RETURNING TO A HEALTHY BALANCE

It can be easy for healthy life-styles to go out the window on holidays. Particularly busy ones in new countries, running around, seeing new sights, sampling far too much of the local food. Not only that, but after escaping your daily grind for a while it’s common to get overwhelmed by reality on your return. So after a holiday, it’s pretty important to start returning to a healthy balance as soon as possible.

FIRSTLY, ACCEPTANCE IS KEY

You went on holiday, likely ate and drank more than normal, and you’ve put on a few pounds. Obviously this can be very disheartening. Especially if you were actively trying to manage your food and exercise to not gain weight. But there’s one thing you must do now that you’re back:

Accept it. You went on holidays. You enjoyed yourself. So you put on a bit of weight. It’s not the end of the world. Stressing about it will only make things worse. Your self-confidence will plummet and you’ll be too busy feeling sorry for yourself to fix it.

Accepting these things happen and moving forward is the first step to returning to a healthy balance.

GET BACK TO A NORMAL DAILY ROUTINE ASAP

It’s tempting to spend the first few days on your return lounging about recovering from jet-lag, but this is counterproductive. The best thing to do is try to return to normal quickly. It will take a few days for your body to adjust and you’ll feel terrible. But it’ll take longer — and you’ll feel worse — if you don’t.

More specifically, and perhaps more importantly, you should get back to a normal sleep schedule as fast as possible. Good sleep is one of the pillars of healthy living, and one of the fastest steps to returning to a healthy balance.

Fight the sleepiness. Fight the jet-lag. Try to get to sleep as close to your regular bedtime as possible. If you wake too early, lie in bed and rest. Stay down until as close to your regular waking time as you can manage. You’ll be back to your old sleeping habits in no time.

YOU MIGHT NEED TO CUT DOWN ON SOME FOODS

We don’t advocate fad diets or cutting out food groups. But if you got used to certain foods, your body starts craving them. If you found yourself overindulging in sweets, alcohol, or carb-heavy meals, for example, you’ll be well served from cutting right down for a week or so. Your body will naturally adjust and you’ll experience less cravings, making it easier to return to your previous eating habits.

It’ll be hard, at first, but it’ll be worth it.

This can be particularly prudent for alcohol consumption, which is obviously habit-forming. Alcohol is also disruptive to healthy sleep and will prevent you from getting back into a good sleep cycle quickly. While it’s true alcohol makes us drowsy, metabolising it is a different matter. If you’ve ever woken up wide awake early in the morning after a night of drinking, you can thank your liver. When you’re trying to return to a healthy balance, disruption to your sleep is the last thing you need.

TRY MEDITATING

It’s back to paying bills, doing work, and all the things you escaped for a few weeks. Very quickly, stress and anxiety can pile themselves back on.

This is where meditation becomes a very useful tool. Mindfulness meditation is a great way of putting yourself in the “now”. By concentrating on the present you can ease yourself away from the worries of obligations. This in turn makes them seem less imposing and easier to manage. Easier to manage, less stress.

Going for a walk and concentrating on the sights and sounds around you can be an excellent way not just to clear your mind, but to bring it back to home. Walk familiar streets. Visit a park. Touch a tree. Little sensations that bring you closer to the present moment will calm you and focus your thoughts.

So to wrap it all up:

• Don’t beat yourself up about slipping on your healthy living on your trip. It happens. Stressing will only make it worse.


• Get back to your normal daily and sleep patterns as quickly as possible.


• Lay off the alcohol and energy-dense foods for a little bit. Give your body time to recover from any cravings you’ve developed.


• Clear your head and stay on top of mounting tasks with a little bit of mindful meditation.

Within a week of your return you’ll be right back on top of life again, returning to a healthy balance and living to the fullest.