How to Make Healthy Choices on Spring Break

In this article:

• Spring break can be a welcome change from your daily routine.
• Spring break and other vacations can challenge healthy intentions, but they can also provide opportunities for healthy decisions.
• For a healthy spring season, aim to be as healthy as possible when you start your spring break, and find out about salubrious opportunities for your trip, staycation, or short break.
• Lark can help you establish healthy habits and learn about lifestyle choices to support weight management and health 24/7 with or without GLP-1 medications.
  

Spring break can be a welcome change after a long winter, regardless of whether you take a trip, have a staycation, or simply make a mental note to enjoy the new season. It can be a great opportunity to explore places, discover new foods, and participate in various activities.

If you’ve been making changes to manage weight or improve health, a vacation or trip can feel challenging. That can be especially true if you’re currently following a good routine. Traveling and taking breaks from daily duties like chores and work can disrupt your schedule. It can take more thought and effort to hit your nutrition goals when you’re on the road or away from daily life.

While you may worry about weight gain or other health concerns during this time, it’s possible to make better choices on a daily basis. Here’s how to approach spring break so you can have a fun time and come back rested, energized, and on track with your goals.

Enjoy Your Food

Spring break can offer chances to try new foods, sample local cuisine, eat at restaurants and cook less, or put together meals you don’t usually have time to prepare. In all of these cases, meals can be better for your mind and body when you enjoy them.

Here are some tips for enjoying your meals and snacks.

• Eat mindfully. Notice each flavor and texture.
• Slow your eating so you can get more from the experience. To eat more slowly, take smaller bites, chew more times, and put your utensils down between bites.
• If you’re eating with people, immerse yourself in conversation while eating. If you’re eating alone, take extra time to appreciate your own company and the surroundings.
• Notice and respond to your hunger and fullness cues. Eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full is best for supporting weight, health, and pleasure.
• Make at least one healthy choice at each meal. Eating is a more pleasurable experience when you can celebrate even a small “win,” like splitting a dessert instead of having the whole thing yourself.
  

Balance Meals

Eating balanced meals can be automatic in your daily life. It’s likely that throughout your health journey, you’ve developed patterns that make healthy eating easier, such as oatmeal with peanut butter and fruit for breakfast, a salad with tuna for lunch, and fish or chicken with vegetables for dinner.

When you’re on spring break, your meal patterns may be different. You may be out of town, eating out more often, or cooking different types of meals. You can still eat nutritious meals; it may just take a bit of thought before you eat.

Here’s what to consider before you order or shop for your meal.

• Load up on non-starchy vegetables like greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, green beans, or any others that are in season
• Include a lean source of protein, which may be egg, peanut butter, yogurt, or cottage cheese at breakfast, or skinless chicken, tofu, fish, shellfish, or beans at other meals
• Keep carbohydrates to small servings and look for high-fiber options like fruit, sweet potatoes, peas, corn, or whole grains like oatmeal, whole-wheat bread or pasta, or brown rice
  

When your plate is balanced, it’s easier to maintain energy levels and manage hunger.

Logging your meals is a good tip. If you don’t have access to the internet, you can log using a pen and paper. Even without precise calorie and nutrient counts, writing down what you eat is a good way to stay aware.

Find Healthy Foods

It’s common for people to say they can’t find healthy foods when they travel or eat out, but it is often possible to find nutritious foods like vegetables and lean proteins while limiting

high-calorie, low-nutrient options like fried, fatty, and sugar-sweetened foods. Here are some strategies to help.

• Have picnics with food from local farmers’ markets and supermarkets. Look for fresh fruit and vegetables and artisan cheeses and whole-grain bread.
• Keep healthy snacks in your hotel room if you’re traveling. Fresh apples or other fruit, almonds, pouch tuna, and canned beans are options that don’t need refrigeration
• In restaurants, ask the server what’s in the dishes you’re considering ordering. If language is a challenge, use a translation app.
• If you don’t see a healthy dish on the menu, ask specifically for what you want, such as “plain baked fish with broccoli.”
  

Logging all of your meals and snacks can help. If you’re ready for a break from intense logging, consider a shorter routine. For example, you might have a checklist to get 3 servings of vegetables and 6 ounces of lean proteins per day and keep a tally of low-nutrient foods, like fried foods and desserts, that you limit to 1-2 servings per day.

Be Active

Staying active can help maintain metabolism and health gains. It can also help prevent injury when you get back to your regular routine after spring break.

If it’s realistic, keep up your regular exercise and activity routine while you’re on break. That’s not always possible for reasons like a disrupted schedule or being away from your gym or typical walking routes. You may also feel like you deserve a mental break from your usual workout routine.

Here are some ways you can be active while traveling.

• Use a step counter and get to your daily goal by moving whenever you can throughout the day
• Walk to destinations or take public transportation, which can leave you with walks at either end and which can be fun adventures for your break
• Make it a point to get in a solid workout once a day - say, by taking a walk through the neighborhood or by using the hotel gym - and then get in shorter bouts of activity at other times, like walking extra in a museum or taking the stairs to and from the subway
• Sign up for a walking tour or outdoor class like rock climbing, surfing, or kayaking
  

Hydrate

Stay hydrated to increase energy, keep digestion regular, support your immune system, and manage hunger. Compared to when you’re on your typical daily schedule, you may need to be more deliberate about hydration when you’re on spring break.

Here are some hydration tips.

• Fluid needs may increase due to factors like being on an airplane, which is dehydrating, or suddenly being in a warmer climate if you’ve traveled for break
• Soda, flavored iced coffee, and sweet tea can be tempting with their sweet tastes, but they can be best as occasional treats due to their calories and sugar contents
• Low-calorie beverages like water, coffee with a splash of milk, and plain tea can be healthier choices.
• Set a timer to remind yourself to drink often
• Log your fluids to make sure you’re getting enough every day
  

If you’re traveling abroad, check with experts about the safety of drinking water. In many popular destinations, it may be a good idea to drink only bottled water or freshly boiled water used for coffee or tea.

Establish a Schedule

Part of being on vacation may be taking a break from your usual schedule. It can be a relief to be more flexible about what you do and when you do it. Still, here are some benefits to following a schedule.

• It’s easier to get enough sleep
• Hunger can be more predictable and easier to detect
• Hormones can normalize, leading to benefits like lower blood sugar levels
• It can help you manage jet lag

Try to establish a schedule that allows for flexibility and freedom to relax, but that lets your body function at its best. You might consider establishing a bedtime that you stick to throughout your break or making sure you eat lunch at a similar time most days. That can give you the foundation of a pattern that your body can settle into.

Make the Most of Spring Break

Make sure you get what you need and want from spring break. Priorities may include relaxing, feeling re-energized, and seeing new things. Healthy choices often make these types of priorities easier to achieve because you’re likely to feel more energized and relaxed when you eat well, sleep well, and stay active.

However, it’s important to stay positive if you get off track. Even with a few days of unhealthy eating choices or sporadic bedtimes, for example, your vacation can still be a success. Assess how you can improve your choices and get back on track when you can. In the meantime, enjoy experiences, people, and a change of pace so you can be at your best when it’s time to come back to your regular routine.

How Lark Can Help

Small changes can help you improve heart health, lose weight, and manage or prevent chronic conditions. Lark can help you make positive choices on a daily basis. Your Lark coach is available 24/7 for encouragement, nutrition and physical activity coaching, and habit tracking.

Lark can help you make healthy choices and establish habits that fit into your lifestyle so you can lose weight and keep it off with or without GLP-1 medications.

Click here to see if you may be eligible to join Lark today!