With all the traveling I’ve been doing this year, I have been gaining a lot of weight. For an average person, the daily caloric intake should be less than 2,000 calories. Whenever I travel, I always go over that (sometimes in one meal alone). You might ask, why am I eating all this food? Well, as a travel blogger, I always want to sample a little bit of everything and I absolutely love food. My main sources of travel food include:
Business/First Class Lounges – Most domestic lounges won’t even have real complimentary food, but the international ones usually have a buffet of some sort. I usually try a little bit of everything if it’s an international lounge. The soft drinks and alcoholic beverages can add up to a lot of calories.
Business/First Class Meals – They usually include an appetizer, nuts, entree, side salad, cookie, fruit plate, ice cream sundae, and a cookie. That’s a lot of calories, not including the numerous drink refills! On a transcontinental flight or long haul, this can add up to 2,000 calories alone.
Hotel Breakfast – Usually they’re in the form of a breakfast buffet and I usually try a little bit of everything.
Hotel Evening Appetizers – Usually the hotel will have an evening appetizers selection in the club lounge. The offerings vary, but most of the time you can make a meal with them
It’s very hard for me to try out any other local food while on vacation. Sometimes I have to take it easy on the hotel breakfast or lounge food in order to have a decent meal in a local restaurant. Whenever I am back in Los Angeles, I start my diet right away. I normally don’t eat breakfast when I’m at home, so I skip it. I don’t have lunch either. I’ve been eating less than 2,000 calories by just having one meal a day and that’s usually around dinner time.
I have found that drinking a lot of water and other liquids have been keeping me full in addition to eating fibrous foods such as nuts and beans.
How do you cope with weight gain during vacation?
It’s called use the gym in the hotels you’re staying at 🙂
For me, daily gym sessions do the trick (and then some). Ten miles on the treadmill and dips/pullups/pushups – split between a morning workout (energizes me for the day) and an evening session to wrap things up. This allows me to eat everything on offer – from hotel to lounge to flight.