03/11/2025
My week in Menorca was filled with delicious food. Keeping cool with ice creams on the beach, eating fresh fruit on my cereal every morning, enjoying glasses of prosecco and sangria in the evenings, trying a variety of rich tapas dishes, snacking on crisps and Fanta Limón around the pool, indulging in different Spanish pastries each night for pudding. I boarded the plane back home in a food coma!
A few years ago I'd have come back from my holiday, stepped on the scales and felt incredibly guilty for any holiday weight gain. I'd have then spent the next few weeks punishing myself and telling myself I needed to do stupid amounts of cardio and restrict my meals until I was back to my pre-holiday weight.
The restriction would only last a week or so before I'd inevitably be so hungry that I'd "fall off the wagon" and have a huge blow out binge. Thousands of calories gorged on in one sitting only to immediately feel guilty as soon as I'd finished eating, therefore starting the vicious restrict/binge cycle all over again.
I spent years and years bingeing and restricting - wildly swinging from one extreme to the other. It was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting.
This time it was different. This time I came back from holiday and simply returned back to my usual way of eating. Trying to include a protein source at each meal, lots of fruit and veggies throughout the day, enough carbohydrates to support my activity levels, healthy fats for brain function. And of course I still included sweet treats in moderation because chocolate is the food that feeds my soul.
No stupid diet, no restriction, no punishing cardio. Just eating 'normally' again. When you focus on a healthy lifestyle all year round you can enjoy food on holiday for exactly what it is - one week, maybe two, of eating differently to how you would at home because you're on holiday.
Any weight gain doesn't make you a bad person - it just tells you what a fantastic time you had and that's exactly what holidays are for!!
If you need a little help improving your own relationship with food I'd love to hear from you. I am passionate about helping people establish positive, healthy relationships with diet and exercise and I am living proof that you CAN reach a healthy balance again if you're stuck in a dysfunctional relationship with food.
Rach
