How to keep your vacation (sort of) healthy

I have just returned from my vacation to Washington, D.C. At the same time, I am also getting this healthy lifestyle blog started. Thus, I came home with a few ideas for future posts.

But first, I thought I would give a few short snippets of things I did during my trip to stay a little on the healthy side.

Airplane abdominals

During takeoff on the flight from Detroit to Baltimore, I noticed my husband leaning forward, bracing himself against the upward tilt of the airplane. He said, “Hey, this is great for the abs!” So, of course, I joined him. I leaned forward and tightened my abs to resist the angle of the plane, and a few seconds later I felt a burn in my abs and thighs.

So, if you want to do a bit of isometrics on an airplane, just lean forward during takeoff. You have to do it as soon as the plane lifts off the ground, though. Once the plane levels out to cruising altitude, you lose the resistance.

I’m resting my feet

I am a yoga practitioner, and I am sensitive to the tension in my body caused by daily living. The routine tension of sitting at my desk all day, staring at a computer, carrying groceries and the like can usually be relieved by a series of yoga poses.

On vacation, my body suffers different tension because I put it through different stresses than at home. Walking a lot, sitting on an airplane and carrying a bag on my shoulder all take their toll. Therefore, I often find opportunities to stretch and twist to relieve the tension.

One pose that I like to do after walking a lot always gets a laugh from my husband, but it feels darn good. It’s called Legs Up the Wall, and it’s a great little inversion. He’ll look over and ask what in the world I’m doing, to which I answer, “I’m resting my feet!”

Basically, you lay with your back on the floor near a wall and rest your legs vertically up the wall. This causes the blood to flow away from your feet, which makes your feet happy after you’ve stressed them all day by walking on them. After a few seconds, you’ll feel a pleasant tingling sensation. You can point and flex your feet, and if you’re flexible enough, bring your leg back toward your face and stretch your hamstrings a bit. This pose also releases the lower back and shoulders, and you can lay in it for as long as you need to.

Restrained indulgence

On a vacation, our eating routine is always different than at home. This is partially because of circumstances – the usual salads, fruits and yogurt I would eat for lunch at home just aren’t readily available in a hotel room. You can’t carry any of these things with you, and you can’t always get to a grocery store near your hotel, and if you could, you don’t always have a refrigerator in your room to keep anything cold.

So you’re stuck with eating out for just about every meal. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy going out to eat and experiencing different foods. That’s part of why I go on vacation – to eat things I can’t get or don’t normally eat at home.

But on this vacation, I found myself really paying attention to my food choices. For one meal, I wanted nothing more than a salad. Nothing but crisp green lettuce, a few toppings and dressing would do. I just didn’t want anything greasy or full of carbs. So we stopped at a McDonald’s, and my husband got burgers and fries while I got a salad. And it was delicious.

At other meals, I chose turkey sandwiches or grilled salmon and substituted sides of French fries for steamed vegetables.

However, since it was vacation, I didn’t entirely hold back. We went to this delicious steak house called Bugaboo Creek. I ordered sirloin tips with mashed potatoes. And boy, was it good! That was the same day I had the salad for lunch, so I figured I could justify the red meat and carbs.

When you’re on vacation, you should definitely have a meal or two where you can get something not-so-healthy and not feel too guilty about it. If you watch your choices at other meals, you can minimize the overall damage to your diet.

Although I have no doubt I gained a pound or two during my vacation, I feel like I did my best in striking a balance between indulgence and restraint. At no time did I feel like I was depriving myself or not enjoying my vacation to its fullest extent.

Now that vacation is over, though, it’s time to get back to the gym and the salads, fruit and yogurt!