Getting away for 2019? Tips for keeping that bikini body when overseas

It’s often tempting to let loose as soon as you’re through passport control and faced with the airport bar. You could even loosen your eating and drinking habits as soon as you activate the “out of office” at work. Indeed, why not? After all, the very definition of a holiday is leisure and recreation.

However, if you dedicate a lot of your day-to-day life at home to eating and living well, two weeks off can be detrimental to your hard work. Here are a few ways to keep it up while you’re away. It’s perfectly possible to enjoy your break but still come home with the same bikini body you left with.

Start and end the day peacefully

At the very core of your wellbeing is your circadian rhythm, which influences when and for how long you need to sleep. How well you sleep will impact not just how much energy you have during the day but also how well you eat.

Staying up late, then rising early to hit the beach or sight-see, are likely to disrupt this natural rhythm. The impact is, as explained in an Independent article, a tendency to be “hungrier, consume more calories and get less physical activity.

Avoid stress and negative energy

While this may be one of the reasons you’re getting away in the first place, have you ever arrived at your destination feeling more drained than you do after a day at work? Stress, even from something as simple as going through passport control, stimulates the level of the cortisol hormone in our bodies.

This, in turn, can have an incredibly negative impact on our natural circadian rhythms. In fact, despite the perceived escape of “getting away”, stress can be one of the biggest factors in weight gain while abroad. Be wary of allowing your overseas activities to become too busy or hectic.

Keep up with what keeps you well

You already regularly deal with the problem of stress in a positive way, at least when you’re at home. You’ll already notice, maybe several times every week, that exercise is an incredible stress reliever. However, do you know why?

Exercise actually burns off the excess cortisol in our bodies. Therefore, a week or two without exercise is a week or two without this stress-busting remedy. Find a way to keep up your usual exercise regime, or look into a destination where professional trainers run weight loss boot camps.

Stay hydrated, outside and in

It goes without saying that eating well while you’re away will help to maintain your physique. Furthermore, everyone knows how to eat well, at least in theory. Still, you could find it surprisingly hard to hold off hydration when on holiday.

Alcohol, caffeine and sugar can all work against your body in this way, while too much sun can visibly suck the life out of your skin. Stay protected and moisturised, and carry a bottle of water with you wherever you go – especially if you plan to stay active while you’re away.