Good morning. Welcome back.
I am Kara Hackleman, and this is Concierge Weight Loss.
Today's question is one that comes up every single summer.
How do I decide what to eat on vacation? We're all going on vacation, whether it's a road trip or somewhere you have to fly to. Some people have been telling me about cruises.
And I want to know what they're supposed to eat. How do I decide to do that? They've been trying to lose weight, or they want to lose weight, and they've never been able…
to lose weight and have vacation, so now they're trying to figure that out.
So, how do I decide what to eat on vacation? Not how do I stay on my perfect meal plan, or how do I avoid all the treats?
Not, how do I even lose weight while I'm away, but how do I decide? That's a little bit different.
Because if you're anything like most women, I work with, vacation eating feels like one of two extremes.
either you're trying to be really good,
Or, you're throwing caution to the wind and eating just whatever you want. You're on vacation, after all.
You spend the vacation bouncing between being strict
And feeling deprived. Or saying yes to everything, and then feeling uncomfortable about your decision,
uncomfortable, uh, in your body. And neither one feels very good.
I know, because I've been there.
When I first started losing weight, vacations…
They felt like torture. They felt like a test that I for sure was not gonna pass. A test of my willpower.
A test of my commitment, a test of whether I really wanted weight loss bad enough.
Every meal felt loaded with extra pressure. Should I eat it?
Shouldn't I eat it? Will I regret it? Will I ruin everything? It doesn't feel like vacation.
my weight loss, or even my vacation? What was I gonna ruin? I knew something was getting ruined.
But eventually,
I realize I was just asking the wrong questions.
The goal of vacation is enjoying your vacation, right?
And we want to do that while still taking care of yourself.
Once I understood that everything kind of shifted.
So today, I want to share 5 questions that helped… that help me decide…
What to eat when I'm on vacation, because I don't think most women need more food rules.
I think they need better decision-making skills.
So, question one. Is it special?
This one alone can save you from a lot of mindless eating.
When we're on vacation, we suddenly treat every food opportunity
Like, it's rare and magical.
The airport cinnamon rolls.
The hotel breakfast pastries, the basket of chips sitting on the counter at the condo.
The snacks at the gas station. We start thinking, what if I miss out?
But not every food is special.
Some food is just there. It's just available. So ask yourself, if I skip this…
Will I care? Will I care today? Will I care tomorrow? Will I care in a week if I missed it?
Would I even remember it? Like, would you even remember?
Remember, if you had it or not.
Would I feel disappointed that I didn't eat it? Because…
Some food is absolutely worth it, and some food just isn't.
So maybe your seafood person, and you've got an ocean trip. So, I would say that maybe, like,
Seafood by the ocean. Maybe that's a worth-it type item for you.
Um, sometimes there's…
A place we've gone to that has… it's down in Sanibel, and they had, like, this local bakery, and it was always fun to go get something from there.
some kind of a cake or something. And so, everyone talks about it.
For me, that's absolutely worth it.
a stale muffin at a hotel breakfast buffet? Probably not worth it.
Um, when everything…
I think I just coached on this yesterday. When everything feels special,
Nothing is special.
So yes, you might like it, you might enjoy it, but if everything is special, then nothing is special.
So, learning the difference, it will give you freedom.
So, question number two. Am I hungry, or is it just available? Is it just here? So, vacation…
We're not busy working, working, working, so many times people say, I forgot to eat because I was at work.
Well, on vacation,
Food is just available. We have lots of opportunities to eat.
So, airports and hotels,
Um, if you're on a road trip, there's always gas stations, right? Cruise ships have food 24-7.
Full-side snacks, restaurants, food is literally everywhere on vacation.
And because it's everywhere, it's easy to assume that I'm also hungry. I'm hungry all the time.
But that availability, that eye contact with the food, just because it creates a little spark of, like, ooh, yum, that would be good,
Doesn't mean that you have hunger, so availability isn't the same thing.
as hunger. So one of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself
is… if this was sitting…
right here in front of me.
If it wasn't, I'm sorry I said that wrong. If this wasn't sitting here right in front of me, would I still be wanting food?
Sometimes the answer's yes. Sometimes you are genuinely hungry. It happens to be there, catches your eye, and that
sounded delicious. But sometimes the answer is no. You're eating because it's there.
Not because your body needs it, not because you're physically hungry.
There's nothing wrong with eating for reasons other than hunger sometimes.
Sometimes. But it helps to know which one you're doing.
Sometimes, if you're not even hungry, it helps real… you realize it's not that special. I was just… it just caught my eye.
Popcorn's a big one for me. If I smell popcorn, I'll be like, mmm, that sounds good, I want some of that.
But I'm not even hungry, and it's not even that special. It's just one that triggers me.
Home-baked cookies, same kind of deal. Like, it might even be a kind of cookie I like, but that smell, it just gets me. So maybe mine's my smells instead of my eyes more than not, but…
I might not even be physically hungry. Just knowing that to start with helps you know whether or not
you really want it, or need it.
Alright, question 3. What memories…
Am I trying to create?
I love this question because it changes the conversation completely.
Sometimes your food is part of the experience. Sometimes that… the memory…
is the point. So, like, creating an event, or that special connection with people.
But sometimes it's the food! Maybe you're visiting a city known for a specific dish, or your family has a favorite restaurant.
Maybe you're sharing a dessert with your spouse while watching the sun set.
Eat the food. Enjoy it. Be present. Make the memories.
But not every food is creating some fabulous memory. Sometimes it's just food.
So, most of us aren't going to look back years from now, and…
you know, fondly remember the random…
Crackers or chips that we grabbed.
in the… in the gas station or the hotel lobby.
When you know what memory you're trying to create,
It's easier to say yes to the things that matter, and no to the things that don't.
Okay. Question 4.
Do I want to taste?
Or do I want a serving?
This one's interesting. This might be one of the most useful skills that I have learned.
Sometimes, I truly just want…
to know what something tastes like.
That's very different from wanting
to eat an entire serving of it.
It reminds me of wine tastings. Um, when people go wine tasting,
They're not drinking a whole glass or a whole bottle of every kind. They take a sip. Some of them don't even swallow it, right?
They experience it. They decide what they think.
The goal isn't to consume everything when you're having a wine tasting. The goal is to just experience it.
Food can work in the same way, especially when we're on vacation and there might be something that we're…
Not frequently around.
Sometimes one bite is enough. We just…
wanted to know. Sometimes sharing a dessert is enough, or a couple fries, it's enough.
And sometimes, you really want the whole thing.
That whole thing is what's important.
The key is making your decision instead of eating it automatically.
A taste, it satisfies curiosity.
While a serving, it's gonna satisfy hunger.
Knowing the difference is gonna give you so much more power.
Okay? Alright, question number 5.
How do I want to feel after?
Most women ask, will this make me gain weight?
And that's… that's a reasonable question, because sometimes we're not even considering anything. We're just eating on autopilot.
But I really think a better question…
is how do I want to feel after I eat this?
necessarily tomorrow or next week, maybe we consider that, but just ask
Like, right after I eat this, do I want to feel energized? Is that what I'm eating it for? Am I…
eating it so that I feel satisfied or comfortable, maybe I'm sluggish, like…
How do I want to feel? Do I want to feel stuffed?
Like, some days, like, I've gone to Thanksgiving dinner, and I know I'm gonna feel stuffed, and I'm…
A-okay with that. That's part of the plan.
Um, or do you want to be miserable? Like…
How eating this, in this way, this amount, this type of food, whatever you're asking yourself,
How is it going to make you feel? And how do you want to feel? Because we can control some of that. We have…
in our power to figure out how that works. And you've eaten foods before.
You probably can take a pretty good guess of when you eat this, or how much of this, it's gonna create, like, how it feels in your body.
Your body gives you information all the time.
And when you're on vacation, your body doesn't just quit giving you that information. We quit listening.
But our body is going to continue giving us that information. We just have to listen to it for a moment.
You still are deciding.
So, you still get to decide if you eat it and want to feel stuffed, you still get to decide if you just want a taste of it. You get to decide.
But you're doing it…
In real time. You're doing it with your eyes wide open. You're not just autopilot eating because that's what we've always done.
One of the reasons I became more comfortable around food was because I stopped focusing solely
on the outcome of my weight.
and started paying attention to how food actually made me feel.
Some foods feel worth it.
Like, sometimes… I used to have really bad GI issues with ice cream, and sometimes ice cream was still worth it.
So, some foods are still worth how you're gonna feel.
But sometimes they're not, and you are the only one who gets to decide that. Okay.
So I want to talk about this trap. I call it the scarcity trap, but you might know it as FOMO.
fear of missing out. One thing I see happen on vacation a lot.
Women start acting as if
This is their absolute last chance, last chance to eat dessert, last chance to eat chips.
Last chance to have ice cream.
But vacations are usually the exact opposite.
There is more food available, all day, all the time, because you're not working, you're not distracted, you're not out doing as many things. A lot of times we are.
relaxing. We're around food, we're around all of it. We have more food available. More restaurants, more treats, more opportunities.
But we're missing that fact. We're thinking this is the only time. We're gone away from home, we're on vacation, it's the only time we're gonna get to have this.
But on the course of your vacation…
There's lots of opportunities.
Throughout the course of the day, there's even tomorrow, or there's another vacation, if it's even that exciting.
Alright, you don't have to eat it all. You don't have to eat it all today, because there will be another opportunity later today, tomorrow.
One of the biggest shifts… one of the biggest shifts in my own journey was realizing
I didn't have to eat everything simply because it was there and available right now.
The next opportunity was always coming. I could take some and save some for later. I could have a bite and sample it instead of having to eat a bunch.
I could smell it. A lot of times, I can smell it and decide whether I like it or not, and it didn't even get in my mouth.
And when I started trusting…
That food was always available?
Food lost so much of its urgency.
So, what vacation is really teaching you, I think, um…
One of… I think vacation is one of the best teachers, because vacation exposes the skills
that you're building. So, if you're already practicing some of these skills of weight loss before you go on vacation, you have been practicing these skills, and now it's going to expose the skills
that are still building.
So, um, decision making.
Um, your hunger awareness.
that scarcity or FOMO-type thinking.
Uh, emotional. Like, how emotional are your decisions on eating?
How flexible are you? Does it have to be a certain way, or are you very rigid? Like, is it, like, that or?
are you very rigid? Or how… or flexible? Like, can you… you have confidence, I can always pick something anywhere I go and make a great decision.
Vacation isn't ruining your progress. It's showing you where you can still grow.
super valuable information.
That is the perfect kind of way, just get out and start living, so that I know how to coach women.
When they do nothing but the exact same thing all the time,
it's hard to know where they still need to grow, because they've made this perfectly curated life that never changes. They eat the exact same thing all the time.
They have the exact same habits all the time.
I want an exciting life.
Most women I work with want a very exciting life, and it's gonna change. That's just the nature of how it works. So…
Alright, your challenge this week. The next time that you are faced…
with a food decision. Whether you're on vacation or not, I want you to ask yourself the 5 questions.
Is this actually special?
Number two, am I hungry?
Or is this just available right now?
Number 3. What am I trying to get from this? Like, what memory am I trying to create?
Question number 4 was, do I want just a taste of it? Like, I'm curious about it, or do I want a serving? Because I'm hungry.
And then number 5, what do I want to feel? How do I want my body to feel? How do I want to feel?
After I eat this. You do not need a perfect plan when every food… like, where every food decision…
has already been decided before you even go on vacation.
You need practice making decisions.
Because sustainable weight loss isn't about controlling every situation.
It's about learning how to navigate real life.
And real life includes vacations.
If you would like help building these skills, I would love to talk with you.
Most women do not need another diet.
They need support learning how to make decisions when life isn't perfect.
Vacations, restaurants, stressful weeks, holidays, road trips.
That's exactly what coaching helps with.
If you would like to learn more, schedule a free call with me, www.coachingkara.com/freecall.
We'll talk about where you're getting stuck and create a plan that works in real life.
Not just on your best days. Until next time, remember, you can enjoy your vacation,
And take care of yourself all at the same time.
I'll see you later!
