Vacation strategies

I'm currently on vacation for a week. We're renting a house and restaurants are closed (except takeaway) so I'm pretty much doing the same things as at home.

But last time I was 'truly' on holiday:
- I had a good breakfast each day (but not excessive)
- a light lunch or just a snack, or simply nothing
- a restaurant meal, often 2 or 3 courses, or a homecooked meal if we were renting a house and felt like cooking ourselves
All logged as well as I could: I have a portable/foldable scale, which I'd use for non restaurant meals, or even at restaurants if I thought it wouldn't be noticed; guestimates for the rest. And I tried to stay within maintenance calories, on average.
My holiday included a lot of walking (hiking or walking around in interesting towns and cities), so that gave me some leeway to enjoy the local foods. French food, hard to resist 😁

I've been known to skip breakfast for other high calorie occasions, but it really doesn't work well for me while on holiday: it's a lot easier to eat a good filling breakfast wherever we're staying and pack something light for 'on the road' or during our hike if we get a bit hungry. I don't get really hungry during hikes anyway.

My weigh-ins were peculiar last time, since I lost weight on holiday, and then gained it back in the following weeks. Some strange water retention phenomenon, I think, since it corrected itself after a few weeks.

I do wonder about my struggle to let go while on holiday: packing my scale to continue my weigh-ins, carrying a food scale with me everywhere and still logging my foods. I'm still in weight loss mode now, but I'll need to think about some strategies to cope with holidays when I'm in maintenance. Holiday weight gain was the very start of my weight gain journey to obesity, so I don't want to get myself in trouble again that way.

Those are all good strategies. I aim to eat at maintenance and log as best I can although it can be difficult when eating at restaurants.

I also tend to be active on vacation and burn more. I avoid alcohol.

Maybe not vacation (yet) - but sometimes I work all week in places where all meals are provided. Not only are the meals tasty restaurant fare, but needing to keep to a busy project schedule makes eating a somewhat 'now-or-never' event. For example, If I skip the provided breakfast to save calories, hours later, there might be something I don't much like provided for lunch... or I might be too busy to eat lunch at all. So I've learned to enjoy every meal and not worry much about the calories that week.

That does NOT mean a full-out binge. But rather what I euphemistically term 'generous maintenance.'
I continue to log calories every day, but don't weigh my foods. I also don't sweat precise calorie counts. For example, '4 Toll House Cookies' (500 cals) is pretty much my go-to listing for every dessert - even if that dessert is apple pie or cheesecake.

I make sure to get plenty of sleep and don't eat after 7pm. I avoid the scale for a full week after resuming calorie-deficit eating and regular exercise schedule. If after a week back on track and my weight stays the same or moves 2-3 pounds in either direction, I'm still a happy camper.

I usually eat indulgently on vacation. If it's a week or so a year, even a couple of times a year, it's really NBD. On my most extreme days, I tend to top out at 2-2.5 times my TDEE, and that's not a thing I'd do every day, day after day. It's improbable that I'd gain more than around 3 pounds, in a week; I know how to lose that if necessary . . . and out-of-pattern eating, IME, tends to result in less weight gain than the math would suggest. I do try to include some activity even during inherently sedentary vacations (like crafts workshops), because I start to feel like cr*p when too inactive for too long.

Many of my longer vacations have been rowing camps, which tend to have Really Good food, and plenty of it. I eat freely, and quite a lot, but with maybe 5 hours of rowing and often some other activities (walking decent distances to/from stuff, yoga sessions, machine or rowing tank coaching, maybe strength training, etc.), that's always worked out pretty close to maintaining.

I'm maintaining and not losing. Thus I just try to eat at maintenance. Chose reasonable portions for dinner (I never go to buffet places anyway), eat pretty much what I want, hope to find some amazing local things to eat. And expect to have gained maybe 1kg over 2-3 weeks. No issue. Flight water weight tends to stick for up to 7 days for me. Thus I know what to expect when I come back, and that things will be all right. If I was losing I would probably try to eat at maintenance.

No actual vacations booked yet as I can't expect a vaccination until summer or so. Meh! Rubbish operation here! But I am currently looking at trips to two small local islands: take train out, boat, 1 day hike over the smaller one, sleep there, probably take the morning boat to the other, cycle there, stay the night and do some more walking the next day, take boat and train home. And see if I can get fresh fish or something like that.