Why I Don’t Take Vacations From Fitness
A lot of people completely forgo fitness routines while traveling and just go into “Vacation Mode,” which is totally fine. I, however, very rarely take a vacation from fitness. No matter where I am, I’m working out, and I’ve got some solid reasons.
My metabolism makes no sense
I’ve always known that my metabolism wasn’t great, but I was always able to keep my body a lovely mix of chubby and fit, depending on just how interested I was in french fries and ice cream at the time. I love food, but I don’t hate exercise, and I respect my body, so I was happy with being “Curvy Fit” or whatever you wanted to call it. Toned and Thick, Big Booty Beauty, or, my personal favorite, “rellenita” (Argentine slang for “A little refilled”)
Then my body betrayed me
Around late 2013, I started gaining weight, specifically in my belly. I reeled in my eating habits and increased my workouts, but the belly just kept growing. I spent all of 2014 on a variety of diets. I did everything from calorie counting to horribly cruel elimination diets. (Seriously, what even is life without wine and cheese?) I went off birth control and had insane hormonal surges, but no weight loss. I cut out carbs, dairy, and processed food and then actually gained weight.
I ate like a caveman and cried like a baby.
I went to doctors I couldn’t afford who told me nothing. By 2015, I’d accepted that I would forever have the look of a fit pregnant woman. In a last ditch effort, I scrounged together the insane amounts of money someone with garbage health insurance needs to pay a specialist. This time, it actually helped.
In my doctor’s exact words “your liver has been sabotaging you. You are in a constant state of sugar surges and crashes, no matter what you eat.”
Seriously liver, WTF?”
Turns out my total asshole of a liver just produces a ton of sugar all the damn time, even if I’m not eating it. It pumps me up like a kid on Halloween then crashes, leaving me exhausted and, also, fat.
Me, in an endless cycle:
I’m now on some medicine that’s supposed to level me out and give me a fighting chance, but it’s not a miracle drug. Skipping workouts generally just makes me feel worse. So even when I don’t want to exercise, I try my best to do some sort of physical activity so I can keep that jerkface liver and wonky metabolism in check.
I travel fairly often
I fully support Vacation Mode for people who take 1-2 weeks of vacation per year. If you only take off work for a couple weeks, go ahead and skip some workouts. Eat ice cream with reckless abandon. Do it for the 42% of Americans who don’t use any of their vacation days each year. Answer the question “Can I live?” with a resounding HELL YES!
But here’s the thing guys, I travel more than 2 weeks out of the year. I am wont to see a flight sale and book a trip with doing literally zero research. (See: Iceland. And also: Costa Rica). If I took a vacation from fitness on every trip, I’d be skipping 3-4 months of workouts every year. That adds up to a couple of pants sizes. Do I look like I can afford to buy all new pants? How am I supposed to spontaneously book flights if I’ve wasted all my travel money on PANTS?!
My gym is wherever I am
Some people struggle to work out on the road because they don’t have ellipticals, Zumba classes, squat racks, or whatever other fitness mechanisms are being sweated upon in gyms everywhere. I don’t have that issue because I’m not a member of a gym, partially because I don’t want to pay for one and also because I much prefer to work out at home.
I have no problem working out in that tiny stretch of space between the hotel bed and the wall. I can also take my workouts outside. I have a lot of body weight exercises I can do anywhere. If I have internet, I use websites like Fitness Blender and PopSugar Fitness for videos. Otherwise, I have written workout plans to follow.
Fitness and travel are both huge parts of my life, so I see no reason to separate them. Honestly, I’d rather workout twice as hard to earn my street food than say no thanks to local cuisine.
