Food on a Holiday – It’s all about the Balance

“Indulging” more when you’re abroad?!

If you follow me on instagram, you’ll know that I’ve been away for 10 days in Brighton and London. Holidays are always a nice change of routine, but for some they can also cause anxiety, especially when it comes to food and (not) exercising.

A while back, the thought of not exercising for even just two consecutive days would cause anxiety for me – how could I “make up” for the exercise I “missed”?; being away for a period of time would leave me feeling guilty for being “lazy”. And then there’s the food – for a lot of us, going on holiday means going out to eat a lot more, thus not being able to cook your own food. Especially when you’re going away with family, chances are they’ll not pick out any fancy healthy restaurants you see on instagram all the time (because lets be real: these places do not exist everywhere). So what now: live off of salads? eat the “unhealthy” foods but feel guilty for it? If eating super healthily on holiday is easy for you to do and makes you feel happy, then by all means that’s great – but personally, I am now at a point where it’s okay for me to consume more oily/processed/sugary foods for the short time I’m away, because not being too strict with myself leaves me a lot happier and enables me to enjoy my holiday a lot more than constantly thinking about what’s the healthiest thing to eat next.

Go with what you genuinely want

On various social media platforms, I often see people meal prepping, counting macros/calories on their holiday and just lots of general advice on how to eat as healthily as possible while being away. This used to imply to me that it wouldn’t be okay to eat differently when going away and that in order to be “healthy”, you had to stick to your usual workout and diet routine all the time. Forward to now, I think that if I’ve learned one thing about healthy living in the past two years, it is that being “healthy” is so much more than eating clean and working out six times a week. You can eat all the salads you want, but if the thought of eating a pizza makes you feel nervous and uncomfortable, does this really indicate a healthy mindset? Though I in no way think I am “perfect” with the way I eat, I definitely believe that living healthily does not mean you can never eat a burger, fries, etc. anymore. You have most likely heard that phrase before, but it really, truly is all about balance. Going on holiday may not mean it’s a good idea to stuff yourself with junk 24/7, but it definitely won’t kill you to eat less “healthily” for a short period of time. Of course, living healthily is and should be a lifestyle (not a diet!) that you enjoy, but in my opinion, this should not exclude “treating” yourself but rather finding a balance between super healthy foods and the rest.

This holiday, while still making sure I ate fresh fruit and veg every day, I fully gave myself permission to eat exactly what I wanted to at the moment, to not stress out over where to eat and not force myself to order the healthiest meal on the menu – and it felt so good! I may have eaten more sugar and oil than I otherwise would in a few months, but it was also the least stressed I felt about food in a long time! Though not working out as such, I did do a fair amount of walking every day – which is still exercise, just not as intense. It also showed me, that there’s no need to fear gaining tons of weight, especially in less than two weeks – I did not gain weight at all, even with eating more “unhealthy” food, not doing intense cardio and simply listening to my body.

Now that I’m back home, I genuinely do crave more healthy foods, so that’s exactly what I’m going for right now. I know everyone has a different approach to living healthily – whether that is taking “cheat” days, eating 80/20 (80% healthy, 20% “unhealthy”), allowing themselves more on a holiday or even eating healthily for 95% of the time. There is no “right” or “wrong” approach to it – you have to figure out what you personally want (not what you think you should do!) and what you feel works best for you. Eat your greens, drink your water, move your body, but leave some space to do and eat what you crave – you can do it.

How do you handle eating when you’re away? Feel free to let me know in the comments 🙂

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There will be another post following this one in which I’ll share some of the delish foods I ate in England, so stay tuned for that 😉

Linda xx