You know that feeling when you’re on your way home from a fantastic vacation, and your gut, brain, and body are all telling you they’d like to go “back to normal” for a hot second? Same. It might be time for a reset after indulgent meals, the bar at the all-inclusive resort, or one too many adventurous meals in a foreign country. So unzip that suitcase, sit on your comfy couch at home, and set yourself up for a win while you plan for the next trip! 😉
FIRST THING’S FIRST – A WELCOME HOME MEAL
Time to indulge one more time! I’m no dietitian, but I am a frequent traveler who knows the feeling of adoring the journey you’re on while always wanting a piece of home by the end. For me, the plane flight home always consists of movies, photo editing, and dreaming of Tex-Mex from my favorite spot just a block away from my house. I’ll allow myself one more lavish meal to get my “taste of home” fix before swearing off indulgences for a few days. While I know my body doesn’t need chicken fajitas, queso blanco, and a frozen margarita after a vacation – my soul does.
KEEP MOVING THE NEXT DAY
After a fantastic vacation, a hearty welcome-home dinner, and hopefully a restful night’s sleep, I like to move my body and consume as many veggies as I can first thing in the morning. Many vacations involve frequent physical activity through walking miles through cities or theme parks, carrying heavy luggage, and hiking trails and mountains. While it’s incredibly tempting to rest up and sit on the couch for days to recover, I like to use the previous trip’s activity as momentum to continue the habit of keeping my body moving. After a trip, I’ll often extend my typical 1-2 mile walks to 3-4 miles to continue the momentum of frequent exercise on a journey. Alternatively, you can keep your leg muscles growing by taking on squats and stair steps or arms and shoulders able to lift 50 lb luggage easily by hitting the free weights.
My favorite workouts are all on my Apple Watch through Apple Fitness. For only $10 a month, I am guided through strength training, pilates, yoga, and dances and even get to hear narrated walks and runs. Most of these workouts require no additional equipment and are easy to do while traveling.
VEGGIES & VITAMINS
After treating ourselves throughout our vacations, our bodies need some proper refueling. After my morning walk or workout, I make a very green smoothie before heading back to another typical work week. My favorite smoothie theory comes from Kelly Leveque’s book Body Love. In short, her general smoothie recipe is called a Fab 4 Smoothie – I’m more of a fan of the smoothies than the name, ha! The recipes focus on including 4 main fundamentals of fat, fiber, protein, and greens. These building blocks can shape whatever smoothie you enjoy the most with the options of minimal fruit sugar added in to mix it up.
While my favorite smoothie is the Blueberry Muffin, I go for something much more straightforward and greener the day after travels. Here’s my go-to recipe to reset after a trip:
THE GREEN MACHINE:
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 cup of frozen spinach (I freeze the rest of my spinach before leaving for a trip as it’s sure to go bad in the fridge before I come back home!)
- 1/2 cup frozen cauliflower rice (I use this instead of ice. Double the veggie and truly has no taste.)
- 1/2 ripe avocado (Fat element)
- 1 tbsp of ground flax seed (Fiber element – can swap for 1 tbsp of chia seeds)
- 2 tbsp of Vital Proteins Collagen Peptide Powder (Protein element)
- 1 tsp Ashwagandha Powder (Not tasty, and it’s an addition to the recipe, but its anti-inflammatory properties are much needed after traveling.)
Blend the ingredients with an immersion blender, add a wide straw, and try not to look at how green-gray the color is. As I said, this one’s not the tastiest, and there are better, more flavorful recipe’s in Kelly’s book, but this one is one of the leanest, meanest, and greenest to refuel your body.
