I don’t know about anyone else, but I hear the word vacation and suddenly all bets are off. It’s a time for me to have fun and do something besides my normal routine, so in my head that translates to EAT ALL THE FOOD and DO NONE OF THE EXERCISE.

Ok, so sometimes I do want to exercise since that’s something I actually like, but I also like food and when I am on a vacation all of a sudden I think that means that I can do whatever I want. Even if it’s not a vacation and I am going on a short trip, I tend to relax my eating standards and go a little heavy on those sweet, sweet desserts.

These are some of my tips for how to get back on track after a vacation and I find that the sooner I implement them, the easier it is to get back into the swing of things.

1. Meal plan.

An easy way for you to continue the way you ate on vacation is to come home with no plan. Think about what meals you want to eat for the upcoming week and write them down. This will decrease your chances of absentmindedly eating whatever you can find in the kitchen.

2. Go grocery shopping.

After meal planning, you should know what foods you have and which ones you need to stock up on. Go grocery shopping soon after you get home so that you make sure you have an abundance of fruits, vegetables, and healthy meal staples. This will help ensure that you have the right kinds of food around when hunger strikes.

3. Hold back on eating out.

You, more than likely, ate out a fair amount while on vacation. While the food was probably delicious, restaurants are notorious for large portions and providing food that is more unhealthy than what you could make at home. If you regularly ate out while in your normal routine, you don’t have to stop altogether, but limit the number of times you go immediately after getting home.

4. Get back into your routine

Whatever your pre-vacation routine was before you left, jump right back into it when you get home. Starting waking up and going to sleep at the same times and start working out again if that was something that you normally did. Any delay in resuming old habits can prolong the amount of time it takes for you get back on track and lead you to continue those vacation habits.

5. Don’t beat yourself up!

You had a fabulous vacation, you ate fabulous food, you enjoyed yourself in whatever capacity that looks like for you. Those are things to be celebrated. The point is not to come home and immediately feel bad about a vacation.  Simply revel in the trip and then jump back into your routine when you get home. Easy as that!