How to ‘manage’ a holiday Beyond Chocolate style

Gretel Hallet, is a Trained Chocolate Fairy and is running the Getting Started half day workshop in Norwich - perfect for beginners to experience the core principles of Beyond Chocolate and equally great as a refresher for any Beyond Chocolater. If you live in East Anglia and want to know more about Beyond Chocolate or her workshops, get in touch with Gretel.

It’s holiday season. And for many of us that equals panic, body loathing, the purchase of tent-like clothing and the shunning of swimming costumes. How can we relax and enjoy our well-earned break when there’s all that food (and drink!) constantly available? How can we relax on the beach when we feel so FAT? When we’re not the size 10 (12/14... what's your ideal size?) we were hoping to be by now? When there’s no gym or it’s too hot to exercise?

Fear not! The diet and exercise gurus on the internet have come up with some helpful hints, as follows:

1. Decide on a goal for the holiday – do you intend to maintain your current weight, gain weight or lose weight?

2. Pre-Vacation Plan - Make your week prior to leaving your best ever, plan to be 'really good.'

3. Indulgences - Plan your indulgences ahead of time. Don't waste calories on foods/meals you could eat at home.

4. Eat Clean - Decide which meals you will "eat what you want" and make an effort to keep the rest of your meals clean and supportive.

5. Stay Active – and just be sure to include stretching to keep your body feeling good.

Actually, this isn’t as bad as it may sound. Deciding before we go on holiday whether we are going to throw all principles to the four winds or whether we are going to experiment with the Beyond Chocolate principles during our holiday, can take some of the pressure off worrying about what we’re going to eat, when and how much.

Before we go on holiday, it may be worth making a bit of a fuss of ourselves – a bit of pre-holiday pampering. I like to get my nails painted, eyebrows tidied, eyelashes tinted, legs waxed etc. It all helps me to feel serene and groomed while I’m there.

Although I don’t agree with the word ‘indulgences’ and nor do I plan how many I’m ‘allowed’, I do agree that it’s not worth wasting eating opportunities (rather than calories) on food that I don’t like, don’t want or could easily have at home. On holidays I like to experiment with new foods and I enjoy my eating opportunities so much more when I’m nicely hungry.

Eat Clean sounds good to me actually – so does ‘eat what you want’; both are very compatible with Beyond Chocolate. I'm interpreting ‘eat clean’ as that feeling I get when I’ve eaten something I want, when I’m hungry for it and I’ve stopped when I’ve had enough. It feels good to me and ‘clean’ to eat foods that sustain me and help me to feel well nourished.

Stay active – well that’s one for each of us to decide for ourselves. I prefer active holidays to lying on the beach type holidays – but if we are swimming, walking, sightseeing, dancing, these are all active and fit well with ‘Move’. And as long as we are having a good time while we're doing them, great!

Above all, on holiday, ENJOY!