To Work Out Or Not to Work Out On Vacation

and did you and die out? Hey outweigh fam Amy and Lisa here, and we're gonna be talking working out on vacation today or I guess I should say not working out on vacation or whatever it's gonna fit you best on vacation, because I think Lisa and I both used to come from the school of even if you're on vacation, still wake up and get that workout in every single day, like it's a grind, like it's still part of your quote unquote job, even while you're supposed

to be resting. And I told Lisa I wanted to talk about this and have her share her thoughts because I was just in California last week and I really took some time off, like I didn't work. And when I say time off, I meant from my whole routine of sorts, there's some things that I liked to keep, like I went on walks with my friend and being outside, and I did some walking on the beach barefoot. Lisa, I thought of you when I did that, because I

was practicing some ground being work. But I really tried to soak up other parts of the trip that were more fulfilling to me and my well being than forcing some sort of a workout. And I came home from the trip thinking like, Wow, I didn't do one of my little workouts on my computer that I had been in the groove of doing before I went, just because it was what was working for me. It's what was making me feel good. If I didn't want to do

it one day, fine, I didn't do it. I loved coming home and being like, oh wow, I didn't do it at all and it didn't mess with me, because that's the thing. And Lesa, maybe you can break this down a little bit more, but so much of it is mental, like we think that we're suddenly so different because we didn't work out every single day of our vacation, or maybe we ate out the entire time. I mean, which I did every meal was out. There wasn't my typical workout, So I don't know if you want to

share your experience with that and how that's different. I just want to give hope to people that it is possible because I never thought like and go on vacation really and you know, here, I am getting back from a trip where things just felt different for me after

this year and a half of being in recovery. So I think the most important thing is that you were able to honor where you were at every single day and really show up and assess what do I need today and really do so and let go of any guilt or different feelings of you know, remorse that you used to have. You could still go out to meals even though you weren't moving your body in the same way. I think the goal here, which I think in the you know, in the anti diet space, we sometimes get

a little cloudy on what we're trying to do. But in my point of view, if you can move your body, if you're able bodied, movement is incredible for us for a multitude of reasons, where the list could go on and on. How it makes our bodies look is what we focus on, right the caloric burn that we're always kind of thinking of negating our food. But movement is critical to our life, to our joints, and to our longevity so that we can live out meaningful lives in

every which way that gets lost in translation. That being said, I think I'm just going to throw this in here and right now. It might be helpful as well to start to think about it as movement versus the word exercise. I think the word exercise in general might be tainted for a lot of us. Maybe even the word workout might be tainted. Maybe that means you have to go

to a certain class us or a certain intensity. So whatever it is for you, I'm just going to suggest calling it movement because we are as humans, we are born to move. As if we look at other animals, they're born to move. So really taking a look at the goal here going back to it, which is to have a sustainable relationship to movement, we need to start

thinking about how do we achieve that. And it was funny to hear your story Amy about how working out on vacation was a really big stressor for you, because for me, where my mind went was the working out leading up to vacation that I used to prep for to either be in a bathing suit or maybe not even it could have even been like a ski trip,

you know, or like, you know, a winter trip. But for whatever reason, I knew that my life was going to be different for seven days, five days, maybe even just a weekend, and so there was always that prep. And I know you have a spoke can so much about looking at your calendar for events and then like planning your food or your exercise. Previously, in terms of restriction or overdoing it, I was the same. I feel

like with vacations. You know, I have this big trip coming up, so I need to go extra hard before I get here because when I get there, you know

everything is going to be different. So I think that this conversation is kind of more macro, like maybe your thing is is that you get really nervous before you get on a vacation and you put all your stress there, or maybe it's similar to amy, where when you arrive on vacation you have to get that work out in before you do anything else or you're unable to have ease. And so neither of what you and I were doing surrounding vacation was sustainable in having a healthy relationship to

movement over time. And the biggest shift that I experienced over a lot of time was learning that the body loves to move. It naturally want to do things that feel good for it, which is sometimes movement. Now, it might not be a movement that you traditionally think of as being exercise or counting as your workout, so it might not be a ten mile run, it might not be lifting those weights and you know, just crushing it

so incredibly, but the body does like to move. And for me, what I found when I let go of the lead up for vacation as well as the pressure on vacation, is that I could find joy in movement on vacation, but I could also find rest on those

days when when that was all that was there. And I've been on seven day vacations with zero movement, and I've been on seven day vacations with some sort of movement every single day that came from a place of wanting to something that added to the experience or the bonding with another person. So I think that this conversation of don't work out on vacation or workout on vacation is really easy to go narrow minded. But the goal is how do we achieve that sustainable, healthy, positive relationship

to movement. And it starts with exactly what you did Amy, which is honoring where you're at every day. And maybe this is kind of boring advice, but boring advice happens to be the best advice is that doesn't start on vacation, that starts at home in your everyday routine. Yeah, I mean, I think that it was the practices that I had been implementing this last year that allowed me to go

into that. Also to what I want to bring up what happens on vacation is sometimes because eating is out of your control, you look at the exercise as being some sort of punishment for what you're eating, or you need to earn the food, so the food is the reward. I mean, but that can be in everyday life, like you're You're right, it's not just on vacation. It's the

practices that we have. Like I follow a girl on Instagram the other day that I really like and I don't think she means any harm, Like it was a complete, just off the cuff statement, but she does have like a ton of followers and it was just so nonchalant of like her face was right red. You could tell she had just worked out, and then she was holding Chick fil A and in the camera she's like, Okay, finished my workout and now I got my reward. And

it just kind of rolled off the tongue. And again, this isn't her space, and she's not ever trying to push any type of, you know, diet things by any means. It's just like, that is such an acceptable statement because of how we've grown up and just things other people say, stuff I'm guilty for sure of saying in the past. But I love that I was able to see it right away and be like, oh, shoot, I wish she

wouldn't have said that, you know. And again she didn't mean any harm and it's nothing that I hold against her by any means, but I was like, oh, I want her to feel like she can move and work out if she wants to move, or she can eat the food if she wants to eat the food, Like we don't have to ever aciate that as as a reward. I think it goes both ways. Oftentimes we're thinking about food as the reward or exercise as maybe let's not say punishment, but I mean for some people might be

punishment but too correct for what you ate. So her order of operations was I worked out now I can eat for a lot of people, especially going back to the vacation, whether this is happening on vacation or when they return from vacation. I think the thought processes I did all this damage, now I need to correct for it. So that can go either way. And I think we see that all the time, and it's normalized all of

the time. And the one piece of advice that changed everything for me really has nothing to do with exercise, but has to do with food and my relationship to food, what I eat, how I eat when I'm not on vacation. So I think this idea of vacation mode, that's a phrase that is often thrown around owned Um, you know, I'm on vacation. I can do this. You know. It's like one of those those things where I'm allowed to

splurge because I'm on vacation. Right. The need to splurge, the need to let go, is a clue that whatever is happening at home is too tight, is too rigid, is possibly too restrictive. That you think that that you feel it's a real feeling that a splurge is on the other side and that's your release. So even if you're really successful for six months out or a year of eating a certain way, but on these vacations, you allow yourself to splurge, eat a different way and find yourself,

you know, in that mindset of vacation mode. It's really a big clue to me that what at home, even though it's sustainable on paper, meaning you've been doing it for a long time and you've maybe even gotten results that you're looking for and everybody's applauding you for this, and that there's really a big disconnect because there shouldn't be such a big focus in your mind on food and exercise on vacation if at home you're finding a really nice flow with it and it's coming from a

true place of nourishment and care that includes some of

the foods that you typically only allow on vacation. And I think that's kind of what we see a lot of the time, is a lot of people living restrictive lives at home, not recognizing how restrictive it is, getting to vacation and saying iff it, I'm taking a break from that and entering what I call a state of mind body disconnection where they're no longer paying attention to their cues because similar to a cheat meal, which we'll talk about in another episode, I'm sure you have this

limited window to let go and once you're in that mindset of I only have this much time to deviate from my accepted plan without guilt. And I put that in quotes because oftentimes the guilt is actually still there. But we tell ourselves, you know, this is my window. We are disconnected from our bodies, and therefore we are overeating, eating things that we don't necessarily even want, but and and doing so in volumes because of that tight window.

And the main issue with that is we're not actually enjoying it, and we're perpetuating the cycle rather than taking a look at what's going on at home that I feel the need to essentially act out. Yeah, obviously this kind of thing isn't done overnight by any means, but it is some stuff too. For some people listening right now, they may need to sit with for a little bit and really try to to soak it up and yeah, look at what's going on at home before and maybe

it's not even a vacation. Maybe it's just the weekend. It could be your week versus your week end. Something else that comes to mind when I think of vacation is I used to I would weigh myself before and then I would weigh myself when I got home to figure out what I needed to do to get back. And I found uch relief and the fact that I don't have a scale anymore, or maybe we do somewhere, but it's I honestly don't even know where it is.

But I thought, oh wow, okay, this is awesome. It didn't matter before I went, and it didn't matter when I got home. But something that happens to for people is even when they're on vacation, whether it's at the hotel, gym or sometimes hotels include in the bathroom a scale oft times. Why why do they do that? I mean, I guess because we are a society that is obsessed

with the scale, or can be. But that was just a small step that I noticed for me that was very you know, I don't want to pat myself on the back, but I was proud of myself that that wasn't a part of my vacation routine anymore, and it just feels I guess, just to stay with the scale theme here, it felt so light and it felt less heavy to just have that out of my life. I

think you bring up a really great point. I think most hotels have a scale there, or if there's like a little spa or a gym, like, it's there, and it's very easy to be like, okay, well let me check in on myself and jump on. And this is a little bit more of like a cognitive conversation versus a different type of conversation. But it's really important to

not hyper focus on short term weight fluctuations. So I remember as well part of my skill when I was addicted to the scale, you know, getting on and seeing decimal point changes or two pound changes or three to four changes within the same day, within the same two days, and really using those changes as flags to restrict or

exercise more and correct for it. What I really learned over time is that weight fluctuations within a certain range are actually quite normal, especially when it comes to vacationing. So it's very normal on vacation that you're going to be traveling, what's happening in your body, how it retains,

what are the foods that you're eating. Constipation is a really common one in traveling because of the tension that you carry from You might not realize that your tense, even if you're not a stressed flyer or like you are relaxed, but the body is adjusting to a new environment. And so I think sometimes we hold really tightly to these fluctuations that are actually quite normal i'd call normal. You know, anything really five to seven pounds within a day.

I know that sounds really extreme for some people. But to make any changes that I need to lose weight or or to call it weight game, to call it true weight game, is only going to set you up into a cycle to not be taking good care of yourself and making matters worse. And that's why stepping away from the scale can be a great first step, especially if you were in a place like Amy was and where I was, where those fluctuations just completely trip you up.

And I say that because I'm at a place now where I don't I don't even know if I have a scale in my house. Maybe I do, But when I go to the doctor and I step on the scale, I feel fine with that. At this point in my journey. That being said, there was a point when it when it wasn't so honor where you're at doesn't mean the scale is the worst thing or the best thing. It's just one part of who you are. But when we hyper focus on it, we really lose sight of things. Amy,

you told the story about somebody that you follow. I follow somebody who she's not in the intuitive eating teaching space, but she is an influencer that is largely responsible, I think, and she speaks about intuitive eating, has experts on her platforms to talk about it um and the anti diet space. And she recently went on a beautiful trip abroad and it was luxurious, and she was showing, you know, all the foods that she was eating, and it looked really beautiful.

And when she came back, she recorded a podcast and answered a listener's question of how do you deal with weight game after a vacation, And I was surprised to hear her response. So it was kind of two part. The first part was that she really was able to enjoy herself on this trip, and I think that's wonderful. She really wanted to be immersed in the food and

the experiences and the culture and all of that. So lawyer at home, she's normally free of ABC D and E. You know, she doesn't eat that dada on vacation, she allowed herself to without guilt. Okay, fine, right, And then the second part of how she deals with it, it wasn't awful, but it it just flagged me as, oh, this is so interesting. Maybe she's not as kind of free as I kind of thought she was. But she said, after vacation, you know, as you return to your routine,

your weight will level off. And that's probably true. However, I was surprised to hear her kind of even feel like maybe she had experienced weight changes, just because it looked like it was done free and mindfully. And I don't know if she if she experienced weight changes herself, but it kind of just like blanketed this idea that when we go on vacation, when we eat foods that

we don't eat, we gain weight. But when you return and you get back to your exercise and your water and your whatever the way that you eat, your body

levels out. Which again it wasn't terrible, the worst advice I've ever heard, but it really perpetuated I think the fear for people that vacations lead to weight gain period when I truly believe that if your life is not so different from your vacation, you will not experience that because maybe you're eating completely different foods on vacation because you're in different countries and having different experiences, but you're

staying connected to your body's cues, your enjoyment, your hunger fullness, which is perfectly letting you know your energy balance needs. If that makes any sense. Is that too abstract? Does that make sense? No? I mean it's making sense. I think some people might have to sit with it a little bit, but it is I mean energy, what your body needs to do, what it needs to do. That food is the calories are the energy, and you're staying in tune with what your body needs, whether on vacation

or not. Like if you think pasta, you know, a typical high carb food that people are afraid of, you know is bad for you, and you go on vacation and you allow yourself to eat it. There's a certain point that the pasta is enough pasta for you and

your body lets you know. However, if you're in that mode of oh, this is the one time I could eat pasta because I'm in Italy, You're becoming disconnected from that and possibly, you know, eating more than you necessarily need, not necessarily portion is probably a whole other story, but I think it's just recognizing that weight gain is not like you go on vacation and then you gain weight

just because you enjoy food. And I didn't love that takeaway because my favorite part of working with clients pre COVID this was, I should say, was over the summers when many of them would travel to Europe and go at all these places and finding that they would eat foods and for the first time they weren't binging on them, and they felt comfortable in their body, getting gelato in Italy and all these things, and they were enjoying the food.

But there was no conversation about, Okay, well now what because I gained weight when I got back, Because when they got home, they could also still have ice cream here, you know, right, I was going to even say, like, it may not be a gelato on vacation for someone listening right now, it might be a saturday at the

ice cream shop with your kids. It can still be just that and honoring that time and that space and I too want to say, it's like when you have that connection, when you're disconnected, you won't have this, But it's what your body, mind, soul, spirit, everything needs. You're feeding more than just like what's great point, because it's it's a mind, body spirit connection that starts to happen.

And some people might be like, wait, wait, no, we're just talking food here, but no, we're talking when food is attached to family or friends and memories and trips or local visits to that ice cream shop with your kid, it's like bonding. Bonding. Yes, there is something going on that is releasing all types of things inside of you that are that are good for you and getna quote unquote fill you up. And I want to circle back to something before I forget. And you brought up about

bathroom on vacation and it's so crazy. I'm like, how does my body know I'm in a different place and it doesn't want to go to the bathroom. And I swear to you what's hilarious is the minute I got home. And this may not be for everybody, and this doesn't happen to me all the time that it happened to me on this trip. It's like the minute I got home, I finally went to the bathroom and I was like, this is crazy, and not that I mean, I don't know what was going on. There could be I mean again,

flying airplanes, different things. There's all kinds of different factors as to why, whatever reason, my body wasn't comfortable with using the bathroom, but I just had to breathe through it. That used to would have freaked me out and I maybe would have taken something to have made myself use the bathroom, because you know, I knew on vacation I wasn't but I just rolled with it and I was like, you know what, whatever reason, my body is holding onto it.

And then thank you Jesus that when I got home it let it out. But eventually it would have, you know, done what it needed to do. But I just thought that that was that is an interesting thing that we all have to deal with her. I'm sure a lot of us have experienced when traveling, a lot of people deal with it. And just one little like tip is too.

I know this might sound crazy, but in whatever is when you get on vacation, whether day one or day two, taking time to be mindful to talk to your body to place your hands on your belly, to do deep breaths because we are holding onto tension again, even if it's not that obvious of like I'm stressed or whatever, but really allowing those muscles to release and actively playing a role to let the body know, Okay, we're not home, but we're safe. We can still you know, do our thing.

It can be incredibly helpful. Oh no, I love that tip. I'm gonna implement that. I don't think there's anything crazy about that at all. There is a connection. I'm sure someone listening right now definitely thinks it's crazy, but that's okay. Well, when they are constipated on vacation and they give it a go and then they go to the bathroom, they'll

be like, oh, those girls are crazy. But I mean, I'm gonna keep listening to alway because they've got the pro tips no one else is talking about and then comes from a place of comfort. You know that a constipation can be really uncomfortable. So just to clear up you know why we're kind of going talking about that.

But yeah, I think that vacation, especially after a year and a half of not being able to go on vacation, to be able to enjoy it, to not focus so much on the food or the workout really starts with

what's happening at home. Yeah, and again some people still might not be in a place of actually like going anywhere on vacation, so we can maybe it's yeah, your weekends or how wherever the separation is for you, of like, this is how I behave at this point, and this is how I behave when I'm doing this, But like, how can we blend all of that together and just have it be more fluid in and out of our

days and not so like in separate boxes. So thank you all for listening to this episode and joining us on Outweigh every Saturday. If you want to subscribe and rate and review, we would love that. So if you're listening right now, just go over hit the subscribe or follow button whatever it is on wherever you're listening, and um, we appreciate it. And Lisa is at Lisa Hame on Instagram. H A y I am, and I'm at Radio an if you want to follow us