How To Not Sabotage Your Diet When You’re On Vacation

If you've ever been on a diet you know how hard it is to get the pounds to fall off. What you may not realize is how easy it is to undo a month of dieting in less than a week. Here's some good advice on how to not sabotage your diet during vacation week.

Female First reports the results of a new study which indicate you can undo a month of dieting in just six days - and quite often that happens when you're on vacation. It is so difficult to stick to a diet when you are on the road, eating out, and eating at somebody else's house. More than two-thirds of those in the study said they didn't stick to their diet while on vacation.

Here's a couple of tips that I've learned from my personal experience when traveling that could help you to not completely blow your diet.

1) Don't try to eat three meals a day when you're traveling. Eating fast food three times a day is the quickest way to sabotage a diet. Instead, take along some healthy snacks to eat in the car like fruit, nuts, raw veggies, and water. Leave the cookies and ding dongs at home.

2) If you have to do fast food -- skip the fries - and the bacon. If you're like me, and you HAVE to have chips or fries with your sandwich, take a long some fat free chips in a can. They're actually very good - just consume them in moderation.

3) Resist the "I'm on vacation I can eat what I want" mentality. Yes, it is vacation, and yes, you should get to splurge once in a while and get the extra large piece of cheesecake for dessert, but make those occasions the exception rather than the rule.

4) If you are normally going to the gym when you are home, or doing some sort of exercise regimen, try to find ways to stay active while you're on the road, even if it's not the same routine you are used to. Take advantage of the fitness center at the hotel, or find 30 minutes in your day to take a brisk walk. This will help to burn off some of those extra calories that you may be ingesting on your trip. The more active you are, the more "extra" calories you can get away with.

5) Expect that you are probably going to gain a little weight on vacation so that when you get back home and step on the scales you aren't disappointed and devastated that the scale has gone up. This kind of devastation can create feelings of hopelessness and make  people give up on the diet they have worked so hard to follow for so long.