5 Ways To Stay Keto or Low Carb Strong While On Vacation
So I wanted to write a quick post. Here are 5 Ways to Stay Keto or Low Carb Strong While On Vacation.
I recently left for a 8 day vacation from Seattle to Georgia and ending with a two day stay at the LegoLand resort in Winter Haven Florida. I’m on the forth day of my trip and so far I haven’t strayed from my Keto eating plan. I’ve stayed within my daily limits of carbs, fat and protein. This is what I’ve learned so far:
Plan Ahead for Your Trip
I think that this is a critical step for success while traveling. I knew when I was leaving so for several weeks prior I mentally started preparing for my trip. This preparation included thinking about how I would handle eating on my flight, what I would do in the airports, and how I would handle eating around family and other loved ones. Which for some of us might actually be the hardest thing while traveling.
I’m traveling with my 8 year old who is not doing keto, although she has by choice giving up bread when eating hamburgers. So Ive learned pretty easily to tell her that “no papa doesn’t eat this or that.” But that is a much harder conversation to have with your family who doesn’t understand the keto or low carb lifestyle.
I knew that I would have a 5 hour flight, so I planned ahead an bought myself several keto friendly snacks:
Here are a couple of suggestions:
- Pork Rinds
- Almonds
- Cheese Sticks
- Pepperoni
- Cooked Bacon
Keep Things In Perspective As You Travel
So now your on vacation and we have a tendency in our society to use food as part of our celebration. I mean before I started seriously trying to lose weight. Food was an important part of my life, of course I neeeded it to sustain my body. But socially and emotionally we use food as a way to handle stress, or as part of celebrating, we eat food when depressed, we often eat to relax. So the tendency when vacationing is to let your hair down, and have fun. Which often means we indulge ourselves with special desserts, drinks, or we just simply overeat, because “hell I’m on vacation and I deserve this!” I get it, and totally understand that thought process, I’ve been there and done that myself. But as you travel and enjoy your vacation I would suggest that you try and keep things in proper perspective. I have lost close to 60 pounds doing Keto, and because I’ve decided to adopt keto as a lifestyle I’ve also made conscious decisions to give up certain things for long term success. My vacation is 8 days, so I can either decide to go crazy with my eating for those 8 days, or I can continue the keto lifestyle even as I travel.
Making this type of decision while in vacation mode can be difficult for some of us, but I’m here to tell you that “you can do it!” Remember you have bust your ass doing keto, or low carb. You’ve made good choices for months now, even for years, why blow it just for a piece of cake, or because your on vacation. I get the whole vacation thing, and the idea that you deserve it, but what you really deserve is to be true to your higher self, to be true to the person you’ve become since you began seeing success with your diet. Don’t blow it! Just for the sake of your vacation. Your vacation will come and go but the decisions you make while on vacation about your eating you might carry around for months, the momentum you’ve gained in your weight loss journey is to valuable to give up so remember “Keep Things in Perspective As Your Travel.”
Dealing With Family and Friends When Traveling
So if your vacation includes visiting relatives or old friends you really need to be prepared for how to handle this. Your family and friends might not understand the lifestyle choices you’ve made. They may praise your weight loss success but don’t understand how you can be eating bacon, eggs, butter, and vegetables and still be losing weight. Well you know what its not there job to understand nor is it your job to try and convince others that the decisions you’ve made are right for you. My vacation this year includes visiting my parents who live in Georgia, I love my parents dearly but my parents don’t run my life even when I visit them. My Mom before I arrived declared that she doesn’t cook a whole lot anymore and I was totally fine with that. All that meant for me was that I needed to stop by the local walmart and pick up some keto friendly foods that I could enjoy while staying with them. However, my Mom who will do what Moms do has really been wanting to cook since my arrival, and that’s understandable because thats what Moms do. I have been very clear with my parents about how I eat, and basically told my Mom to cook anything she wanted but not to expect me to eat everything she prepares, that sound radical to many of you but again I’m trying to think about this long term. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but sometimes you need to make a fucking decision and stick with it, no matter what. My daughter and I have actually eating out several times at the local Golden Corral, which Ive found that personally for me in my situation this has worked really well, because I can control what I eat and make good choices. Today I took my parents out to several local thrift stores, because unfortunately because of there age and health they don’t get out and about as much as they like, so when I’m here I will pretty much take them any where. We stopped at Burger King today, and my Mom paid the bill, but I still stayed Keto, and ordered a Whopper with Bacon, with no Ketchup, no bun and mayo on the side, everyone else in the car had regular burgers and buns, and you know what it wasnt a big deal. Remember that! Eating Keto or Low Carb doesn’t have to be a big deal, you do what is best for you. Eat the way you want too and let others adjust to you!
Eat on Purpose
So the last leg of my vacation will include a two night stay at the Legoland resort in Florida, my daughter is super excited and so am I. I have been thinking about how I’m going to handle eating while at this resort. You know what, for me nothing will change it is just “food!” And since Ive started this weight loss journey the importance I place on “food” has radically changed. I really hope that for breakfast that I can get a good omelette made, and I can pair that with some avocados. Lunch and dinner should be easy because I just need meat, butter and a vegetable. But what to do about all of those decadent looking desserts? Well I will handle it somehow, at Golden Corral I discovered that they made sugar free jello, and sugar free cookies. I was so excited about the sugar free cookies, but before I ate any of them I checked out the nutritional information on My Fitness Pal, some of you just said “this guy is a nut job” You damn right I am! I’ve worked too hard and sacrificed too much to let a vacation throw off all of my progress and you should have that attitude as well (sorry for the rant!) When I looked up the sugar free cookie I saw that it was 70 calories, and still had 20 carbs and 1 Fiber, so I had a decision to make (remember when you eat out that just because its says “sugar free” it doesn’t mean they didnt use other items that still are high in carbs like flour). So with that information I decided to have a half of cookie, that satisfied my desire for that sweet treat and I was able to move on. I really recommend using the MyFitnessPal app, it has been a valuable tool for me even before I started doing Keto.
I’m sure that when I get to Legoland that I will be faced with decisions to make, and who knows I may even decide to eat something that I know I shouldn’t eat. But did you get what I just said, I said that I may “decide to eat something.” I wont accidentally let a piece of pie or cake slip into my mouth. If I eat anything that is off Keto it will because I made that decision.
If You Fall off the Wagon – Get Your Ass Back Up!
So Ive talked a lot of shit in this blog post about being strong, staying strong and being true to your keto or low carb lifestyle, but what happens if you fall, or stumble? Absolutely nothing will happen! The Keto or Low Carb police wont arrest you, you wont get kicked off of the Low Carb Board on Facebook. If you fall off of the wagon pick yourself up and get back on the wagon. You’ve become a different person as you’ve travelled along this journey to lose weight, in fact its not really about losing the weight, its really about you becoming the best “you” that you can. So just because you fall or fail, it doesn’t mean that all of the hard work you put in was for nothing. Remember if you do slip that this is just one moment in time, and it doesn’t define who you are, and you also don’t have to beat yourself up if you slip. Get over that shit and move on, it ain’t the end of the world. I use to have this attitude when I would fail on my diet that somehow it made me a “failure,” or “I’d say see you cant stick with anything!” But I finally realized at some point that all of those thoughts are just noise in your head, bullshit that has held you and me back for years. If you’ve lost any weight while doing keto or low carb and fail, you have proven to yourself that you can be a success, you’ve proving that you can set goals and stick with them, you’ve proven that you are a really “bad ass!” Don’t let one slip up derail you, you are a awesome person who has taken control of there life by your decision to lose weight. Don’t sell yourself short, you truly are special, you really can have success on this weight lose journey.
If you fall off the wagon, get your ass back up.
Remember you “got this!” You can succeed with losing weight, you can succeed with anything you set your mind too. Hopefully Minus100pounds.com can help you along the way. If If this post has helped you, please let me know and please feel free to share this on Facebook or in other social media outlets..
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