Vacations have always been a mixed blessing for me—I get my much needed rest and relaxation, but I almost always come back having gained weight and feeling bad about myself. On my honeymoon, I actually gained 10 pounds on a 10-day cruise. I could blame it on the seemingly round-the-clock all-you-can-eat buffets, but really, who gains that much weight on one vacation? I was determined that this summer’s vacation was going to be different, and it was.
Before we even left Murrieta for Monterey Bay, I packed more than changes of clothes and our swimsuits. I started by packing the cooler with healthy snacks for the drive and almond milk for my coffee and for our oatmeal. We also made sure to pack anything we might need for exercising—helmets and gloves for biking and my running gear for a long run along the coast.
As I have shared in previous blogs, we love food and most of our fondest memories are surrounded by the amazing food we have experienced. I am not going to lie to you—I planned to eat and experience amazing cuisine on this trip. I was just going to make better choices, so I wouldn’t end up paying for it later. In order to illustrate what I mean by good choices, I will share what we ate the day we drove up to Monterey. Because we left the house so early, I didn’t have time to work out. This meant I was going to need to make extra good choices on this day. Here is what we ate:
For breakfast we stopped at McDonald’s where instead of eating an Egg McMuffin and hash browns, we had their oatmeal cup and added our own bananas and almond milk from the cooler. For those of you that have never had almond milk, this is an amazing substitute for milk. Even non-fat skim milk has about 100 calories per cup. The almond milk has 40 calories for the same serving size, and it tastes much creamier than the watered down tasting skim milk. I even use it in my coffee instead of creamer.
Before we even left Murrieta for Monterey Bay, I packed more than changes of clothes and our swimsuits. I started by packing the cooler with healthy snacks for the drive and almond milk for my coffee and for our oatmeal. We also made sure to pack anything we might need for exercising—helmets and gloves for biking and my running gear for a long run along the coast.
As I have shared in previous blogs, we love food and most of our fondest memories are surrounded by the amazing food we have experienced. I am not going to lie to you—I planned to eat and experience amazing cuisine on this trip. I was just going to make better choices, so I wouldn’t end up paying for it later. In order to illustrate what I mean by good choices, I will share what we ate the day we drove up to Monterey. Because we left the house so early, I didn’t have time to work out. This meant I was going to need to make extra good choices on this day. Here is what we ate:
For breakfast we stopped at McDonald’s where instead of eating an Egg McMuffin and hash browns, we had their oatmeal cup and added our own bananas and almond milk from the cooler. For those of you that have never had almond milk, this is an amazing substitute for milk. Even non-fat skim milk has about 100 calories per cup. The almond milk has 40 calories for the same serving size, and it tastes much creamier than the watered down tasting skim milk. I even use it in my coffee instead of creamer.
When we arrived in Monterey, our lunch choice, The Fish Wife, was closed, so we decided to have Vietnamese food. We eat Vietnamese food once a week at home so we know what the healthy choices are. We always start off with spring rolls (see photo) but we just make sure to go light on the peanut sauce that comes with them. We also order a bowl of pho, which is a broth-based soup with noodles and lots of fresh veggies and herbs (see photo of the plate of garnish that comes with the pho).
Whenever we go to Monterey, we always stay at the Best Western Beach Resort right on the water. They have a restaurant with an amazing view of the entire bay, and so this is where we chose to end our day. We can watch the sun set as we ate, which was an added bonus. I was planning to have dessert, so I looked for the healthiest entrée on the menu. I selected a veggie, sundried-tomato polenta stack. As you can see from the photo, this was one healthy meal. The bottom is a yellow and orange pepper coulis (peppers pureed with a little olive oil). There were two slices of polenta and a delicious array of grilled veggies and tomatoes. Not only did it taste amazing, but the presentation made me feel like I was eating something decadent. For dessert, we did not hold back, sharing a chocolate lava cake and a crème brulee. Now because we were sharing this between five people, it was a reasonable way to not completely deprive ourselves.
The rest of the vacation’s food choices went much the same way. We either chose healthy meals or we made more decadent choices and shared them. I think the message I want to get across in this blog is that you don’t need to completely deprive yourself…you just need to plan and make good choices. For example, what really saved us this vacation was the exercise. As you can see from my workout log, we began each day with either a long run or bike ride:
Now, don’t think that you have to run or bike 11 miles everyday… it is just a matter of making exercise a part of your routine. We used our runs and rides as a way to tour the coast and see things we couldn’t see driving in our car. For example, we would never have noticed the dolphins playing in a little cove just 50 feet off shore had we not been on the bike path early one morning. One evening we even rode our bikes to and from dinner to get a little extra movement in for the day. Keep moving, make good food choices, but enjoy life.
You only live once…so make it a healthy one but remember to enjoy life to the fullest.
You only live once…so make it a healthy one but remember to enjoy life to the fullest.
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