Strategies when on vacation with kids

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92019start
92019start Posts: 80 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Please share your tips and tricks for enjoying your holiday vacation while with your family and small children. Do you eat the same foods you eat at home, have some indulgences, or just try to keep the focus on fun and not the food? What is most challenging for you, and how do you overcome that?

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  • 92019start
    92019start Posts: 80 Member
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    Okay, I’m going to answer my own post. Sometimes it helps me to think through answering my own questions:

    1. Plan your treats in advance. It is okay to have that pizza or hot cocoa or whatever, but don’t negotiate those treats in the moment. Know at the start of the day what you’re saving your calories up for so you’ll be less tempted the rest of the day.
    2. Emulate your kids in one respect: be a picky eater and leave food behind. Kids almost never eat everything on their plates. At some point they just stop, even if there is still half a plate left. And that’s okay.
    3. Don’t feel obligated to eat your kids’ leftovers. If it’s worth saving, have it wrapped to go. Otherwise, don’t make yourself a human garbage disposal.
  • 92019start
    92019start Posts: 80 Member
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    4. Stick you your usual routine as much as possible. If you’re in the habit of eating in a certain window or working out first thing in the morning, try to keep with that.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Part of a good vacation for me is eating the local fare...so food is part of the fun. I don't go crazy or anything, but I personally don't worry about a handful of days of vacation...they're pretty irrelevant to the bigger picture. Besides that, I'm usually way more active on vacation than I am at home where I spend 8-10 hours a day sitting behind a desk.

    I work hard and vacations are expensive...I'm going to enjoy every bit of it. It's not like I'm going to pile a bunch of weight on over the course of a week or so.
  • WickedPineapple
    WickedPineapple Posts: 701 Member
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    92019start wrote: »
    3. Don’t feel obligated to eat your kids’ leftovers. If it’s worth saving, have it wrapped to go. Otherwise, don’t make yourself a human garbage disposal.

    Or eat your kids' leftovers, but only their leftovers. My dad did this on most of our vacations. He wouldn't order anything, he'd just eat whatever was left.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    Don't eat high calorie foods unless you're specifically craving them. Say, unless you really want a burger, go for chicken and veggies instead.

    That being said, it's difficult when chicken and veggies is $14 vs $8 for a burger (or they don't even have veggies anyway). My biggest challenges was 1) staying active when your kids whine and cry if you walk longer than 3 minutes, 2) finding restaurants that actually had lower calorie options without driving everyone nuts (me included) , 3) getting sick of side salads on day 2, 4) hotels that only had high calories/not filling breakfast options.
  • Whey115
    Whey115 Posts: 73 Member
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    I just returned from vacation. I still practised IF so I had my first meal at 11am ( I always had either hard boiled eggs or banana handy ). We typically ate one large meal in the afternoon which I enjoyed whether it was seafood, Indian buffet, mexican or pizza. Most times i didn't care for dinner as I was still full.

    The kids ate their regular meals. I didn't gain any weight though I was not actively tracking cals, I do tend to do a lot of walking on vacay.
  • mjwarbeck
    mjwarbeck Posts: 699 Member
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    We have always tended to travel to cities and locales that allow us to eat local cuisine...really food is never an issue...plus we get a lot of walking. Now, trips had been to Europe, China, Bali, Australia, Bahamas, so it was easy to find healthy food. Hawaii wasn't an issue either. Orlando was probably the hardest...but we made sure that we stocked up at a grocery store for lunches and snacks...
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Go to the grocery store and buy some healthy snacks that you usually like to carry you through an irregular schedule. Keep water bottles full!

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