If you’re a Physique Freak like me, who trains most days of the week and is very diligent with their nutrition, a vacation can do your body and your mind a world of good.
Especially when it’s an all-inclusive vacation where you don’t have to think about food prep or washing Tupperware containers.
A full week void of demands and time constraints, allowing you to completely relax while going through your days at a leisurely pace, is certain to ‘recharge your batteries’.
Leaving you feeling refreshed and invigorated.
This is your time to deload and de-stress.
If you’re trying to track every macro that goes into your mouth, you are vacationing wrong.
The advice I share with my clients and put into practice myself is to,
“Let loose. Enjoy some alcohol. Relax on your diet. Have fun!”
But, after my recent vacation to Jamaica I found myself thinking,
What does let loose and relax on your diet even mean?
And frankly, there’s no one size fits all answer to this question.
It all depends on the individual, their state of mind, and their situation (whether they’re in the middle of a cutting phase, focusing on building muscle, or gaintaining).
For some clients, relaxing on their diet can be a scary proposition. But the last thing you should do is go on vacation with anxiety and stress over the possibility of weight gain.
I can typically subside a clients fears by keeping them focused on the metabolic advantages of following a relaxed approach to nutrition while away on vacation.
But still, I know there is some level of concern in the back of their mind. And I totally understand.
Us physique freaks are a unique breed. We’re wired different.
We’re hyper sensitive to our appearance and we love to look great naked. Or at least look smoke’n hot in a swimsuit 😉
Although most people can’t relate to how we think and feel, they often reinforce our desire to sculpt and maintain a beach body.
During our vacation there wasn’t a day that went by without my wife telling me there were women checking me out around the pool.
I had young women in their 20’s whistle at me as I walked by with my shirt off. A group of women in their 50’s asked me to take a picture with them.
Every conversation I had with people by the swim up pool bar turned into,
“Damn you look awesome bro! What do I need to do to get a body like yours?”
Admittedly, this was all a nice stroke to the ego. It feels great to receive compliments. It’s a confidence booster.
Which is why on the third day when I began to look bloated and my lower abs started to wash away, I began to panic just a bit.
I still looked freak’n fantastic by most standards. But, I hold a higher standard for myself.
But, it wasn’t so much how I was looking that was beginning to bother me. It was how I felt.
You see, for the first two and a half days we spent on the island I was absolutely gluttonous. It was sickening actually.
I filled my plate up four to five times every meal. Even though I was full after the first two platefuls of goodness.
I was stuffed to the gills. I ate so much that it hurt.
There was no reason for it other than that the food was there and I ate it.
I felt full, bloated, uncomfortable, lethargic, and experienced a great deal of acid reflux those first couple days.
On the third morning as I sat down for breakfast I finally had to throw my hands up in the air and say,
“enough is enough!”
I was starting to feel like crap and it was having a negative impact on my vacation experience.
I decided from there on out that I would stop eating when I felt full.
Which was still a massive amount of food that put me in a decent caloric surplus for the day.
Especially when combined with the sugary alcohol beverages that I enjoy oh so much.
I felt victorious as I gained a sense of control over my excessive eating.
I was still letting loose and had a nice buzz going on by noon every day.
The best part is that I was enjoying myself even more, because I felt better.
Even more important is that I didn’t feel guilty or beat myself up for eating too much during the beginning of the trip.
I simply acknowledged what had happened and learned from this experience.
Lesson #1
Define What Letting Loose and Relaxing On Your Diet Means To You
For some physique freaks, an all out no holds barred diet break can do wonders for them.
It’s a total de-stressor, they rebound quickly, and drop the vacation weight gain nearly as fast as they put it on.
I on the other hand, have learned that I need to set some sort of boundary.
Full bore gluttony doesn’t serve me well.
Next time I go away on vacation I will eat the way I did the second half of my vacation. Stopping when I feel full and satisfied.
This worked exceptionally well for me. It was much more food than I’m used to consuming, but it wasn’t so much that I felt uncomfortable both physically and emotionally.
As far as the alcohol goes, I wouldn’t change a thing.
That’s a big part of the de-stressor for me.
I LOVE those sugary island drinks.
I enjoy hitting that pool bar at 10am, catching a nice buzz by noon, and cutting it off at 3pm.
That’s what letting loose and relaxing on my diet means to me.
But again, you need to define what it means to you. It’s very individual.
Lesson #2
Don’t Weigh Yourself After Vacation
The morning after I returned from vacation I stepped on the scale to see how much weight I had gained.
…7 pounds!
For an all inclusive vacation that’s not bad at all.
But, most vacations I have no problem maintaining my weight and sometimes even drop some weight because I’m so active and I fill up on veggies and lean proteins.
I wasn’t shocked by the weight gain. I expected it.
And as I tell my clients, “It’s an artificial weight”.
A lot of the gain is from water weight and food volume in your digestive system. You’ll drop most of it fairly quick.
And sure enough, after the first day I dropped 3 of those 7 pounds by simply eating the way I normally do.
That was great! It’s also what I expected to see happen.
But then an unhealthy mindset began to consume me.
I stepped on the scale daily, which is a normal routine for me. I like to spot trends and I wanted to have a record of how my body responded as I got back to my normal eating patterns.
But I found that all of my thoughts were focused on how long it was going to take to drop this excess weight and what I will do different in the future.
After 4 days of my normal diet routine my weight wasn’t dropping, which is highly unusual for me. Every cutting phase I’ve gone through, weight loss has been quite predictable.
I tried not to get frustrated, but on the 5th day when I was out with the guys I lost all control with my eating. Then the same thing happened the next day.
At this point I was starting to get scared. I recognized old bad habits resurfacing.
The same ones that caused me to gain over 50 pounds of excess fat. The same habits that made it an extreme challenge to drop that excess fat for nearly 10 years.
Things got worse the next day when the same thing happened. I began to think, “I’m screwed!”
It was all in my head and it was becoming a self fulfilling prophecy.
I was doing one thing right though…
I was sharing my thoughts, feelings, and experiences with the Physique Mastery Movement group coaching support community.
Lesson #3
Learn and Move On
At this point, my co-coach Bryan Krahn stepped up to the plate and did what every great coach does…
He slapped me in the face with a hefty dose of reality and got me to snap out of it.
Bryan got me out of my future thinking and refocused me on what’s most important…
The process, gratitude and humility.
Members of the PMM group followed Bryan’s lead and shifted my focus on the amazing memories that were created with my family.
I had learned my lesson. I knew what I would do different next time. That was enough. I didn’t have to dwell on it.
It was time to move on and put my trust in the daily actions and lifestyle that has allowed me to get ripped time and time again.
That’s when the real magic began to happen. Once again I became present in the moment.
Daily walks with my dog Chief became relaxing once again.
I was hyper focused during my workouts and enjoyed feeling the blood pumping contractions.
I savoured every bite of food from every meal.
I embraced the feeling of slight hunger before bed.
I thrived from feeling ‘light’ when I woke up in the morning.
Now this is the lifestyle I love so much. The lifestyle that brings me joy and fulfillment. The lifestyle that enriches all areas of my life. The lifestyle that works for me.
In Summary
This just goes to show that us coaches are not robots. We face the same challenges as our clients. We are continuously learning from experience. We are indeed human.
So my big takeaways from this experience are;
- Let loose and relax on my diet, but with the boundary of eating until full and satisfied.
- Don’t step on the scale for 2-3 weeks post vacation.
- Learn and move on. Immediately upon returning from vacation focus on the process and staying present in each moment.
- Always practice gratitude and humility.
I hope that by sharing my experiences I have helped you in some way.
Whether it’s providing you with a feeling that you are not alone or given you some guidance for a healthier approach to vacationing, I hope you’ve found value from my ramblings 😉
Enjoy the moment.
Sculpt a Masterpiece,
Scott Tousignant