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How To Quickly Shed Vacation Weight Gain

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The last three weeks have been incredible for me! I had a wonderful wedding ceremony and reception on August 27th and then went on a two week honeymoon to Europe. I love exploring new cities throughout Europe and make it a priority to travel there every year. After traveling through Southern France, Paris, Belgium and Amsterdam, I came home with many pictures, memories….and 5 more pounds to my body!

That’s right, I gained five pounds in the last 2.5 weeks, while my husband lost four pounds (insert mad face here). Luckily, I have zero guilt about it because everything I ate in Europe was worth it and I savored every single bite! Now, some of the five pounds gained is water retention, while a pound or two may be fat. I wanted to share my five go-to strategies to shed my Europe vacation weight quickly.

1.) Drink Water Like It’s Your Job 

waterIn order to shed the water retention, you have to drink a lot of water. My focus is to drink 125 ounces of water, which equals to about five Starbucks cups. I like to use my water bottle to keep track of my ounces because it helps me stay on track.

2.) Let Veggies Be Your Carb Source Temporarily 

Even when I was in Europe, I made sure to eat vegetable every day, but it was no where near the amount that I eat at home. Since I consumed delicious almond croissants, chocolate, fruit tarts, bread and pizza throughout on vacation, I’m happy to take a break from any type of splurge food. For quick weight loss, eat 1-2 servings of non-starchy vegetables every meal. My goal is 5-8 servings a day. This helps me stay full, while also filling up on nutrients! I’m taking a temporary break from fruit, potatoes, rice, rice cakes (my normal go-to starchy carbs) for the next 3-5 days.

polar3.) Exercise Intensely

I walked a ton in Europe (185,000 steps in a week) but I did not have one intense workout. It was nice to get back to my routine!

This workout consisted of 20 minutes of stair mill intervals (Level 13 for 40 seconds and Level 3 for 20-30 seconds).

I completed the following circuit 3x.

  • 100 jumps with a jump rope
  • 15 up and overs on a step box
  • 30 second heavy ropes
  • 30 speed skaters

4.) Eat Plenty of Protein 

Each meal I’ve been focusing on eating at least 20 grams of protein. I have also stuck to very low fat protein sources like chicken breast, ground turkey and tuna fish. I don’t eat much dairy, but when I do, it’s normally cheese. Dairy can cause an inflammatory response in the body for some individuals, which could slow down weight loss, so I will eliminate any cheese from meals temporarily.

5.) Watch Salt & Eat From Home

Even if I’m eating a grilled chicken salad at a restaurant, I’m still consuming a lot of salt. In order to shed water weight, you need to watch how much salt you’re consuming. My goal is to keep salt to a minimum by watching how I season my foods and avoiding salty options like deli meats. Again, I’ll focus on minimizing salt for 3-5 days before going back to my normal cooking. To season protein sources like ground turkey or chicken breast, I love using no-salt seasoning.

Example Day 

Sun Warrior Protein Shake with unsweetened almond milk, 1 Tablespoon of Raw Almond Butter, 1 cup spinach.

Lunch: Baked Chicken with Olive Oil and No-Salt seasoning paired with veggies.

Snack: Can of Tuna with Celery, Onion, Peppers, Lemon Juice and 1/2 small Avocado

Dinner: Grilled Bun-less Turkey Burger with steamed veggies

Exercise: Walk 30+ minutes a day paired with a strength workout OR complete a high intensity workout (30 minutes) paired with 30 minutes+ of leisure walking.

This type of eating and exercising cannot be done long-term and it’s meant to be done in short cycles. Mentally, it’s challenging because food choices are more strict and carbohydrates are limited. As for exercising, you don’t want to tax your body every single day. So, after 3-5 days of hard exercise, a rest day is important. Rest days usually consist of stretching, foam rolling and walking.