I’ve been getting a lot of people asking me, “Max, how are you staying in such great shape despite the fact that you’re travelling so often.”  Well, you’re in luck because I’m going to give you some tips on how to not “lose all your gains” while partying it up abroad in this blog.

Two of the main reasons why it’s a challenge to stay in shape if you’re travelling often is A.) it’s tougher to adhere to your diet plan, and B.) you’re not always going to have access to a traditional gym, and this is just part of traveling.

If you’re a fitness nut like I am you probably know by now that dieting is a huge component when it comes to staying in shape!  When we’re at home, we can plan out our meals for the week and track exactly what we’re putting into our system.  But when we’re on vacation, we’re hanging out with friends and loved ones and exploring the new cuisine in all of its glory! Add in some carefree, vacation mindset and we’re probably going to lose track of how many calories we’re taking in – which may derail our fitness goals.

If the place you’re staying at has a gym, great! You can probably squeeze in your workout regiment, but lets be honest, when were on vacation working out isn’t exactly priority number one! After all, isn’t vacation the time to kick back and relax?

Limit Eating Out when Possible

We all know that eating out too much can be difficult when it comes to dieting because you don’t know whether that salad you ordered used low fat dressing or not, making it difficult to gauge how many calories you’re actually consuming.  This is why people who are hardcore into fitness highly recommend meal prepping so you know exactly what’s going in your body.  But when we’re on vacation, this typically isn’t as easy to achieve as we’re often going out to restaurants and trying out different types of foods…DELICIOUS foods! It’s vacation after all! BUT, here are some helpful pointers with your body in mind.

Obviously you probably don’t want to be that debbie downer that skips the cheesecake for dessert while everyone else is satisfying their sugary guilty pleasures, but what you should do is avoid indulging in bad dieting habits when it’s unnecessary.  An example would be perhaps in a situation where everyone is still chilling at the place you’re staying at, you should probably go to the grocery store and get some oatmeal and greek yogurt for breakfast as opposed to going to McDonald’s for a Sausage Egg McMuffin. Simple changes like this go a long way and may even save you a few big macs to spend on other fun vacation activities. If you need to get some caffeine to wake up, consider a tea or regular coffee instead of that cup of sugar which Starbucks calls a “frappuccino”.  As for alcoholic drinks, I usually go with a vodka soda (not tonic or seltzer, those still have sugar in it) or just straight shots, less calories and you can most definitely still party and not look like a lame!

Stay Active

Like I mentioned before, if you have access to a gym and can squeeze your workout in on vacation, you’re one step ahead! But if you don’t as I didn’t in Hawaii, you have to plan activities that keep you moving on your feet so that way you get some form of exercise in.  I highly recommend doing activities such as jogging, hiking, biking, and swimming while on vacation as these are fun things you can easily do no matter where you are and of course they help burn off those potentially excess calories you’re consuming. For example, while I was vacationing in Hawaii, which is known to have lots of beautiful scenery, I would bike to a lot of the hiking destinations as opposed to taking a car. Then I would do the hike to the summit and then bike back, burning loads of calories all while getting a much better island experience, and even taking some great shots for my personal collection!

You don’t have to do anything intense, a morning walk or jog will do the trick.  For instance, in Hawaii, the bike route to Diamond Head from Waikiki was about 9 miles round trip (one of the shorter bike routes in the area) and the hike itself was a 4 mile loop (one of the shorter hikes), took about 2 hours to finish with breaks and it made me feel great afterwards and I got to enjoy some beautiful sights. PLUS, everyone knows its a great feeling when you head to dinner and you know you’ve already worked out hard that day, you can feel much less guilty about eating the tasty menu items that are there!

Overall, as long as you’re outdoors and moving around as opposed to sun bathing on the beach or taking a car everywhere, you’ll burn some calories and the scale will thank you later when you get home!

-Max (madaz)