Viva Las Vegas!

For many of you, going on vacation during weightloss mode is filled with fear, anxiety, and worry that you will never get back on track when you get back home. Just so you know, being in maintenance is filled with similar thoughts. You still worry about gaining weight and being able to jump back into your healthy lifestyle once you get home. This is how I stay successful when travelling.

1. Schedule my workouts at the gym for when I get home. I plan the first week of exactly what I will be doing when I get home, what day, what time, what exercises, what friends/trainer I will do it with, etc.

2. Make my grocery list for when I get home. The grocery store is one of the VERY FIRST things I do upon return. I also prep my food THAT DAY and I keep it SIMPLE for the first week back. Fill it with your easiest and favorite "diet" foods.

3. Workout while gone. People...workouts don't have to be fancy. I'm taking a Resistance Band, Jump Rope, and Turbo Jam DVD (short version) to play on my laptop. I probably won't even do the DVD and opt for just jumping rope, push-ups, pop squats, walking lunges, squats with overhead press using the band, etc. Do it circuit style like this:

• Grab a piece of paper and write out the exercises you want to do.
• Do them back-to-back through the whole circuit.
• Take a 2 min. break of walking around the hallway of your hotel, the room, or wherever you are.
• Repeat 2-4 times for a killer workout. Do the circuit every other day and in between go for a run or a walk. 
• Use the gym at your hotel if you want but don't use lack of gym as an excuse.

Here's a circuit you can easily do:

30 revolutions of jumping rope, 20 seconds of marching in place, repeat for 3 minutes (imaginary jump rope is fine)

1 min. of Push Ups with Plank (do 3-5 push-ups and then hold plank for 15 seconds, repeat until one minute is up)

1 min. Dips on a Chair

1 min. of Jumping Rope or jumping in place (imaginary jump rope)

1 min. of Stationary Squats (go to your ankles if you can...if you can't just squat as low as you can) or Walking Squats

1 min. of Resistance Bands Bicep Curls

1 min. of Alternating Lunges, Swing Thru Lunges, or Walking Lunges

1 min. of Resistance Bands Overhead Press

20 sec. of Mountain Climbers, drop and do 20 crunches, 20 sec. of Mountain Climbers drop and do 20 crunches, 20 sec. of Mountain Climbers, drop and do 20 crunches

Repeat this circuit as many times as needed and then end with 3 min. of the jumping rope intervals.

4. Bring food with you on vacation. Every meal doesn't have to be exotic! I'm packing Splenda, dry packets of plain oatmeal (just add water), protein bars, cans of tuna, rice cakes, protein powder, Crystal Light, Fiber One, apples, etc. If I wasn't flying and had access to a fridge and microwave I would bring a cooler filled with meals already made. For this trip, I mapped out every meal and snack for each day and picked all the ones I wanted to enjoy and the ones I didn't care what I ate. For the lesser meals I'll just eat my regular foods.

I hope this helps you with your next trip. With Spring Break coming, many of you will be travelling...just know it can be fun, controlled, and you can stay in shape while there!