My Fat Loss Strategies

Do You Worry About Fat Loss During a Vacation?

Posted on 11. May, 2009 by admin in My Fitness Updates

The weather is getting nicer and a lof of people are either planning their vacation or have already gone on vacation. While vacation is supposed to be a fun time, a lot of people struggle with the idea of whether to continue their fat loss efforts during vacation time or not. I was in this same position myself as I just came back from visiting my in-laws in Louisiana.

If you don’t already know, Louisiana is home to a rich culinary, historic culture where you can find French, Creole, Cajun, and many other flavorful dishes which is an experience in itself. So, the decision to “let loose” for a little bit was a no-brainer for me. To me, this was one of those situations where I didn’t want to hold back because the chance to experience some of the best foods on earth may not happen again for a long time. At the same time, I knew that I could easily lose the weight that I gained from indulging in all the flavorful foods because I have my fat loss strategies under my belt and have access to them whenever I need them the most (which I will discuss later).

First, I’d like to share some pictures from the trip with you then we’ll delve into my fat loss strategies.

Fried Alligator

Crawfish Etouffee with Cat Fish

Oysters on the Half Shell

Pork Boudin and Hubig's Pie

Shrimp and Grits from Emeril Lagasse's NOLA Restaurant

Duck and Egg Pizza with Truffle Oil also from NOLA

The Best Oyster Poboy and Seafood Gumbo from K'Paul's Louisiana Kitchen

Cafe Du Monde - Home to the Best Beignets

The Famous Beignets (French Donut) from Cafe Du Monde

Of course, you might as well not go to Louisiana if you don’t party on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

My Husband and I - Not Drunk Yet..haha

The Hurricane from Pat O'Brien's

They really are huge!

Do you see what I mean now?

The Hand Grenade - Claims to be the strongest drink on Bourbon Street

There are lots of Daiquiri Shops in Louisiana, here is one of them.

Daiquiri Shops

I was awed by the historic architecture that lined the streets of New Orleans.

St. Louis Cathedral

French Style Building on Decatur Street

If you want to explore the city from the water, you’d have to ride in one of these.

Steam Boat Natchez

Overall, I gained 5 lbs in one week which is not bad when you look at all the foods that I ate…lol. Do I regret it? Not one bit. Do I think I could’ve done better in terms of choosing healthier foods and working out? Heck yes. I don’t deny the fact that I could’ve made better choices while I was on vacation but the point of the vacation for me was to enjoy myself and not stress out too much about what’s is healthy and what isn’t. Having said that, I had to formulate a plan to lose the extra weight that I gained.

Here is my plan:

• My first strategy is to fast the Eat Stop Eat way twice a week. I must say that after I fasted once last week, I already lost 2 lbs!
• Go back to my Kettlebell Training which blasts the fat and can make you really sore in as little as 20 minutes a day.
• Perform High Intensity Interval Training in the afternoon. I will do these while fasting as well or during the weekend as soon as I wake up without eating any breakfast beforehand. If you want more background on fasted cardio, read this post from Rusty Moore.
• Only eat starchy carbohydrates 2 hours after I workout.

These are some of my most effective fat loss strategies that has proven to work for me and work wonders to blast the fat especially in my problem area – the lower belly. Some of these measures may be a bit extreme for some people so this is not something that I would do on a regular basis. In the end, you have to decide whether the experience is worth it. Having said that, I do not always eat like this during my vacations but this trip was a BIG exception. To give you an example, I worked out in our hotel room and did not gain any weight (not even a pound) during our honeymoon in Mexico last year. I have got to say that I totally missed working out and eating healthy towards the end of our trip and in some ways, the foods were a bit too rich for me because I was so used to the wholesome goodness of fruits, vegetables and lean proteins. This is the point when I realized that staying active and eating healthy were already a lifestyle for me because I didn’t struggle with going back to my usual routine as soon as I got back to California.

In the end, the decision is yours. Find the right balance when adapting health and fitness into your lifestyle. The key here is lifestyle. If eating healthy and exercising regularly is something that you’re still struggling with then, you’ll have to do it more often so that you won’t have any trouble easing back into it after a vacation.

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Tags: fat loss during vacation, how to lose weight after a vacation