Since returning from my travels, I have suffered from the whole body image saga. I loved every bit of my holiday and ate until my hearts content, believe me, the lure of those 4-course lunches and dinners was too good to resist. Yes, I overate but I was on holiday and I really wanted to let go and enjoy myself.
On my return, my clothes felt a little bit more snug and, to be honest, I didn’t feel too great about the way I looked in the mirror. I’m not sure how much weight I had gained, it probably wasn’t that much, but judging by my clothes I had definitely returned home with that holiday bloat.
After a period of healthy and balanced eating and getting back to my old routine my clothes seem to be hugging me in the right places rather than the wrong places. I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t been a saint, my halo is far from sparkly. I’ve eaten cake and chocolate since I’ve been back, but I consider this to be fine. I figured that I eat healthily most of the time anyway and I work out, so it will all balance out in the end.
Over the past few days, I have had a think about my period of over indulgence. Rather focusing on all the food that I ate and feeling guilty about it I decided to focus on the positive and consider what I had learnt about my eating habits and my perspectives on fitness whilst away. After all, every cloud has a silver lining…
1. Quality over quantity
Where fitness is concerned I now practice the quality over quantity approach. Whilst away, other that walking, snorkeling and a couple of short runs on the beach I abstained from doing any serious exercise. I know that I can get an equally good workout in 20 minutes as I can if I slog it out in the gym for 60 minutes. Also, I found that sometimes it’s just nice to move and stretch by taking gentle exercise rather than a hardcore cardio sweat fest in the gym.
2. White carbs make me bloat
I knew this already, but eating white pasta on holiday reconfirmed this and brought the message home that my body prefers whole grain foods.
3. I CAN live without nut butter
Recently there has been many spoons digging into nut butter jars at home. I consumed no nut butter whilst away and coped just fine. This was a feat that I never thought was possible…so big yay!
4. Eating dessert in the evening is out of habit and not because my body actually needs it
Mostly when I have dessert after my dinner I feel completely stuffed and uncomfortable afterwards. When we were away the sheer quantity of food that I ate meant that there was no room for a sweet treat.
5. My body needs carbohydrates
This is something that I have battled with immensely. With my low blood sugar which I haven’t really talked about much on the blog (upcoming post maybe?), my body hates it when I go without carbs for too long. I find that my body copes better with voluminous amounts of carbs from vegetables and legumes, but I try and get a good balance of whole grain carbs in my diet too. When it comes to whole grain carbs it’s all about getting the portion size correct with me, something that I’m still working on.
6. A successful meal for me is a larger quantity of protein to carbohydrates as my body feels more satisfied this way.
7. Whilst on holiday fruit and vegetables were more of a token or a decoration on the plate, rather than the large portions that I’m used to at home. I’m not going to lie, I did feel a bit apprehensive about this at first. However, in hindsight I’ve figured that my body can survive without the higher quantities of fruit and vegetables that it is used to.
8. I LOVE having a routine
By the end of my holiday even though I’d had the most amazing time I was ready to get back to my normal routine of one plate of food for dinner and not four. Additionally, I was also missing home cooked meals.
9. Seafood is definitely my thing– sometimes I think I prefer it to meat.
10. Taking breaks from certain foods does me the world of good
There have been frequent occurrences recently of what I like to call my chocolate marathons. I adore chocolate and would never give it up, but sometimes it can get a bit too much and I can’t stop myself from eating it. Some time away has enabled me to forget about it for a while.
I think a lot of the personal concepts related to our diets is down to mindset. Stepping away from our usual lifestyles and routine can open one’s eyes to a whole new world of eating habits, food groups and nutrition, perhaps even for the better.
What observations about your own eating habits have you brought back with you from a holiday? Did you use these observations to make changes to your lifestyle on your return home?
I completely agree with you on the pudding front – when I am away/eating out I tend to eat more for my main meal and don’t need anything afterwards whereas when I am at home I never really eat carbs in my evening meal so find I need a pudding to get some more calories in, which I do quite like but it can make me feel like I’m being a bit greedy sometimes!
It’s funny how are eating habits at home differ so much from when we are on holiday. I do love desserts but sometimes I am eating them just for the sake of it
Great observations Jemma. I think it is sometimes a good thing to go away and depart completely from our usual eating routines to reassess what works best. I definitely have scaled down the amount of salad I was serving us, I used to put soo much spinach on our plates and now I realise our bodies couldn’t process chowing through that much – nor did they need to!
It is a nice way to make changes to your lifestyle if you get the chance. Going on holiday has really helped me significantly .
I think it’s a good thing to break from routine every now and again. Interesting points.
It can help so much with making changes to your lifestyle.
I think they’re great observations! It really does help to step away from the comfort of our routine to reassess things. I learnt that I didn’t to have snacks in an evening, dinner was absolutely fine.
I’m the same way as you about white bread and carbs – I much prefer protein. I just prefer the taste of things like meat to things like bread or pasta and it always fills me up so much more.
I’m the same, protein fills me up and leaves me satisfied far more than anything else.
I think it’s a really good idea to focus on all the positives and write down what you have learnt about your eating experiences in this way- this is something I struggle with too especially as im travelling asia at the moment, it can be difficult to focus on whats right for your body when your away from the routine that home offers. But your post has really helped me to get back into a healthier frame if mind, thanks!
You’re welcome, glad you found this post helpful. Hope you are having a wonderful time away. I’ve just come back from that part of the world, amazing!