Post-Vacation Weight Gain

Hello!

Usually in September I see lots of folks who can’t figure out why they gained so much weight since getting home from their summer vacation.

I think it’s because vacation foods blitz your taste buds and stretch your stomach just a little, and you don’t always realize it. You come home, and you FEEL like you’re eating just the way you always did. But your slightly stretched stomach wants a bite more at every meal….and your desensitized taste buds are no longer quite so satisfied by clean foods.

So I recommend this Post-Vacation Nutrition Plan :

1. Remove any processed or avalanche foods from your home (do this before you leave, ideally, so that during your trip you can forget you ever liked them.)

2. Re-Stock your kitchen with loads of healthy foods. That first week back, you’ll be too busy to eat anything besides what you prepared….even if it tastes bland and overly-healthy.

3. Repent : Spend 2-3 days being a nutrition SAINT, even measuring your quantities.

   Here is why just “getting back to normal” often doesn’t work:

A) Rich, salty or sweet vacation foods likely blitzed your taste buds. Clean foods will taste bland and unsatisfying until you spend 2-3 days eating clean. Get those days out of the way, while you are still in post-vacation-bliss.

B) Larger vacation meals may have stretched your stomach. Even if they only stretched it 5%, if you need to eat that much more every meal to feel full, it will add up. So measure your foods for a few days and let your stomach shrink back to size.

1. Re-Think : If you paid a high price for your vacation splurges (on the scale, by feeling terrible, etc.), decide NOW–while the memory is fresh!–what you will do differently next time: Bring more snacks? Share meals with your family? Get a condo with a kitchen so you don’t need to eat out every night?

This will get you back on track nice and fast, and allows you to enjoy vacations without eroding your good at-home habits. Think of it as your healthy welcome-home party.

Have a good week!

Jill