The #1 Thing You Shouldn’t Do After A Vacation

Hey there friend, thank you for hanging out with me today. I am so happy to have you here. The last couple weeks we've been talking about holiday travel and I shared what I do to prepare for travel. I shared how I handle stress during vacation. And now today I want to tell you something very quick for when you return home after your holiday or after your vacation. It's to the point, but it's very important.

There is one thing you must NOT DO when you get home. Do not do this, OK. Over exercise. When you get home from vacation, no matter how tempted you feel to over exercise because you have to catch up, or you have to make up workouts, or you think you have to regain whatever you think you lost while you were on vacation. Don't. Do. It. Stop right there. Take a deep breath. It's not needed.

This is what you’re going to do; gently resume your normal life, your normal schedule.

I did this all the time. I still feel the temptation to do this. This Christmas, my family and I are vacationing at Disney World for ten days and I know when I return I will naturally feel pulled to over exercise. There's gonna be a little voice in my head telling me to go balls to the walls with exercising. I'm gonna guilt myself. And shame myself by saying, “You ate this and this and you didn't workout for so many days.” I’ll think I’ll have to hit it hard or else all the work I did before will be lost.

And that's not true. This is very short and to the point today, but it's very important. No matter what you do, don’t do this. Don't come home and guilt or shame yourself into feeling like you need to over exercise. I know it's gonna cross your mind before you leave for your vacation, while you're on your vacation and again when you come home. It's gonna be rampant in your brain, since you were thinking about it while you were getting ready and while you were there. You might not even have been consciously thinking about these things. It could come out in undertone thoughts or subconsciously.

For example you might think, “I'll eat this but when I get home, I better hit it hard. I gotta make up for time lost here. I gotta make up.”

Don't. Do. This. Be gentle with yourself. Be kind to yourself. Know it's temporary. The vacation was temporary, so don't treat it like it's something that's gonna completely derail you. If you have an eating disorder, it's going to try to sneak in whenever there's a little bit of anxiety, it's going to try to sneak its way in, and it's going to try to gain control again. So if you were on your vacation and you were having a pretty good time, and things went pretty good, it's almost like your eating disorder is sitting there, waiting, almost kind of mad. It's gonna take it out on you when you get home. It’s a bully. It’s a leech-like goblin living in your brain and it needs to be eradicated. It does. Don’t listen to it. Don't do this.

Please do not over exercise when you get home from vacation, when you return from the holidays. No matter how much you ate, how little you moved your body, how little you worked out, you are gonna be ok, friend. I promise you are gonna be ok. But to prove that to yourself, to prove to yourself that you are going to be OK, don't over exercise. Don't punish yourself. Be gentle and nourishing. Think gentle thoughts. Give yourself nourishment.

Always come back here for support. Come here for gentle thoughts and to nourish your mind. That's why I'm here. OK, come back, and I'll give you a big hug. Alright, friend, it's a short, but sweet one today, but it's very important that you listen to what I had to say. Don't over exercise. Have a great week. I can’t wait to talk to you next week. Bye.