melstephenson's blog

Vacation. Weight loss. How often is it that those two words go together? Pretty much never. Many of us picture vacation as a free for all when it comes to nutrition, and while I agree a couple bites of dessert here and there won’t derail your efforts, it’s your attitude toward nutrition that will enable you to be successful in your fat loss this new year.
If vacation falls into the free for all category along with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day, valentines day, Easter, 4th of July, summer cookouts, your birthday, your kid’s birthday, your kid’s friends’ birthdays, co workers’ birthdays, (I think you are getting the picture), then we can get in trouble. If you feel that all these days are free for all days then you will never hit your weight loss goals. You need to be in charge of your body and when you decide to indulge and when you don’t. 

All that being said, here is how I pack for vacation:

I love my job as a personal trainer. I get to help people live healthier lives by losing weight, getting stronger, and eating good nutrition. It is such a great feeling to help others get feeling their best and possibly reverse or prevent diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. The worst part of this job is when I want the healthy changes more than my client does. That’s not how it usually starts out however. Usually most clients are motivated and ready to make some changes to their lives that first month or so. It’s the following months when the client frequently cancels sessions and I start feeling like I’m begging them to come to the gym that I start to worry. All of a sudden work, family, friends, and life start happening and workout sessions are tougher to get in. These things were all in their life the prior months, but now they are starting to surface as reasons to not exercise. This is not to say that life doesn’t get crazy sometimes and demand our attention, because we all know that it can and it does. We all go through some crazy seasons in our lives, but it’s how we handle those times makes us more or less likely to stick to or get back to a training program. 

This is a topic of much debate!  Do you use real sugar or are you better off with calorie-free sweeteners? Excess sugar can cause diabetes and lead to extra calories, and excess sweeteners can cause cancer and other issues. Pick your poison! In college I switched to sugar free everything to save calories, but over the past couple years I have learned that these sweeteners may not be all they are cracked up to be!  There are numerous studies out there that show that people who drink diet soft drinks are just as likely or more likely to be overweight than those who drink regular sodas.  There is speculation that these sweeteners make your body not notice calories associated with sweetness... so the next time you eat something sweet it thinks there are no calories associated with it, so you end up over eating on sugar.

Adding artificial sweeteners to our diets have just basically allowed us to think we are making "smart" choices by eating sugar free candy, chocolate, pies, cakes, syrup, coffee, sodas and cookies.. but in reality we should not be eating these things very often anyway!  Yes of course every once in a while, but these should not be in our daily diets. 

"I'm too busy....""I have to stay late at work..""My husband ordered an appetizer...""My alarm didn't go off..""I only had time to go to through a drive thru...""I have a sluggish thyroid..."
Believe me, whatever the excuse, as a fitness trainer I have heard them all! I am NOT saying some of these can be hard issues to get past, however we need to push through and figure out HOW to make positive changes!
Making time can be a tough one because we all have the same 24 hours to work with. So we have toa exercise a priority on your to do list! Not everything gets checked off your list and that's OK! But don't let exercise be one of those unchecked boxes! You may have to cut out time from somewhere else for your health. Do you watch tv? Play Farmville!? Maybe you don't have any extra time, but you always make sure everyone else is taken care of and you neglect your health!