A Guide to Travel For Macro Counters

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We all love vacationing, and real life does involve events, socializing, holidays and TRAVEL. It’s meant to be enjoyed, and it doesn’t need to derail your progress! In fact, you CAN make progress and work towards goals while vacationing. Let’s go over some travel essentials while macro tracking

DO YOUR PREP WORK

Keep your adherence and focus high leading up to vacation. This will mean more wiggle room while you’re on vacation, so that you have more freedom with food! Think about it before you ask your coach to lower your numbers prior to taking a vacation. This will make it harder for you to enjoy treats and fun foods while you’re vacationing. If lowering your numbers will make you more likely to splurge and overindulge while you’re traveling, it’s not the right move for you. It’s not the time to cut if you have a vacation planned! 

Looking out the window of an airplane with text "A Guide to Travel for Macro Counters"

If you can control your vacation setting ahead of time, do so. Book a condo or an airbnb that has a kitchen. Bring your own groceries if you’re staying at someone’s house. Offer to cook! Make a game plan and set intentions/goals. Ask questions such as: will you be eating out for your dinners? Will you have fridge access? Will it be buffet style? Will you be flying or driving?). This will help you to start visualizing what you want your trip to look like.

IF FLYING

Plan on using the airport snacks/shops. Feel free to use the restaurants, including Starbucks! Most places offer a chicken sandwich, which is always a great option. Starbucks has macro friendly sandwiches. Even a McDonalds type restaurant can work – you just have to plan ahead for what you’re going to have. Research the restrictions and guidelines ahead of time to know what you should be able to bring on the plane. Fun fact: peanut butter is not allowed! 

IF DRIVING

Don’t underestimate the power of a packed cooler. I brought milk, protein powder, turkey sandwiches, peanut butter and jellies, bread, peanut butter, cheese sticks, shredded chicken, some cereal, trail mix, whatever I needed to hit my numbers and feed my family. Bonus points: you can feed your family MUCH healthier and cheaper! Dump out water and refill ice if you really want to, but that ice will last longer than you think. I toted groceries home from Florida in the cooler in the minivan! 17 hours (constant stops with kids) and that ice did just fine. Make stops at Kum and Go’s as needed for things like eggs,  Fairlife milk, cheese, crackers, meat, etc. Bring a pocket food scale – it comes in handy! 

A list of travel friendly foods.

GROCERY SHOP

Grocery Shop when you get there. Who says you can’t grocery shop on vacation?! It’s so much fun to explore local grocery stores and mom n pop shops! Do it first thing after unloading the car, if possible, so it’s out of the way. Remember, you don’t HAVE to eat out for every meal. Making meals in the condo is fun and leaves much more time for the beach, sightseeing, shopping, exploring, etc! Buy the same things you would at home. Pack a lunchbox to take along with you for the day. Bring your trusted food scale from home. 

DINING OUT TIPS

When going out to eat, pair up meals using the strategy of a protein, a veggie and a hearty starch with fats sprinkled in. Research and prepare a plan the same way you would at home. This is control we absolutely can keep. Research and prepare a plan when eating out

SELECTIVE NOT RESTRICTIVE

Remain selective but not restrictive. You will need a game plan, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have treats and fun foods! Choose what’s worth it to you when you’re in a fun place with fun food options. For example: I went to an ice cream shop in Florida with my family. I discovered they were serving Hiland ice cream. Nothing against Hiland, but you can literally buy that at the grocery store. So I chose not to splurge on it and got a diet coke instead. I grabbed my choice of ice cream at the grocery store instead and brought it back to my condo so I could weigh it, track it and enjoy it on the beach. Don’t splurge in the name of fitting in. If it’s worth it, enjoy it. Creme Brule from a nice restaurant? Might be worth it! An average item you could realistically have anywhere? Maybe not! There’s no reason to blow carbs and fats out of the water in the name of being on vacation. Realistically speaking, we still have to approach our nutrition with a plan, even if we know our numbers won’t look perfect. Not knowing exactly what’s in our food isn’t a reason to approach the day in general, or even a whole vacation, as a reason to go nuts. 

ALCOHOL TIPS

Have that same mentality with alcohol. There is no rule stating that we can’t pass on alcohol while vacationing. Isn’t location a silly reason to have a drink? Or to have multiple untracked drinks? If alcohol has a place in your health and fitness right now, control your quantities. Have a thoughtfully tracked drink that is worth it to you and won’t leave you feeling guilty. If it leaves you feeling crummy the next day, reflect on whether or not it’s worth it. Saying “no thanks” is perfectly acceptable. If someone reprimands us for choosing not to drink for the purpose of our health and fitness goals, we have to take the high road and remind ourselves that their feelings actually have nothing to do with us personally. You don’t need to “pick that back pack up” and wear it on your back. Don’t claim that baggage. Try to reflect and consider why you’re feeling guilty for turning down alcohol. If we’re drinking purely for social reasons, it might be time to reevaluate. 

WHEN EATING AT A BUFFET

If you’re on a cruise, at a resort or in a hotel where most meals are served buffet style, make use of all of the wonderful food items on the buffet! Meats, veggies, hearty starches, fruits, breads and little snack sized treats are the perfect way to hit all macros! Aim to make your plate look like it would at home. It doesn’t need to be perfect! Guesstimating is key. 

Take your norms and good habits with you. If you typically run, run on vacation. Make time for your workouts. Partake in your devotional time. Chug your water. Take care of your skin. Get lots of sun and activity. Rest and take time away from social media. We could all use more time unplugged. 

A list of practical tips for traveling and Macro Counting

TRACKING YOUR FOOD

USE YOUR PLANNER (whatever food planning app you use, like MyFitnessPal) and use your tracker. Break out that food scale when you can! Even if you know your plan is going to have to be tweaked and won’t work ultimately, don’t go into it with a blank day in your food planning app. It’s easier to change the course with some sort of template in place. Ignorance is not bliss. Making the honest effort to be aware and to control what you’re putting in your body can mean the difference between actually making progress while vacationing or at least maintaining, vs coming home with lost momentum. You may come home with some water weight – that’s to be expected. But you won’t come home with actual fluff gained unless you throw all caution to the wind! That’s when you ARE at risk for backsliding. I actually tried to NOT hit my numbers when I was in FL the last time, and I couldn’t hardly do it. My missed day was due to having exotic types of  sushi at a seafood restaurant. That was worth it to me, and sushi can be tricky to track. On the other days, I preplanned (even when I had to pivot), I approached eating like I would at home (even when going out to eat) and I committed to my tracker. I ate a lot of good seafood, lots of veggies, potatoes, rice etc. and I hit my numbers by guesstimating. No, it wasn’t perfect! But I did the best I could, and that was what worked in the end.

TAKE OWNERSHIP OF YOUR CHOICES

Own what you do. If you choose to not plan or track, that’s okay, but know that you’re going to have to be all the more dialed in when you return and put the pedal to the metal. All in all, enjoy the time! Remember that vacations are meant to be special and full of memory making moments. Be present, be CHOOSY and be okay with guesstimating. Happy Summer, happy event season and happy Traveling! 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

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