Tips how to enjoy food on holidays and avoid post-holiday weight gain.
Holidays are there so that you can change your environment, stop planning every minute detail of your daily routine, rest, recharge and ultimately enjoy the foods and drinks that your holiday destination can offer. For many people this latter thought is accompanied with some apprehension: how do I enjoy my food without feeling guilty after vacation eating? How do I prevent weight gain on vacation?
Holidays are there so that you can change your environment, stop planning every minute detail of your daily routine, rest, recharge and ultimately enjoy the foods and drinks that your holiday destination can offer. For many people this latter thought is accompanied with some apprehension: how do I enjoy my food without feeling guilty after vacation eating? How do I prevent weight gain on vacation?
Here are some tips that have worked well for me and my clients over the years.
Healthy eating holiday tips:
1. Eat three meals most days. Don’t skip meals, don’t cut out food groups, and perhaps pause your fasting regime for a while you are on holidays. Reason: Your physiological body has energy requirement needs — every day your body needs to sustain what I call ‘your frame’, i.e. you current height and weight. In order to run all the functions in your body, it requires from you a supply of macro nutrients: carbohydrates, protein and fats. When you skip a meal or decide that a coffee for breakfast will do you just fine, your body has to work extra hard to provide the energy required for the day, this will catch you later in the day, when you will get a craving for an afternoon offering of pancakes, or a local pastry, or opt for a dessert after dinner. This could explain why you gain weight on every holiday.
Our glucose sensitivity and glucose absorption rate are lower in the evening than in the first part of the day. Insulin sensitivity is also on a circadian rhythm and is said to be impaired by 34% in the evening relative to the morning irrespective of the periods you give yourself without food. Realistically speaking, having eaten a dessert at dinner, not many of us will engage in some vigorous physical activity or sports afterwards, thus these foods eaten in the later part of the day are going to be stored as fat.
Our glucose sensitivity and glucose absorption rate are lower in the evening than in the first part of the day. Insulin sensitivity is also on a circadian rhythm and is said to be impaired by 34% in the evening relative to the morning irrespective of the periods you give yourself without food. Realistically speaking, having eaten a dessert at dinner, not many of us will engage in some vigorous physical activity or sports afterwards, thus these foods eaten in the later part of the day are going to be stored as fat.
2. When choosing a meal always start with a protein of your choice - what do you feel like eating - fish, chicken, lamb, seafood? See what choices there are on the menu that correspond to your palate’s wishes at the time. Always ask the waiter if there is a side dish with your protein choice. If there is no vegetable course, suggest to your partner to share a couple of vegetable dishes. I suggest you choosing two.
Reason: Vegetables balance our blood sugar, they prevent it from spiking. Most non-starchy vegetables are only partially digested in our gut, some are excreted from the body undigested; this process is rather slow due to the high content of fibre. Viscous fibre has been demonstrated to diminish post-prandial blood glucose and insulin response.
3. Always, always (!) ask for the sauce and the salad dressing to be on the side. I learned this more than twenty years ago while working with some of the best in the industry fitness instructors who always did this that while eating out. I borrowed their tip long before I learned what was so unhealthy about sauces and dressings.
Reason: Sauces and salad dressings contain sugar, sometimes several sugars, in most cases they are also based on vegetable oils, both are found to cause cellular inflammation which promotes weight gain.
Reason: Sauces and salad dressings contain sugar, sometimes several sugars, in most cases they are also based on vegetable oils, both are found to cause cellular inflammation which promotes weight gain.
4. Fries or no fries option? So many dishes have fries as a standard accompaniment. Don’t be afraid to ask the waiter to change, if you are keen on potatoes ask for roasted or boiled new potatoes. If fries is the only option, ask what alternative side dishes they have - sweet potato wedges would be my preferred choices due to their high fibre which is a good prebiotic.
You like to try local pastries and desserts while on holidays? So do I. And I don’t want you to feel guilty about it.
How to avoid guilt after vacation eating
Here’s the main thing. Sugar is inflammatory. Sugar is also addictive. Keeping that at the back of our mind we can still have treats that are especially appealing to us, but with balance. Have that mouth-watering clouds of cream paired with fruit and meringue, enjoy it and then forget about sugar for the next couple of days. And I mean all sugar.
Among my healthy vacation habits, there is one more tip that has worked wonders for many of my clients while eating out on vacation. On our first evening out in a new place, we tend to know little about the local cuisine, so we ask the waiter to recommend something from the best dishes their place has got to offer. Often times, the foods don’t agree with us, and our tummy has a reaction to it. There are many reasons for that: our gut bacteria composition change within 24 - 48 hours when we travel; airplanes are hosts to numerous pathogenic bacteria, including rotaviruses, we might be quite dehydrated on arrival at our destination, all of which affect gut bacteria balance. Hence, I suggest you wait several days before diving into the delicacies of the local cuisine. Additionally, you might want to ponder on this: how would a person (the waiter) who has never met you before know of your food preferences and gut sensitivity, if any?
I hope these help.
Here is a selection of dishes I ate on my recent holidays, following the above healthy eating principles, I came back one kilo lighter.
Here is a selection of dishes I ate on my recent holidays, following the above healthy eating principles, I came back one kilo lighter.
Steak night
These sides were scrumptious
Cabbage leaves filled with some local cheese
I love a fruit-based dessert
I would love to hear from you if you have your own tips for holiday eating. Please share in the comments below.
Stay healthy, be joyful!
Love,
Katya
Stay healthy, be joyful!
Love,
Katya