There’s No Such Thing as a Free Breakfast
September, 2018
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Breakfast buffets are not your friend.
Yes, they are a thing of beauty – a deluge of savoury, fried, sweet, baked and toasted goodies that seem to talk to your taste buds when you look at them – but still, they are not your friend.
It’s easy to fall into the holiday food trap of treating yourself to a few tasty nibbles and drinks each day – after all, isn’t that what holidays are for?
The truth is, however, a few treats at the breakfast buffet quickly becomes the start of a series of treats throughout the day. Later on you might come across some cultural street food you want to try, and then you get surprisingly hungry and decide to stop into a café for some lunch and to try the local beers. Before you know it, the dinner buffet is being served and you’re faced with another array of enticing food choices that you just can’t say no to.
Welcome to the holiday buffet trap.
Let’s Get Real
You might go into your holiday with the best of intentions to make healthy selections from the food buffets and to use the resort gym daily, but you and I both know that once you reach your destination, good intentions usually fall by the wayside.
So instead of repeating the same mistakes every holiday, be honest with yourself, accept that buffets are an overeating trap, and say ‘no’ when they are offered to you. Even if the buffet is complimentary, nothing ever comes for free. You’ll end up paying for it with your health, especially when you put on weight.
Buffets offer too much choice and require us to resist temptation, which on a holiday, is usually hard. So rather than setting yourself up to fail, opt for the à la carte breakfast option where a healthy and portion-controlled choice is more likely.
Set Yourself up for Success in the Morning
Imagine a holiday where you wake up after a replenishing sleep, go for a walk or a work out (as most holiday destinations now offer gyms and other activities such as morning yoga), come back after your 30-60 minute session and sit down to a freshly squeezed juice, fruit salad and one or two eggs. That’s all you need to start your day off on the right foot, and this type of food is readily available in most parts of the world.
Starting out your morning with some activity and a healthy breakfast also means you can have space in your tummy to enjoy a nice lunch and dinner, without feeling guilty or gaining a significant amount of weight.
View Your Holidays Differently
Holidays should be viewed as an opportunity to recharge your batteries, get some rest and recovery time, and make healthy food choices. Yes, that’s right, healthy food choices.
If there’s ever a time when you have the headspace to think more about what you put in your body, it’s on a holiday. Sure you can create space for trying local delicacies, but a holiday doesn’t need to be a time when you surrender to unhealthy eating. Remember, how you choose to think about your time away is a choice.
If you could do with some help on how to make healthier food choices daily and incorporate exercises that help you achieve your personal health and fitness goals, we’d love to help.
Urban Fitness Solutions are experienced, mobile personal trainers who come to you! We work with people 45 years and up to improve health and wellbeing though outdoor exercise and developing healthy, sustainable eating and lifestyle habits. We also offer nutrition coaching.