This is a guest post from my bloggy friend and fitness inspiration Anna Dornier. She is a certified Russian kettlebell instructor (RKC) and National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) certified personal trainer based in East Bay, Northern California. She decided to switch her career into personal training after successfully losing 25 pounds. Today, she shares her most effective fat loss strategies and connects with people from different parts of the world at her blog www.pathtofatloss.com. Since her career change, Anna has helped many people, virtually and locally, realize their weight loss goals through her sound health and fitness expertise.
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The summer is over (at least here in the U.S.) but a lot of my clients are gearing up for winter by striving to look great for all those vacation pictures that they are going to take when they go to warmer climates during this time of the year. Walking for weight loss is always my answer to them when they ask me how they can maintain their picture perfect look during vacation. Another mantra that I say to them before they leave is this: “Enjoy your vacation but don’t throw everything out the window once you reach your amazing destination.”
Why Walk?
- Reduces inflammation – while walking may not burn as many calories as much as high intensity intervals, it does have its benefits. Scientific studies have shown that walking can reduce inflammation in your body. So, if you’ve been working out hard to get into that vacation body level, you’d probably benefit from walking to reduce any soreness and underlying inflammation that you may have from your past workouts.
- Break the weight loss plateau – This can also be a good time to take a rest from your workouts so that your body can recover from the stress that you have put it through. I’ve found that I can break a weight loss plateau if I just back off from my workouts for a week which is a nice surprise for not doing anything at all. But, don’t make the mistake of taking a break too early, most people can see this benefit once they’ve been working out consistently for a good 12 weeks.
- Calorie Deficit – isn’t weight loss all about the calorie deficit anyway? So, if you end up eating for maintenance (because you didn’t go crazy) for each day that you’re on vacation, you can still create a calorie deficit if you walked a lot or was more active during your vacation.
- Fasted morning walks – take advantage of the breath taking sunrise by walking straight to the beach or taking the stairs to the roof top (if you’re staying in a hotel) without eating breakfast first. I’ve personally made it a habit to perform a lot of my more rigorous activities with an empty stomach. For instance, I would workout while fasting or take my dog on a long walk in the morning before I have my very first bite of food for the day. If you’re not a big fan of intermittent fasting for weight loss such as Eat Stop Eat, you can still harness some of the benefits of fasting if you follow these guidelines.
The ideal situation when you’re going on vacation is to already be at where you want to be in terms of how you look. But, don’t fret about it too much if you still aren’t and just focus on damage control during vacation. The worst thing that you can do is to undo all your hardwork during your vacation preparation time just because you feel that you “deserve” the reward. If you are to reward yourself, do it in non-food ways such as getting a massage, soak in a hot tub, get lazy by the pool, or just have the time of your life without thinking about food.
Here are some ways besides walking that you can do to stay on track with your health and fitness goals during vacation:
- Keep your goals handy and read them every morning.
- Opt for higher volume, nutrient-dense, and low calorie foods such as fruits, vegetables, and lean meats instead of processed, high-calorie, artery-clogging, nutrient-lacking foods – yeah, you know what these are.
- Look for fun activities such as swimming, beach volleyball, sight seeing, etc. to stay active.
- If you must workout, bring resistance bands or learn some new bodyweight exercises that you can do at your hotel room before you sport your bikini. If you have room in your luggage, kettlebell workouts are the best choice.
We all know that vacation time is the time when our nutrition goes awry but if you come with a mindset of simply not overdoing it at the buffet table, you will come out a winner. Finally, the message that I want to leave with you is this, have fun! If you do end up overdoing it, just remember that there will be consequences, let it go, and deal with it when you get back to reality.
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{ 16 comments }
That’s really amazing! I didn’t realize walking did all that-I love to exercise and walking is definitely my favorite =] Although, I wish more then anything that I could be going on vacation to a warmer climate! Lol
Kayla´s last blog ..Small Talk Six(10/10)-Let’s Par*Tay!
Great ideas. I’m going to try to put this into practice when I’m up in NY and Florida – for three weeks.
Great post, Anna! Thank you, Grace, for inviting her! I’d never heard before about walking reducing inflammation! I have some fairly significant chronic inflammation due to some medical issues and I’m wondering if increasing my walking would help! My doctor has never mentioned that, but I’m certainly going to ask her. I do know that I feel better with lots of walking and maybe this is why! Great ideas for keeping on track while on vacation, too!
Cindy B. in Montana…now in Oklahoma´s last blog ..Tim Hawkins Theatre
Since I am limited in my ability to exercise, walking is the one way that I am able to keep my weight managable. With walking and portion control, I was able to lose 40 pounds, and keep it off for over a year. I did put 20 pounds back on after my spinal surgery, and was sedentary for 3 months. But I am back on track to lose it again… I am up to walking 1/4 mile daily again.
Thanks for taking the time to post on Grace’s blog while she is visiting her family in Japan.
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This site is helped me a lot. It has given great idea of reducing weight. Something new and interesting. I will definitely try on this.
Walking is one of the greatest way to burn calories. It is extreamly low impact, yet still quite effective. I have found that people who find it hard to exercise regularly have no problem adding a little walking into their daily activities.
Your right a vacation is not an excuse to stop exercising.
If you vacationing in a a place that your not familiar with Google maps has a app that will help you may out your walking course. It will give you mileage, est time and a street level view. Very handy
Tom´s last blog ..Winter Walking Equipment, Clothing and Gear
I love to go walking and clear my head. I think being walking around outside is just so enjoyable and relaxing. Walking is my favorite exercise to do. Thanks for the article about walking.
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The problem comes when you are very fit then stop, I trained several hours a day and ate a cow for lunch and was very fit, you stop training you still eat half a cow but you don’t burn it off, but I have learnt my lesson I am on the road to getting the weight down now.
I was walking I just found it took up too much time, so now i walk up and down a set of quite long steps oustside my house, this is a good alternative foe what i think are the same results as walking
If you are staying somewhere sunny a good idea is to get up early before the crowd and go swimming. It really gets you set for the day and because it,s non resistant exercise you dont suffer so much from all the joint aches and pains you would normally get from the gym or running. Also helps with working on the tan
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Great article thanks for posting for us all to voice our opinions. I love the informative and educating article.
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Aw, this was a really quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and never seem to get something done.
i easily Loss Weight by just avoiding a high carb and foods high in saturated fats. exercise is also very important in losing weight that is why i did cardio
These are some really good ideas i know that one way to fall of the wagon on vaction is the food but i like the idea of treating your self to a message instead of a food ideam i will give this a try
I think this blog post is the best source of information for weight loss .Actually; I was looking for some tips on diet and weight loss and finally landed here and gained immense knowledge about how to loose weight in specified short period of time. Hey Anna Thanks for keeping me informed about good ideas for weight loss.
I also love walking and will keep this in mind every time!
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