The hardest thing for anyone who’s been on a positive health and fitness holiday is trying to replicate that regime when you return home. It’s difficult and close to impossible to control what you eat and keeping up with daily exercise within a busy schedule. I recently arrived back into the UK from a spa and fitness holiday at the Marbella Club. I was looking for a little sanctuary away and to focus on weight loss and gain fitness. Both of these I managed to achieve. However keeping the weight down staying healthy and fit was difficult when fitting it around a busy schedule.
I’ve worked out now the best way to keep fit and healthy once arriving home is not to put too much pressure on yourself. Draw up a plan of action could be just three bullet points on exercise and a diet and then work to stick to it as much as you can, of course, in everyday life you won’t have experts from Marbella Club or Sanctuary Spa Holidays to advise.
Regarding the diet, I recently found out that hard boiled eggs are good to eat in the mornings as they make you feel less hungry during the day even less than reputable high fibre cereals and are good for you with lots of protein. So each morning for protein and for hunger I eat a hardboiled egg and a small glass of orange juice.
At lunchtime I avoid any fatty foods, chips, crisps etc. and will only eat a sandwich (which helps with the fibre I lost at breakfast) and a handful of healthy nuts such as almonds or walnuts and some fruit (apples, banana or kiwi) or a fruit smoothie. This gets me through the day but if it’s a day I am visiting the gym then a bowl of pasta (or similar high carb meal) with vegetables an hour and a half before the gym is useful before you spend time on the treadmill, weights or a class to give you energy to burn.
In the evening an early dinner around 630pm is good for me that includes two veg, white meat and a little portion of carbs (probably boiled potatoes) and finally if I get hungry around 8pm I will nibble on some light food like tomatoes, radishes or lettuce. That’s the diet sorted for my health. It includes my five a day with a mix of fruit and veg plus fibre and other vitamins.
Now to focus the plan on fitness. This is even more difficult if you are a full time worker like me. However, it’s not impossible and I like to go straight to the gym from work. Twenty minutes high intensity training (HIT) including ten minutes treadmill and ten minutes cross trainer that keeps the heart pumping and then onto the weights – four sets with limited time to rest between sets (no more than ten seconds) dropping the weight down (rather than up) keeping the burn in the muscles. My four exercises are chest press, dumb bells, shoulder press and tricep extension. This exercise session takes less than an hour and you can fit a shower into that time too! Taking very little of your precious time after work. These exercises I look to do three times a week and if I get time on weekends or late evenings I might pop to the gym for a swim or a run on the treadmill as an added bonus.
Well there you have it health and fitness fitting into everyday life. The key is to ‘hit the ground running’. When you get back from a positive health and fitness break you must keep the momentum going. One useful tip is to get the spa and health and fitness experts at the resort to create a simple plan for diet and fitness.