How to Get Back into a Healthy Routine After Vacation
We’ve all been there. You’re working out consistently, you’re eating healthy food, you’re feeling great… and then you go on vacation. When you come home, you spend the next 3 weeks trying to get back into a routine but you can’t seem to find your groove. Workouts are sporadic. Meals are hit or miss. Your whole routine seems to have gone out the window. But vacation doesn’t have to throw you off your game! Here are my tips for jumping back in after you’ve taken a break.
Get plenty of sleep
While vacation is often packed with fun activities, we often think it’s going to be more restful than it actually is. Traveling can throw off our sleep schedule thanks to time zone changes, late nights, and sleeping in. Once you’re back home, head to bed early. Even if you’re not going to go to sleep at 9pm, take a break from your phone screen and read a book to help your body relax! If sleeping doesn’t come easy, check out these tips for a better night’s sleep.
Stock up on groceries
I think one of the hardest parts of getting back on a healthy track after vacation is your empty fridge. You cleared everything out before vacation (or you didn’t… and now it’s all rotten!) so there isn’t any fresh produce to eat. I typically order my groceries online through Instacart so I don’t have to hit the grocery store on my first day back. But however you do it, ensuring that you have lots of fruits and vegetables on hand is a great way to get back to eating healthy!
Drink plenty of water
If you’re feeling a little bloated, drink up! For me, I’m great at drinking in my normal routine. But on vacation? Not so much. I just don’t always think about keeping a water bottle with me! So one of the first things I do when I’m getting back into a healthy routine is fill up a huge bottle of water and take it with me everywhere! Here are a few more ideas for how to stay hydrated.
Let go of vacation splurges
Vacation is meant to be enjoyed! So stop beating yourself up over that slice of key lime pie or those sweet margaritas! A week of unhealthy eating isn’t going to undo a year’s worth of progress. Sometimes you just have to let it go in order to move on. It’s easy to get caught up in the mindset that you’ve already “blown it” so why keep trying? But hello, this is about moderation! Some days are salad, some days are pie!
Now that I’m back from the beach, I’m restocking my fridge and hitting the gym for a sweat session! Let’s start the week off on the right foot!
I like to clean my apartment RIGHT before I leave so when I come home, I come home to a nice clean house. I also like to leave myself a note of the things I need to do when I come back so I am not totally frazzled.
YES!!! Yes to all of these. Not beating yourself up over the vacation splurges is so key, especially from someone who struggled so much with eating disordered thoughts. To think of it as a gift for a time, and then get back into being thankful for the daily routine is the best way to get back from vacation.
Laundry right away is how I like to get back into post-vacation routine – plus then my clothes are nice and clean to kickstart the new week! Sadly I can’t recall the last time I really went away for more than 5 days (really, it hasn’t been since my post bar exam travels last summer, now almost a year ago), so I never clean out the fridge completely beforehand since there are plenty of things that will last for when I’m back.
I don’t go on vacation much, but when I do get back into my regular life, I like looking at the pictures from vacation and realizing that a possible decrease in fitness was worth the fun. Not feeling stressed about it is honestly the best thing I can do for both body and mind.
The first thing we also do when we get back from a vacation is throw our bags down, clean the house, and start laundry. Those little things help get us back into the mindset of starting fresh!
The first I like to do post vacay is definitely hit the gym! It puts me in the right frame of mind and really motivates me to get back on track. Great tips!
I always try to get in a few runs when I’m on vacation, which helps minimize any of the splurges of my trip! You’ve got some great tips here. Most importantly, don’t beat yourself up for any indulgences!
I think you wrote this for me (seriously, perfect timing). YES to #1 especially. I’ve gotten 8 hours of sleep the past two nights and I STILL don’t feel fully rested, which is kind of crazy, but soon enough, my body will be caught up.
Definitely saving this for after I go on vacation next month. Some times I come back from a vacation fully refreshed and ready to hit the gym and kitchen again and sometimes I come back not ready at all. Either way I try to amp myself up to get back into the swing of things and not have any regrets at all from vacation.
I just spent a whole weekend drinking copious amounts of wine and eating junk food so I totally relate to this right now! I just need like a two day reset right now, but it was totally worth it!