Healthy on Holiday

One of the best things about holidays is undoubtedly the food and drink – BBQs beside the campfire, feasts on the beach, a pint of Guinness and a plate of chips in the local pub. However, the summer holidays might be a good time for your taste buds, but it isn’t exactly an ideal season for your waistline. But what if you could enjoy your summer holiday without sabotaging your health? Here is how to be Healthy on Holiday.

How to Stay Healthy on Holiday

Choose Your Breakfast Wisely

Firstly, just because you’re on holiday does not mean it is mandatory to inhale ­sausages and hash browns within half an hour of rolling out of bed. Secondly, don’t assume a ‘Continental Breakfast’ is better: one all-butter croissant has 225 calories and 13.5g of fat without butter and jam. In short, opt for foods like boiled or scrambled eggs to fill you up, or fresh fruit which contains a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals to keep you healthy on holidays.

Stay Active

A great way to keep active on holidays is to walk and there are hundreds of amazing trails, hikes and walks in Ireland with some incredible views and breathtaking scenery. To sum up, walking is a perfect way to burn those excess calories, without even feeling like your exercising! Likewise, cycling tours are another brilliant way to explore while also getting fresh air, exercising and staying healthy on holiday.

Catch up on Sleep

Whilst some people take their holidays as a chance to catch up on sleep, others stay out until the early hours of the morning enjoying the nightlife but also get up early to fit in a full day of sightseeing and activities. However, this can lead to you coming home more exhausted than when you left.

Therefore to stay healthy on holiday, try to have a lie on one or two of the mornings. Remember, you are in no hurry to do anything so take full advantage of your time off. Alternatively, if you went to bed pretty late the night before, take a nap. Holidays should be a time to reset and revitalise.

Stay Hydrated

Drinking water is the silver bullet for many of the challenges we face during the summer holidays. Above all, letting your body become dehydrated will zap your energy and can cause you to feel exhausted and ill. In addition, going too heavy on the drinking can lead to dehydration, so balancing your cocktails, wine, and pint of Guinness with a glass of water is the key to prevent dehydration.

Therefore, try to carry around a bottle of water at all times and make a conscious effort to drain and fill it a couple of times a day in order to stay healthy on holiday.

Choose Your Drinks Wisely 

Is a holiday even a holiday if you don’t have a few too many? Unfortunately, many of us massively increase our usual calorie intake on holiday with alcohol.

So, here are some healthy alcohol swaps:

• A mojito instead of a margarita – containing lashings of tequila and sugar, a margarita is one of the worst offenders on the cocktail menu at a jean-squeezing 550 calories. Ask for your mojito without sugar for a much lighter drink between 130-140 calories.
• Opt for slimline tonic or soda water – tonic water and other mixers can be laced with sugar, and can add an extra 500 calories onto your night without you even noticing.
• Shandy instead of beer – swapping a full beer for some diet lemonade takes your drink from 250-300 calories to a mere 60 calories a glass.
• Spritzer instead of wine – try adding lemonade or soda water to your wine to reduce the calorie intake drastically from 150-220 calories to just 50 a glass.

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