Travel Tips!

Let me just say, I’m hungry.

(As though you could stop me! I wear the pants around this webblog!)

My body has adjusted to daily breakfast. I try to eat something before I leave the house or in the car on my way to work and then I have something as soon as I get to my desk, again on my early afternoon break. This usually holds me pretty well until “lunch” at 3:30.. But I gotta tell ya, on the mornings I hit spin class before work I am starving. I have a little something before I go to class – lately it’s been a Kashi waffle with a smear of PB and some straight espresso. This is good, because it doesn’t make me feel pukey on the bike – this can happen depending on breakfast and the last thing I want to think about is whether or not I’ll have to hold back spewage.

But, I digress.. days like today when I’m plowing through my breakfast and break-snacks prior to their scheduled show-times it makes me keenly aware of some challenges I’ll face while on vacay soon.

• No Tracker: Okay, I’ve said it before – MyFitnessPal is awesome. Such a cool and useful app.. and I’m not going to use it while I’m away. Primarily because I don’t want to pay international roaming fees. I’m sure someone will expect payment in form of a goat or a wheel of cheese or something – and how am I supposed to pay that online?! Secondarily, I’m on vacation, I don’t want to spend my time attached to my superphone. How much time have I clocked into staring at screens – whether at work or on the phone? I just want to unplug for a while. Kinda like camping, only minus the bonfires and tents and the woods.

 

• Partytime, excellent: Forget for a moment that Amsterdam is named for the same river as Amstel light and also forget that these are the people who brought us that skunky Heinekin.. the region is famous for their delicious beers and ales. And my friends, I plan on experiencing this glorious nectar of the gods with all the tastebuds the universe bestowed to my face-hole. Also, this city is known for cheese – and you do not want to see me half-drunk around cheese.

 
Tools and Tips

Weight Watchers has a nice write-up on their website about how to avoid bringing home excess baggage. Click here to take a look.

Stay Active: Of course it’s easier to avoid unwanted vacation weight-gain if you build in activity to your trip. We’re lucky enough to be doing just that: Amsterdam is a very compact city making it very walkable. And we’re gonna do some walkin’. In addition to that, one of the things my inner-bike geek is waaay excited about, is the fact that our destination is probably thee most bicycle-friendly city on the planet. So when we’re not walkin’, we’re rentin’ and ridin’. Also, one of our bucket-list items that we’re going after on this vacation is to leave the city for a bit to ride bicycles through the world-famous tulip fields of Holland. One of our to-do items is activity.

Also, I’ve gone ahead and mapped out a few one-mile yogging loops near where we’re staying so I can start the day with a good burn. This will be especially helpful the morning after a night filled with that good beer I mentioned above..

Schedule Meals: We’re staying at a bed & breakfast. We’re very excited about this. One of the reasons we’re so excited is the breakfast. Lisa has communicated with the owners and have confirmed the types of food we can expect to see. We also expect to hit some local markets so we can buy fresh fruit to have in our room for snacks and back-up. One tip the WW website has is to schedule your meals so that you don’t get over-hungry and make poor choices. Cities like this are a mecca for poor choices – and I’m not talking about the red-light district. I found a bunch of restaurants I think we’ll enjoy based on customer reviews, so another tool we’re going to use is planning out our dinner time. To have it “set” and know where we’re going will be helpful.

Trickery & Diversion: The WW website also mentions using mental rehearsing  – visualize and attack! – as a tool to employ for best outcomes. Picture yourself choosing fruit over the danish. This will be easy, me no likey danishes. Picture yourself choosing this light-and-healthful thing over that heavy-and-fried thing.  Lalala..

Here’s something we thought of to avoid eating when we’re not hungry just because something looks good: chewing gum. Lots and lots of chewing gum. C’mon – think about it! There are so many dozens of flavors out there now that it’s going to be easy to get several packs of different flavors and bring them along to trick our tastebuds.

Be okay with a 1-2 lb gain: Seriously, we’re on vacation. I want to be relaxed, not stressed out over every little thing. That’s no fun!  So, above all, I’ll order a big, heaping bowl of chillax. A small gain isn’t the goal but it certainly isn’t the end of the world either.

?Question?: Do you have any travel tips? I’d love to hear them..

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In other news: Today the GirlEatsBike blog went over 1,000 page views!! This is a very exciting milestone!! I want to say a big ‘ol thank you, thank you, thank you to my readers and friends who have had kind words about my progress; and especially Ms. Lisa who has to deal with more of my oddities and idiosyncracies than anyone else on mother Earth.

That said, writing this has been quite motivating for me and I appreciate the company on this journey.

Please repost and share with others – sharing is caring!

xoxo