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#127: How to actually relax on holiday without feeling guilty
493 Plays11 days ago
Taking a holiday shouldn't feel like a battle between relaxation and routine - but for so many of us, it does. In this episode, I chat about the hidden stress that often comes with time off: the anxiety around letting go of our fitness habits, eating differently, and worrying about body image. If you've ever felt guilty about enjoying your break or struggled to fully unwind, this one's for you.
I’m sharing my own experiences, plus real talk on how to let go of the pressure and actually enjoy your holiday - without throwing your health goals out the window. You’ll hear practical ways to stay mindful on vacation, why rest is just as important as movement, and how to come back to your routine feeling refreshed, not resentful.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
[0:00] - Why rest matters more than we think
[0:16] - A warm welcome and why I created this episode
[2:07] - Unpacking the guilt and anxiety tied to holiday breaks
[3:14] - Tips for finding balance between health and fun while traveling
[6:53] - Letting go of negative thoughts and the pressure to “stay on track”
[13:05] - Easing back into routine with grace and self-compassion
[15:55] - Final thoughts on what a truly nourishing holiday can look like
Links & Resources:
- Connect with me on Instagram here
- Find out more about our coaching services here
- Book: Somebody Should Have Told Us! By Jack Pransky here
- Learn more about KHH coaching here
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with friends who might benefit. For more health and fitness tips, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @katehamiltonhealth.
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Transcript
The Art of Relaxation on Holidays
00:00:00
Speaker
What in God's name is the point in all of your habits you've put in place, all of the hard work you've put in, if you cannot relax and take five days, a week, two weeks, three weeks, whatever length your holidays are, if you cannot take those off to relax and enjoy?
Introduction to Holiday Anxiety
00:00:25
Speaker
everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast. So in today's episode, I really just wanted to pop on and make it really quick and just talk a little bit around the topic of going on holidays.
00:00:37
Speaker
Because I know a lot of the ladies that I talk to that have been working hard on getting healthier, getting fitter, losing weight, and have been working hard for the past few weeks, few months on themselves and on their health issues.
00:00:48
Speaker
if they have an impending holiday, a lot of people can feel quite anxious about going on
Personal Struggles with Body Image
00:00:55
Speaker
holidays. I really just want to touch on this topic because it's so, so important.
00:01:00
Speaker
And I probably have done an episode on this last year. i haven't even gone back to check. I might say a lot of the same things again, if you've heard me speak on this before, but I think you cannot hear this enough. I'm 39 years old. And even when I go on holidays, I find a lot of these negative thought patterns still creep back in.
00:01:18
Speaker
And when I was doing a bit of reflection on holidays, I've realized a lot of these negative thought patterns I've had since as young as I can remember, like 11 years old, of being body conscious, of not feeling good enough, of worrying about my body.
00:01:33
Speaker
Since 11. eleven And it's probably even younger than that. But I thought, wow. So I think we owe it to ourselves to really deal with this head on. We owe it to our daughters as well.
00:01:45
Speaker
So, you know, I have a 12 year old daughter and I would hate for her to be ruining a holiday, worrying about her body, thinking about her body. So this is a really, really important topic. So I feel like we can never hear it an enough.
Challenges of Relaxing on Holidays
00:01:57
Speaker
So I'm going to go again. I'm sure it'll be a bit different to what I said last summer, but a lot of it will be the same stuff as well. We'll talk a bit about those negative thought patterns when we're actually on holidays in a moment. But what I want to talk about a little bit first is that anxiety about going on holidays.
00:02:12
Speaker
Can I just say, what in God's name is the point in all of your habits you've put in place, all of the hard work you've put in. If you cannot relax and take five days, a week, two weeks, three weeks, whatever length your holidays are, if you cannot take those off to relax and enjoy, what like what is the point?
00:02:32
Speaker
You're setting yourself up for a life of misery. We have to be able to relax and enjoy our holidays. And I know you're thinking, Kate, that's so much easier said than done. Yes, it is. For some people, it is. For some people, it's not. People can switch off and just be YOLO, let's just relax and enjoy.
00:02:46
Speaker
But for others, it can be quite difficult. But it is really, really important that we challenge ourselves on this. Remember that before you go on holidays, The work is done.
00:02:57
Speaker
OK, it's done before you've gone.
Healthy Habits vs. Enjoyment
00:02:59
Speaker
This is what you work so hard for all year financially and health wise. So if you've been like saving all of your money and you're putting thousands and thousands of euros towards a holiday where you've worked so hard all year for, enjoy it. When you're away, i don't believe that holidays is a place for tracking your calories.
00:03:19
Speaker
Now, I think it's a really great place for you to practice you know, if you want to keep things fairly balanced, that you can practice the habits that protect your progress. Drinking plenty of water, getting out for a daily walk. Some people enjoy going to the hotel gym when they're on holidays. I don't. I could think of nothing worse.
00:03:35
Speaker
There's no way. i go And me, it's funny, myself and Lindsay, my coach Lindsay, we talk about this all the time. She loves going to a gym when she's on holidays and trying out new gyms when she's traveling. I'm like, much like I went to Miami and she's like, I can't believe that you didn't, you're not going to go to any of the gyms in America. And I was like,
00:03:51
Speaker
I'm going to see the alligators. Why would I go to the gym? My point is, you know, what she enjoys doing on holidays is different to what I enjoy doing on holidays. And it's okay. They're your
Mindful Eating and Balance
00:04:00
Speaker
holidays. But like, you know, um drink plenty of water, eat a bit of fruit and veg when you're away, a little bit, catch up on your sleep, practice relaxation and stress relieving activities. like sleeping, like walking, like reading, like listening to podcasts, like getting up and playing with your kids.
00:04:17
Speaker
If you're away with kids, just having fun in the moment with the people that you're with. If you enjoy walking, walk. If you don't, if you don't want to walk, you don't have to. If you want to go to the gym, go to the gym. If you don't want to, you don't have to.
00:04:28
Speaker
But what you can do is learn to be mindful and that in every sense of the word. So not only with, you know, being mindful that you're present and you're not stressing and worrying and feeling anxious about food, but being mindful with your food as well.
00:04:41
Speaker
So doesn't have to be a free for all. Like it's about getting that balance. Like you don't want to feel ah anxious and restricted, but you also don't want to stuff yourself so much that you feel like shit physically, then you're not enjoying your holidays much either. So it's about having the freedom around food, but also just testing the boundaries with, okay, you're not going to track
Perspective on Holiday Indulgence
00:05:01
Speaker
calories for the rest of your life. You might be mid journey at the minute and then you'll get to maintenance and you'll practice a bit of tracking at maintenance.
00:05:07
Speaker
Eventually you're going to take those that calorie tracking away most of the time. You'll always have it there in your back pocket to use as necessary. But holidays can be a really great time for practicing that little bit of balance. Being like, you know, when you're on holidays, make sure you have a breakfast, a lunch and a dinner.
00:05:20
Speaker
Like with breakfast, have some yogurt and fruit and you might want to cross on as well, but like have the yogurt and fruit with it. With lunch, you might, I don't know, you might be eating out at a restaurant for your lunch.
00:05:31
Speaker
See if you can get a side salad with it. You know to mean? Little things like that make a huge difference. Eat slowly and mindfully. Stop when you're full. If you're drinking on holidays, just sure you're drinking loads of water too. So that's what I would say. And just to remember to zoom out.
00:05:44
Speaker
If we think of your holiday as two weeks, That is 3.8% of your whole year.
00:05:52
Speaker
3.8% is all it is. So when we actually think about that, but actually, i couldn't give a shit what you do on holidays. Do what you want. not going to fucking matter. What matters are the other 50 weeks of the year.
00:06:05
Speaker
So two weeks for your holidays. And let's say you took two weeks of Christmas as well. OK, it's 52 weeks and in a year. So if we took the two weeks for your summer holidays and we took the two weeks for Christmas, that's still 48 weeks of the year.
00:06:17
Speaker
So you can
Releasing Negative Thoughts
00:06:18
Speaker
see that like your your summer holidays, your Christmas holidays, They're not the problem. The problem is the routine around it. So what's really, really important here is dropping the guilt and the shame that goes with, oh my God, I've just eaten four croissants. Oh my God, I've just had 7 million cocktails. I've just had, you know.
00:06:38
Speaker
It's like, stop, you're on your holidays. If that's what you want to do too. If you have too much of something one day when you're on holidays and you feel a bit rotten, like, oh, maybe I'll have a little less that today. There doesn't have to be judgment attached to it.
00:06:49
Speaker
So this is where it the tricky part is with releasing things. those negative thoughts and those negative emotions. And I'm going to come back to this point because in relation to negative thoughts and negative emotions around what you're eating, what you're consuming, what you're doing, what you're not doing, they need to be released so you can enjoy your holidays. But what also needs to be released here is your relationship with your body, like I mentioned before.
00:07:12
Speaker
And this gets released in the same way. So I just want to talk a little bit about this too. So like I said, from as early as I can remember, I've been criticizing how I look particularly on a summer holiday, I suppose you're in a bikini or in a swimsuit, you're around people who are really tanned or in really great shape or whatever.
00:07:29
Speaker
Just suddenly it's like your whole self is laid bare. And it's a very, very difficult thing to face yourself like that when you're away and learn to love yourself as you are and or at least not fixate on how you look to be able to enjoy, relax and enjoy your holidays. And it's funny, I look back on holiday photos from a few years ago where I know it.
00:07:50
Speaker
bet myself up about how I looked. I look back the photos and I'm like, I look lovely and happy. Like what? Like why did I in my head go around in circles like this? It's ridiculous. So those thoughts need to be released.
00:08:01
Speaker
If you look around you, first of all, no one's looking at you. If you look around at any of the people around the pool or around the beach or wherever you are, Are you judging them? Are you analysing their bodies?
00:08:12
Speaker
Are you you know thinking shameful thoughts about them? like I'd imagine not. you like You're busy being concerned about yourself and about your family. They're concerned about their body image probably and having a lot of similar insecurities to you. And also what i when I see people who are like an in incredible shape when I'm on holidays, I think it's always really important to remember that in order to be in incredible shape, it takes a lot of sacrifice. It takes hours in the gym.
00:08:37
Speaker
It takes... getting rid of certain types of foods from your diet. It takes a lot of food focus and a lot of, yeah, balance and measuring. And, yeah and that's all fine when we're in a nice little routine.
00:08:49
Speaker
But like that's not a place where we need to be stressing about that for holidays. So like, just let it go. Use it as a time to really be like, no one knows me here. I'm going to be authentically 100% me.
00:09:00
Speaker
And I'm here and I'm going to let go, be me. And every time I find myself criticising myself, I'm going to let it go.
00:09:11
Speaker
And this is where this comes into. So you don't want to start judging yourself for judging yourself, if that makes sense. so It's really important that you note that you will have the negative thoughts about, you know, whether it's about food restriction or whether you're feeling guilty about overeating or whether you're beating yourself up about your body or whether it's all of it mixed
Parental Influence on Body Image
00:09:29
Speaker
together.
00:09:29
Speaker
The thoughts will come, okay, because they're so programmed into our subconscious and that's okay. Allow the thoughts to come in but then breathe them away. What I want you to think about here is just because you think something doesn't mean it's true.
00:09:47
Speaker
And I know I've said this on that podcast before, and I'm going to repeat this again because it's actually that important. to Just because you think something doesn't mean it's true. What I would like you to do before you go on your holidays, if you have time, you might be on holidays listening to this. I'm not sure if you are, order to this now.
00:10:04
Speaker
Everybody should read this book. It's called Somebody Should Have Told Us by Jack Pransky. I will link the link to this book in the show notes. It's basically simple truths for living well.
00:10:15
Speaker
You can get an audio book. I listened to it on holidays last year. I listened to it when I went to Lanzarote last year and it was life changing. This book will teach you how two not be so attached to those negative thoughts. So negative thoughts only have power over us if we allow them to have power over us, if we believe them, if we allow them to become our identity, if they become our beliefs.
00:10:38
Speaker
Like if I said to you, you're a green crocodile, like you're not going to be like, oh God, my God, i'm a green crocodile. Oh, I hate myself. It's like, you'd be like, okay, Kate, you know what i mean? So like thoughts are only thoughts.
00:10:52
Speaker
you have the power to detach yourself from them just because you think it doesn't mean it's true. That's what I was saying about looking back on old photographs of myself on holidays where I'm happy or I look happy, even if in the back of my mind, all of these thoughts were going on and I was worrying about how I looked.
00:11:09
Speaker
And when I look now, I'm like, you look perfectly fine. And that's what's so important to remember. And also, I like to bring this back to our children. Like I said, I have a 12 year old daughter. I don't want her to mirror my behavior.
00:11:24
Speaker
And I remember growing up and my mother being very, very self-conscious about how she looked and, you know, does this look okay? Do I look like a whale? Do I this, that, you know? And I don't do that out loud because I don't want my daughter to attach that However, and like, so even when happening internally, I release it because i'm I'm like, I don't even want that energy around her, like, because I don't want her to develop that. Now, she may anyway, I'm not sure, but I really, really hope that I won't have anything to do with that. And I think that's really important also to remember that these holidays are the moments, the memories that you're going to remember forever.
Recommended Reading: Jack Pransky
00:12:02
Speaker
And none of your loved ones are going to be looking at you being like, oh my God, she's a, she, look, she's the size of her, look at the, oh my God, look at the state of her, oh, she's so ugly. like Like, your loved ones are just so happy that you're there and you're present and you're happy.
00:12:19
Speaker
And those internal sentences, those words, those thoughts that you're having are just trying to detach you from what's really important, which is the connection, which is the feeling, which is the memories that you're making.
00:12:32
Speaker
So basically my whole motto with this is please read the book, Somebody Should Have Told Us by Jack Pransky. And this will really help you learn to release these negative thought patterns that seem to control you.
00:12:48
Speaker
Doesn't mean that the thoughts won't ever be there, but they won't have the same power over you. And eventually be able to laugh at yourself a little bit. It is the most freeing feeling in the world. Remember, two weeks is 3.8% of your whole year.
Post-Holiday Routine Reset
00:13:02
Speaker
Fucking relax and enjoy your holiday. And then we get back to it when you get back. So let's talk a little bit about when we get back home. So first thing i say is be okay with the fact that you will bloat a bit and you will gain some pounds and some body fat, but you have the other 96.2% of your year to sort it out.
00:13:20
Speaker
So like, don't be the person at the office thinking of the beach and the person at the beach thinking of the office. Be present, challenge your automatic thoughts and habits. take this time as well to read the book that I've recommended, to journal, to plan, to reflect, like go inwards.
00:13:38
Speaker
We often don't have time to do this inwards reflection when we're at home. So use it as time to really kind of gain some clarity of where you want to go why you want to do it and what's important to you.
00:13:50
Speaker
Then you're going to come home refreshed and excited to push on. And what I'll say about when you come home, don't get on the scales if it's going to trigger you. Just don't. Okay. It's Now, if you want to, if you're like Grant, starting point, I know it's going to be quick few pounds that I'll lose afterwards. Like I kind of like to hop on the scales and I'm like, oh yeah, nine pet I was up nine pounds after Miami.
00:14:09
Speaker
Now, lot of it was fluid. If anyone saw my ankles afterwards, after that flight. And so I've just got on the scales. I'm like, well, nine pounds, fantastic. And then you see it come down quite quickly. And even if it doesn't come down that quickly, it will come down.
00:14:20
Speaker
Like it's milk going to be mostly fluid. What I'll say when you get back is don't panic to restriction. OK, so like, don't be like, oh, my God, I've just sort had two weeks of an absolute binge fest. Oh, my God, I need to get back back to like, you know, I need to get back to perfection.
00:14:34
Speaker
It's like, no, we're not going to panic back to restriction. Do the following. OK, just pace yourself when you get back. Unpack, wash your clothes, spend some time with family and friends if you've been away from them.
00:14:46
Speaker
Get settled back to work. Drink shit loads of water. get a daily walk in and get back to your healthy, balanced diet. When you're ready, head back to the gym or your home workouts.
Closing Thoughts on Balance
00:15:00
Speaker
Give yourself a day or two to breathe before you start tracking again. And when you do start tracking, don't worry if you end up over your calories, ease yourself in. I would argue that for that first week when you get back,
00:15:12
Speaker
just track at maintenance. So if you know what your deficit calories are, now your coach will probably have supported you in this. If you have a coach, if you're not working with a coach, what I'd say is track at maintenance calories for a week. So if your deficit calories are 1800, just track at 2200 for that that first week back. If you end up under them, great.
00:15:27
Speaker
But your appetite can be a little bit off and your palate a little bit off after having so many calories, so much food, you know eating out quite a lot, that going from like everything to 1800 calories can be quite hard.
00:15:39
Speaker
to do in one week. So like bridge yourself in and that's okay. Or just even just start tracking everything you're eating, even if you're over. Just get used to the habit of tracking again and be patient with yourself.
00:15:52
Speaker
And remember, it's never all or nothing. So to conclude, your holidays are what you have been working so hard for all year in your diet, in your exercise and health routines, in work.
00:16:04
Speaker
Don't panic afterwards. You have 96.2% of the rest of the year to get your shit together. Or like I said, even if we take two weeks of Christmas, two weeks of summer, it's still 48 weeks in the year. Okay, stop putting a time limit on your goals.
00:16:17
Speaker
It's about getting this balance. This is really important. You're not about what you do on holidays. You're about what you do those other 46. to 50 weeks of the year. That's what's important. So yeah, look, if you have any questions in relation to that, always feel free to message me on my social media.
00:16:36
Speaker
Totally happy to answer anyone's questions on that. And as always, if you enjoyed this episode, please do share it. Share it with your friends in your WhatsApp group. Share it on your stories. If you do tag me, Kate Hamilton Health, in the story.
00:16:50
Speaker
And if anyone is interested in our online coaching service, the link to coaching is in the show notes. It will give you all the information on everything we do at Kate Hamilton Health.
00:17:01
Speaker
And I will chat to you all soon.