It’s easy to fall behind on your workout routine when traveling. Whether it’s the hustle and bustle of getting to wherever you’re going or simply the excitement of being on vacation, fitting in a workout is probably at the bottom of your list of “must dos”. Here’s the thing, though. Just because you’re on the road doesn’t mean your health should suffer. In as little as two weeks you can lose any hard work you’ve put into getting fit. Muscle starts to break down, your lungs get used to not having to huff and puff during cardio, and your heart loses the benefits of cardio activity.
The key to staying active while traveling is to realize you might not be able to do as much activity as what you do at home or even the same activity, but movement of any sort is good.
One of the best types of exercise is walking (running is great too, if your joints can handle it). Although you might not have a treadmill to track your mileage or calories burned there are a couple of solutions to this. RunKeeper is a great app you can download to your smart phone. It uses GPS technology to track where you’re running, your elevation, and how long the run takes and log it into your personal profile. If you want a truly accurate measure of the calories you’re burning, you’d be wise to invest in a heart rate monitor. Polar is THE source for high quality, highly accurate heart rate monitors. They’re also super user friendly and allow you to easily input your information.
Another important thing to remember is that you cannot out exercise a crummy diet. This means that no matter how much you exercise, if you’re eating junk you will feel like junk and probably suffer from all the issues that come with eating bad food: weight gain, poor skin, thin, limp hair, and the list goes on.
To put it in perspective you have to do approximately 7,000 jumping jacks to burn 1 pound of fat.
With this in mind just because you’re on vacation doesn’t mean you have to go on an all out binge. Sure cake is delicious and a big, juicy steak is something that should be enjoyed on occasion. But don’t make eating like this a habit. Trying eating healthy most of the week and giving yourself a couple of meals a week where you eat what you want. This doesn’t mean you eat 4,000 calories in one meal, but feel free to have a piece of cake or enjoy a couple of slices of pizza.
By following these simple tips you’ll be well on your way to staying fit and healthy, so you can continue to enjoy vacationing in good health for years and years to come.
What tips do you have for staying fit while traveling? Share with us on Facebook or Google+.
Photo Credit: By Spc. Crystal Abbott /10th PCH (United States Army) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
