Just because you are taking off on a family vacation doesn’t mean that you need to leave all of your healthy routines behind. The fact is that you can continue healthy practices even while enjoying a marvelous vacation with your family.
Included on the list of health practices you can — and should — maintain while on a family vacation is eating right. There are 10 strategies that you can utilize to maintain healthy eating practices while on vacation with the family.
Don’t Splurge When Eating Out
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A common practice among people when eating out is to splurge. This is a reality even though dining out is far more commonplace today than it was even 20 years. A couple of decades ago, dining out was much more of a special deal than it is today. Indeed, many adults will have at least one meal away from home daily.
Even though you will want to check out some interesting restaurants while traveling, you do not have to throw care to the wind every time you enter a restaurant while on vacation. One very basic technique you can utilize when eating out on vacation is to regulate portion size.
In this day and age, restaurants oftentimes have become very generous with portion size. What you can do to avoid splurging is to eat part of the entrée in the restaurant and take the remainder back to the hotel with you. Odds are there will be a mini-fridge (or you can request one) in which you can stow the family’s leftovers for another meal.
Food is Fine, But Try Other New Things as Well
Many families, and other travelers, do make trying out restaurants in a town being visited a major part of the stay. Although checking out the local cuisine can and should be a part of the experience, make certain you train the focus on other activities as well.
For example, if you are like many busy families in the 21st century, you don’t make visiting the spa a regular occurrence. One activity that you can include as part of your family vacation rather than too much of a focus on eating is to schedule a spa experience. Of course, that decision must be based on the age-appropriateness of taking family members to a spa. Nonetheless, many spas — particularly those at resorts — have developed select spa services for people of different ages.
Walk, Walk, Walk
One way that you can keep your diet on a more even keel is to pay attention to what you do in addition to eating. Yes, you are likely to overeat. Yes, you are likely to eat calorie-rich food. But, you can offset this when on a family vacation by walking.
The fact is that you naturally may up increasing the distance you walk on a daily basis while on vacation simply because you will be site seeing. In addition, you can add walking into the schedule for the family as part of your overall travel wellness efforts.
A Treat a Day Keeps the Family Healthy
You’ve undoubtedly heard that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Playing off on that sentiment, when it comes to desserts, consider adopting the mantra for your family on holiday of a treat a day.
By this, it is meant that once a day each family member can enjoy a special dessert or sweet. This can range from a delectable breakfast item like chocolate pancakes to any type of dessert consumed at lunch or dinner. Limiting sweet intake to one meal a day is still going to pack on some extra calories. However, there will at least be some level of moderation in the consumption of treats while traveling.
The Five a Day Rule
Another strategy that you will want to consider employing for your family when on a vacation is utilizing the five a day rule. The five-day rule is an easy way to remember to get enough in the way of fruits and vegetables daily.
Make sure each family member eats five services of fruits and vegetables every day while traveling. This can include servings during meals. Moreover, snack time can feature something in the way of fruits or vegetables.
As an aside, consuming fresh fruits and vegetables is preferable, when possible. You can stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables from a market near your hotel when you arrive at your holiday destination. Not only is this a healthy course, but it is also affordable as well.
