on vacation can pose a number of unique challenges. Spending extended time away from home trying to make smart food choices while navigating an unfamiliar cuisine often feels like an uphill battle. It helps knowing what to avoid.
Healthy Food options on vacation
It’s also helpful to take time to find healthier snacks or alternative meal plans. Both strategies may be all it takes to avoid packing on a few extra pounds during your vacation.
Learn More about Local Diets and Dishes
Regional cuisines can differ tremendously. Travelers who fail to prepare themselves can run into any number of potential problems. Understanding local foods to avoid, as well as which delicacies may fit comfortably within an existing diet, or menu plan, often makes a difference.
Destinations serving a wide range of Asian food options, or Mediterranean dishes, make it much easier to stay healthy when dining out. Being unsure what to order from the menu or finding out, too late, that a favorite regional dish from a past trip was little more than empty calories are both situations that travelers would do well to avoid.
Know Where to Find Healthy Snacks
Fruit, nuts and even lean meats are all healthy snack options. Knowing where to find healthier foods during a trip makes it much easier to turn down snacks high in sugar. The search for healthier snacks can be a great excuse to explore markets, shops and even farms and other outlets travelers might have otherwise overlooked.
Avoiding Alcohol
The chance to enjoy a drink during a vacation or holiday can be difficult to pass up. The sheer volume of calories found in a single alcoholic beverage can quickly become a problem. Often getting a little exercise can balance out the occasional extra snack or overindulgence, however a hefty bar tab isn’t always as easy to counteract. Limiting consumption to just one or two drinks or skipping the alcohol entirely is often the best option.
Staying Fit and Active
Many vacations provide plenty of opportunities to burn off a few extra calories. A hike, a swim or even a visit to the hotel fitness center can all be very beneficial. Maintaining an existing workout routine and getting plenty of exercise during the trip can often be just as important as sticking with a diet while on vacation.
About the Writer: Emma is a freelance writer based out of Boston, MA. She writes most often on health and education. When not writing, she enjoys reading and watching film noir. Say hi on Twitter @EmmaSturgis2
