By Anthony Dyson
Have you ever been stuck wondering how you should keep up your regular fitness pursuits while on holiday?
Or if you have managed to make yourself plans, how often do you return home berating yourself for failing to stick to the goals you set out before leaving?
I’ll put my hand up for both.
I’ve recently been on a family holiday and decided that after failing my last few holiday fitness goals I would try something new.
I’ll start with an example that I’m sure a lot of you would be familiar with:
You have locked down your fitness and nutrition over the last few months and now you have a holiday or extended break coming up. You decide that you’re not going to let this get in the way of your program so you pack the car with every bit of fitness gear you can fit and have a day by day meal plan written out, scales packed and all of you’re regular supplements.
You program yourself extensive workouts rivalling the ones you do weekly in the garage gym or at the box. You have been motivated every day over the last few months and nothing is going to change while you’re away. YOU ARE GOING TO CRUSH THIS HOLIDAY!!
Then
BAM…….The holiday tears your plan to shreds
Day one- 8am. Time to get the gear out of the car and the group you’re holidaying with decides to head down to the beach right at the same time as you had you’re EPIC workout planned for (How inconvenient)
“Damn, I’ll catch that one up later today” you tell yourself.
10am. Right lets do this.
“We are all going to head down to the markets for a few hours, you coming?”
SHIT, “It’s all good, I’ve still got the arvo to hit the workout”
3pm. It is ON!
But now the beers are out and everyone is sharing their favourite group stories and you just can’t miss out on telling your own. Besides this is why you’re here is it not? To relax and have fun spending time with friends and family. You can’t just spend your afternoon outside by yourself or everyone will think you’re rude or something.
“Tomorrow, I’ll get back on it tomorrow”
The morning comes and you are going to start the day with your go to ZONE meal (Thankfully you have brought your trusty scales to measure your oats), but alas everyone is heading down to the local Bowlsy (Bowls Club for anyone unaware) for the famous Sunday morning ‘All You Can Eat’
“Well I certainly can’t miss that” you think.
Then everyone heads to the beach for a post breakfast swim and finish up with a fish and chip lunch on the sand. The afternoon rolls around and you are mightily relaxed after the two big feeds and some sun, so you just can’t see yourself getting up for a hard workout at this point.
“Ah stuff it, I’ve already missed too much so I’ll just get back on track when I get home” you think to yourself sadly after failing once again to keep up. Considering you have already come this far you might as well make it a full on cheat holiday right? If we are going to blow out we might as well do it properly!
Does this all sound familiar?
Now I’m not throwing anyone under the bus here as what I described is exactly the scenarios I have been through the last few years since really starting my adult fitness journey. Every time I think I am setting myself up for success I seem to come crashing down for this reason or that.
I always end up putting it down to a lack of mental strength (and I’m sure it is partly that), but I have come to the realisation that for me personally it doesn’t so much come down to mental strength but rather the mental place I’m in whilst making the plans. When previously deciding on the holiday fitness plans I am at home where I workout everyday, where I eat the same meals week in and week out at the same times, a place where nearly everything I do is in my direct control (Obviously with a young child now in the house I certainly have less control over my day hahaha but she’s cute so it’s okay). What I have failed to take into account on all previous attempts is that I will be away with a group of individuals, all with their own agendas for the holiday.
I have then, all to often, found myself frustrated and even at times a little angry that I haven’t been able to follow a plan that I have made for MY OWN activities whilst on a group holiday. And yes, I realise how stupendously ridiculous this sounds while writing it down!!
No one likes to finish a holiday feeling sorry and angry at themselves for not reaching an unrealistic goal.
So after figuring out what had led to me failing so often previously I came up with a different plan for this holiday.
- Nutrition wise I left the scales at home and brought nothing but some recovery powder and my fish oil.
- Gear wise I threw 2 deadballs in the tray (40kg for myself and 20kg for Amy), 2 x harnesses and handles as well as a band for warming up. Like usual my weighted pack finds its way into the ute for any sneak walks we might venture on.
I favourited a couple of Julien Pineau’s (the legend behind StrongFit) short sandbag conditioning workouts to try and some animal flow/ GMB movement type exercises to throw together some sessions.
I’m not going to lie, I started the holiday already feeling more relaxed about my plan knowing that I hadn’t set myself such time and equipment exhaustive workouts in a setting where I wouldn’t be in control of the day to day activities of the group.
The only little rules I set myself was to move each day in a meaningful way (more than just a walk for a coffee) and to make the best choice I could at each meal. Did that mean that I didn’t have some easter eggs the weekend before Easter? HELL NO!! I gobbled them bad boys up like I’d never eat another one. But make bad decisions for the whole four days? Certainly not.
So how did I go?
I made pretty good decisions at most meals by making sure I stuck to my macros of Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats at nearly every meal (At times I had to top up with a protein bar but that was easy enough). I only had ice cream once and tried to keep my easter eggs to a minimum but it was super hard, they just taste soo damn good. I kept my beers down to only a couple a day and made sure to continue to consume lots of water during the day. Like usual I stayed away from soft drink (Knowledge Bomb: if more people only cut their soft drink consumption to zero the world would be a much healthier place).
Workout wise we got the deadballs out on 2 of the days, utilising the extremely picturesque park directly opposite our accommodation for some DB squats, carries and ground to shoulders on day 1 and taking advantage of the house stairs for some quick ascent and descent carries on day 3. Day 2 saw us go out on a little headland walk at Cabarita so my trusty pack came out for a wander and on the final day we had planned to do some weighted hiking in Springbrook National Park but discovered on the way that it was still closed due to flood damage. In-between that I continued to work on my handstand skill (still not really a skill) as much as I could and tried to get some quality time mobilising and keeping myself feeling loose.
In conclusion I feel like on previous attempts I have tried to keep my levels at 100% while away and end up closer to 0% and not having a joyful break. This time by not getting caught up in unrealistic expectation and avoidable pressure, and utilising a more thought out plan, I have been able to keep up somewhere in the range of 40-60% of my regular levels which is a huge improvement. Now obviously if you are an elite athlete, in serious training for an event in the near future or are with a large group of fitness buddies then you are most likely going to want to keep up a much higher level of training than this but for the other 99% of us I found that this 40%-60% was just right to feel like I haven’t taken a backward step but have also been able to completely relax and really enjoy my break with no pressure.
All in all I had a great time with some family and enjoyed myself thoroughly. I got some sun, some ocean, some writing and reading and of course some chocolate all with a dash of fitness on the side. Don’t forget a couple of beers, some yarns and it doesn’t get any better!
Until next time
Dice
Inspired Lion 