How Jenn Stays Healthy on Vacation
If there's a hike around, we'll usually find it on vacation.
We’re going on vacay for this edition of Question of the Week! Okay, so we’re not technically “going” anywhere, but we are discussing how we stay healthy—or purposely and delightfully choose not to— when on vacation!
People say that it’s hard to be healthy on vacation. And I can see their point. You take some time off, kick back, have some cocktails and eat the foods that are calling your name. But as I started thinking back on the vacations I’ve taken in the last five or so years, it dawned on me: I don’t think I’m like most people. (I know I’m weird about a lot of things, but I hadn’t realized that vacation was one of them.)
Without me purposely doing it, I seem to go on super-active vacations most of the time. My husband and I hike and backpack in Colorado just about every darn year for a week (check out our adventures last year here—and know that we’re going in late July this year!), and that makes up the bulk of our yearly vacation time. We might travel a weekend here or there to see friends, but those trips are usually pretty quick (although we do drink copious amounts of beer and eat fried foods)—or it’s a music festival where it’s so hot yet awesome that all you want to do is dance and drink coconut water.
Tish and I running the Disney Marathon in 2010.
The rest of my trips are generally FBG-related, so they obviously involve fitness and workouts—and generally really good healthy foods (thinking about Bagel Thins, Jamba Juice, Reebok and Go Girl Run here). And there are those other trips that center around fitness BIG TIME. Like Tish and I’s trip to Orlando to run our first marathon, which was truly life-changing and a blast.
Heck, even on Ryan and I’s honeymoon to Sonoma, we took time out to hike—twice. And it wasn’t “to be active” or “burn calories” it was just because we wanted to go out and see that part of California on foot. And because it feels good to get outside and move in a new place. So, I guess what I’m saying is, that when it comes to being healthy on vacation, you just have to get out and live. For me, that’s taking the things I love—food and fitness—and doing them in new and exciting ways.
I don’t have off days from a healthy lifestyle. Sure, I miss workouts, eat processed foods and drink too much on occasion, but I never need a vacation from my healthy habits. I love my healthy decisions and the active life I have. So, of course, my vacations would mirror that. My best tip for being healthy on vacation? Do what truly brings your body, mind and soul joy. And, yes, have that extra cocktail.
What about you? Is being healthy a part of your vacations? Or do you leave your healthy habits at home? —Jenn