How I Managed To Stay Fit & Eat Healthy While Traveling

I just got back from an amazing adventure to Tulum, Mexico and Colombia. Not only did I not gain weight but I actually lost a pound which I was incredibly happy about. This may seem normal to some, depending on how you vacation, your lifestyle and schedule on the road but for me, it’s actually a first. So let’s rewind a little and let me fill you in on how I used to travel, what I changed, my dreams and biggest fear about traveling after losing a lot of weight.

As of now, I’ve managed to lose 18lbs since the beginning of December. Some might say I didn’t need to lose the weight, some might think I did. Others can’t really tell the difference because I’m lucky enough that when I gain weight, it kinda goes everywhere and not just in one specific area. But if you ask me, personally, it was SO OVERDUE! It was SO necessary and well I’m proud!

Related Post: How I Lost Over 10lbs In A Month: My Workout Routine & Essentials

Breakfast Bruschetta: A Healthy, Fun & Easy Recipe Using Egg Whites (Vegetarian)

Dreams & Accomplishments

Looking back at my life, there are very few things I can tell you that I regret. I have made almost every dream I’ve ever wanted to come true come to life. I’ve always been a go-getter and anything I ever wanted I went out and got myself.

However, there were 3 things on my list of dreams that I never got to accomplish but came pretty close. One, is being a famous singer, lol I know right? but it was a lifelong dream for most of my early teens and early 20’s. I really loved Britney Spears and wanted to be the next Britney lol. While I didn’t make that dream come true, I did get to record songs in recording studios and even have a song on iTunes.

My second is being on a specific reality TV show in Israel, although I wasn’t on the show, I auditioned twice, one that never got me anywhere and the second time around, a few years later, I made to the final finalist and flew out to Israel for it to have a 15hr audition. Needless to say, those 2 dreams never came true and are way past due at this point in my life, but the third dream was to lose weight.

Related Post: How Auditioning For A Reality TV Show, Led Me To Making My First Palestinian Friend

From age 16-23 I was a model. I didn’t work out, I had natural abs and ate pasta and carbs all day, every day, and somehow managed to be really skinny…go figure. As life would have it, things change. Our body changes, our lifestyle changes and well we all know things only get harder as the years go by but it was a dream I wasn’t willing to give up on. I tried a million and one different diets, working out, had personal trainers…NOTHING worked. It literally drove me INSANEEEE. No matter what I did, nothing was working for me. It was the most frustrating and annoying thing to me.

My frustration came from a place of confusion, how, I, Kim Cohen, the girl who strives to get every single thing she’s ever wanted and got it, can’t figure out this stupid weight thing! The only 2 things I’ve really wanted in the last few years beyond traveling the world, was to have a successful blog that can earn me an income and to lose weight. I managed to figure out the blog and income thing, buttttt the weight was driving me NUTS!

I always got anything I worked hard for or at least VERY close. If I tried something and didn’t get it, I came pretty darn close but this weight thing, I couldn’t crack down on. I really started to think I had some kind of disease, I’m not even kidding. Yes, I’m allergic to dairy and have been vegetarian my entire life but beyond that, I really thought something was physically wrong with my body.

After changing my diet HARDCORE, eating super clean and working out a lot in the last few months, I managed to lose 18lbs! YAY!

I finally cracked the code of my lifelong dream of 10 years. Now the hard part came, how the heck was I going to keep this up while traveling?!?

My Fear – What if I gain it all back while traveling?!

I’ve always struggled to eat healthy while traveling. Being vegetarian and practically vegan with my allergies to dairy, never came easy to me while traveling, especially in certain countries that aren’t as vegetarian/ vegan-friendly like Iceland, Japan and now Colombia.

After booking my trip to Mexico and Colombia, I was legit freaking out! I called my mom and told her that I was so scared to ruin all my hard work and gain weight again on my trip. I worked too hard to let it all go to waste. She explained to me that it’s totally normal to gain weight while traveling, it happens to everyone. We all see foods we want to try, we are on vacation and want to indulge, eat some ice cream, some big meals and enjoy life. She said, if you gain weight, you won’t gain 15lbs again, so you’ll gain 5lbs and come home, eat your healthy meals, workout and everything will be ok again and you will go back to losing weight.

That answer wasn’t reassuring to me, it actually kind justifies why you should eat more while you travel and like I said, I worked too hard to ruin this. I was going to Tulum — bikini central.

For the last 4 years of traveling around the world, I’ve managed to completely exhaust myself on a whole other level. Being a travel blogger isn’t as easy or glamorous as it always looks. So let’s talk about my past traveling, terrible habits for a sec.

Sleep

For starters, I never got enough sleep, I normally sleep 3-5hrs when I travel. This happens because A. I’m so excited and want to make sure I wake up early and see the world. I also want to get as much done as I possibly can in the short amount of time I have in the place I’m at. B, it’s probably because I have an early excursion in the morning and was too busy editing photos, writing blog posts and editing videos in the middle of the night.

So ideally, I would walk 4-10 miles a day and get no sleep and not let my body recover and get the energy it needs. Totally stupid, I know but it’s sometimes the travel bloggers life.

Food

I’d always start the day right with a good breakfast like most do, although I probably shouldn’t eat half as much bread as I used to for breakfast. For lunch, I’d always skip it because I couldn’t find something vegetarian or because there was just not enough time OR I’d get something small because I felt like I had no time to waste. Then comes dinner time where I am physically exhausted, dying hungry and ready to just eat the world of carbs, which normally consist of pasta or pizza. As a vegetarian traveling in a foreign country, it’s always the easiest choice and the #1 option that comes into my mind — Italian food! I always know I’ll find something I like as opposed to going around and trying to look through a million restaurants menus when I’m starving and exhausted.

So overall, although I manage to do alot of walking throughout the day and eat a somewhat of a healthy breakfast, I would completely ruin it with a small lunch and a ridiculous dinner, followed by a huge lack of sleep.

Our bodies get energy from 2 sources; sleep and food. So if you’re not getting enough sleep, your body will get it from food and normally in that case, when you’re physically exhausted it gets it from the wrong kinds of food. But leaving your body with not enough food and then too much food and not enough sleep results in weight gain which is how I gained 6lbs in Iceland and it was the most physically challenging trip of my life.

I knew I needed a plan. 

My Plan, Tips & Ideas for Traveling Healthy

I’m definitely a care-free gypsy with the way I do life. If I don’t make a plan for things and become OCD about them, then my life is all over the place.

 Making a List & A Plan

I made a list on my phone of what I normally have for breakfast and options that I could eat for breakfast while staying in hotels and traveling. I did the same for lunch and dinner was always kind of opened since it always is when I’m home. So for example, I normally eat egg whites and avocado for breakfast at home, so I really tried to make sure that for breakfast I had those.

Bringing Healthy Snacks

I packed some of my favorite snacks that are easy to travel with like almonds and rice cakes.

I’ve always had a problem with forgetting to eat while I travel. I always have a good breakfast and then forget to eat lunch sometimes because I want to see the world and then at dinner I’m dying, starving and will eat anything that I know will fill me up which is normally carbs like pasta or pizza. So bringing some healthy snacks for mid-night munches or to just have if I don’t find something healthy was key to me. It definitely saved me a lot through flying, layovers and mid-night snacks.

Not Overdoing Yourself & Sleep

In my past travels, I always overdo myself in the scenes that I never get enough sleep because I’m always doing a million excursions, editing photos when I get to my room or whatever. I promised myself that this time around, I wasn’t editing photos until 3am. I was getting at least 7hrs of sleep and I wasn’t overdoing myself. On most if not all my trips in the past, I would literally get 3-5hrs of sleep every night, which is so terrible for your body. This time things were different 🙂

Looking Up Healthy Resturants In Advance

I also looked up a few vegan and healthy restaurants I wanted to eat at so I wouldn’t be tempted to eat things that weren’t healthy. I tried to stay away from carbs as much as I could.

Tulum, Mexico

In Tulum, I found this amazing little spot called Burrito Amor which I was totally in love with. I ate there like every day. They use 100% extra virgin olive oil, organic coconut oil and they have gluten free handmade coconut tortillas. I would get their Vegetarian Burrito that had mixed bell peppers grilled with purple onion, whole black beans, rice, cheese, pico de gallo & avocado and it was only $6. It was seriously my dinner almost every night and I even had a day where I ate there breakfast and dinner.

I also ate alot of guacamole with organic sweet potato chips and vegan sushi at one of my favorite hotels, Nomade Tulum.

I even managed to find a healthy breakfast at the airport in Mexico, I had egg white omelet, guacamole, fruit, whole wheat toast and coffee.

Colombia

In Colombia life was hard. They aren’t really a vegetarian-friendly country, so the struggle was real but this wasn’t going to stop me. I found a cute local spot and would have fresh watermelon juice, amazing Colombian coffee, eggs and avocado for breakfast.

For lunch and dinner, I found Caprese salad, greek salad and some rice/risotto.

Drinking/Alcohol 

I’ve never been a big drinker but when I’d drink, I used to drink Vodka and cranberry. That also had to change because of the calories amount. So I’ve switched to a beer that’s organic and has low-calories, actually to be exact, 85 calories a bottle, Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold.

It’s free of artificial colors and flavors and it is brewed purely with organic grains.

Check it out:

Working Out 

Ideally, I really thought I would have the chance to workout at the gym. I even brought my workout clothes and shoes and booked an Airbnb in Colombia that had a gym. However, the reality was I just had no time. I’m not on a vacation, traveling is my job at the end of the day. So although I didn’t get a chance to workout at the gym like I thought I would, I would do small workouts in my room.

I would do ab exercises while watching Gossip Girl on my laptop and some situps. Mostly in the morning and if I felt like I ate more than I thought I should, I would also do some when I got back to the room. Nothing crazy, nothing extreme, just a little something because it all adds up.

I’m Still Learning…

Listen, one meal won’t make you fat and one meal won’t make you skinny. It’s all about having a healthy lifestyle. 

I totally had my cheat meals, I wasn’t always perfect but I was happy with the results and I think I did great for my first adventure after losing weight. I ate Matcha Ice Cream in Tulum, even though I’m allergic. I ate pizza in Colombia because I couldn’t find an English menu or something vegan/healthy but it had veggies on it. I think all you can do is find your perfect balance and know/learn what works for you.

Out of 2 weeks, I probably had 5-6 cheat meals, but that’s out of 42 meals technically. So I’m totally ok with that. 

I totally had like 2-3 days where I thought for sure I gained like 5lbs and totally freaked out but turns out it was only water weight because I forgot to drink enough on those days and the moment I did, it all went away and I was back to normal. I came home actually losing another 2lbs! YAY!

Hopefully, this might have given some of you ideas for your future trips.

Do life the way you choose to do life, you are in control. Just remember that you are what you eat 😉

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