Holiday Mode, Not Off Mode

A mid-afternoon drink with a view over Setenil de las Bodegas.

I just got back from ten days on the road around the south of Spain, my first proper Spanish summer holiday since I moved here five years ago. It got me thinking about something I clearly needed to sit down and write about: how do you actually stay healthy on holiday, without it becoming a source of guilt or something you have to overly prep for?

Beach Ready Is Dead

Beach ready. Summer ready. Whatever you want to call it, I think we need to retire the term. It’s tired, and quite honestly, it was never the right goal to begin with.

If your objective is to get fit for a holiday, so you look a certain way in a bathing suit, that’s entirely the wrong motivation as it´s a habit that’s not going to be sustainable long term. I have seen it too many times. People diet and exercise in the lead-up to vacations, they get through the trip, and the second it’s over, they chuck all their efforts out the window.

The actual goal should be moving away from that idea entirely. Being ready, full stop, all year round. If you keep a healthy lifestyle going day to day, you don’t need to scramble before a holiday. And that makes everything simpler, which, let’s be honest, we all just want an easier life.

So if you’ve already got that going, the real question isn’t how to get ready for a holiday rather how you hold onto some form of routine and continuity once you’re actually on one, notwithstanding the change of pace.

Acceptance First

Once you’re actually on holiday, the day-to-day disappears. Your normal schedule, your itineraries, your regimens, all of it changes, sometimes drastically.

The amount it changes really depends on the type of holiday you’re on. If you’re in a city, you’ve got real options: pop into a local gym, or if you’re a group exercise person, ClassPass lets you drop into studios and facilities pretty much anywhere. For CrossFitters like me, drop-in classes are just standard fare. If you’re doing a road trip, or camping, or something like that, it might be a bit harder, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. There are alternatives, which I’ll get into in a bit.

Whatever the case, the most important thing is not to be too hard on yourself. This is a fleeting moment in time. On my own road trip, I passed through Setenil de las Bodegas, a small town built into a river gorge under vast overhanging rock. Rather than build four walls and a roof, people built three and let the cliff handle the rest, they worked out what was already solid, and built onto it. That’s exactly what real habits are. Foundations built over months and years don’t go out the window because of a two-week holiday. They’re still there, holding everything else up, whether you’re actively working on them that week or not.

And it’s not just habits that hold, your body does too. If you’re worried that this time off is going to change or impact your muscles, I can categorically say it won´t because muscle has memory (it´s not just a saying). Short breaks under about four weeks generally cause little to no meaningful loss of strength or size, and even when some does happen, the muscle you’ve already built comes back noticeably faster than it took to build the first time. A week or two isn’t erasing anything you’ve worked for, especially when it’s been months or years in the making.

Walking Is Your De Facto

If there’s one form of movement you can always rely on, no matter what kind of holiday you’re on, it’s walking. You don´t need a gym and you´ve got no excuse either. It’s the easiest, most accessible thing available to you, wherever you are.

And holidays practically hand it to you for free. Exploring a new city, wandering unfamiliar streets, hiking a trail, walking a beach end to end, none of it feels like exercise and it all adds up. Sightseeing basically doubles as movement. Honestly, most of us walk far more on holiday than we ever do on a regular working day. If you’ve got a corporate job, chances are you’re sitting at a desk in front of a screen most of the time, not racking up steps. On my own road trip, I was probably walking double, maybe triple, what I’d normally cover on a standard work day. So get your steps in wherever you can, you’re probably doing it anyway without realising how much it’s actually doing for you, and how much it’s compensating for the rest of your routine being upended.

Beyond Walking, Get Creative

For those of you who train more religiously and want more than walking alone, no gym doesn’t mean no options. Bodyweight exercises travel with you wherever you go, they don’t need equipment or a class booking. It’s about being a bit inventive with your routine while you’re away.

On my own road trip, without CrossFit or my usual gym, I put together my own circuit by the pool most mornings: shuttle runs, push-ups, pull-ups, then straight into the pool for laps. I don’t normally have access to an outdoor pool, so waking up to the Spanish sun and getting laps in as part of my routine felt novel, not like a compromise at all.

And holidays are a good excuse to try something entirely new too. If you’re near water, paddleboarding or surfing, anything like that gives you a new way to move your body. You might find a new outlet you genuinely like. Or maybe it doesn’t stick permanently, but it’s something you can revert back to on your next holiday, giving you one more thing to look forward to next time.

Rest Is a Deload, Not a Lapse

Even during a normal training week, rest and recovery days are built in on purpose, I’ve written about this before. A holiday is really just a longer version of the same idea, an extended deload, or really just a full rest, and it deserves the same reframe. In the fitness world, a deload is time out specifically so your muscles, joints, and nervous system can properly recover, not a break from progress, but part of how progress actually happens.

If you’re constantly pounding away at training, week after week with no real let-up, your body never gets the space it needs to properly recover, even if you think you’re giving it rest days here and there. Ten days, or even a week, off is a good thing. One study found people who took planned breaks from intense training every six weeks gained just as much strength and muscle as those who never took a break, with 25% fewer total sessions. Some athletes even hit personal bests right after coming back from time off, properly rested and focused again. You’re not falling behind by taking it. You’re doing something your body actually needs.

Eat Like Yourself, Mostly

Eating can be one of the trickier parts of a holiday, especially if you’re not in an Airbnb with a kitchen, not cooking and not in control of your own groceries. If you do have a kitchen, get some groceries in and balance that with eating out, rather than defaulting to restaurants for every single meal. If you don’t have that option, the goal is simple: stick as closely as you can to how you’d eat at home. Even at restaurants, you can usually find healthier options on the menu.

I was on the road for ten days in Spain, eating out at least once or twice a day, and I kept fairly consistent with how I normally eat. I wasn’t overeating, and I wasn’t drastically changing my diet just because I was somewhere new.

Eat consistently with how you would eat at home most of the time, but this is still a holiday, so don’t deprive yourself of treats. That’s what a holiday is partly for, having a few of those.

One more thing worth being conscious of: if you’re not moving as much as you normally would, you probably don’t need to eat quite as much either. It depends entirely on the kind of holiday you’re having. If you’re on a beach holiday, you’re probably not burning as much. If you’re doing a hiking trip through the mountains, you probably are. Being conscious of what you’re actually expending, and adjusting accordingly, matters more than defaulting to three full meals out of habit regardless of what the day looked like. You don’t need to count anything or restrict on purpose, just check in with actual hunger rather than the clock.

Holidays are also a good food opportunity, not just something to manage carefully. One extra layer to this: you’ll often find local or seasonal produce wherever you’re visiting, and that’s worth leaning into. On my trip I visited Barbate, on the Costa de la Luz, famous for its red tuna, caught using an ancient trapping method called the almadraba, dating back to Phoenician times and still practiced there today. Eating it there means eating it practically from the source.

That same spirit applies to trying new foods more broadly, healthy ones. On my trip, I ended up trying all sorts of exotic fruit I’d never usually eat, figs, for one. I normally only get the black variety here in Barcelona, but I found green and white ones I’d never tried before. You can still eat well and be experimental with it, discovering new healthy foods is part of the fun of being away.

Hydration Matters More in Summer

This one’s simple but important, especially during summer holidays when you’re sweating more and losing electrolytes faster than usual. You need to hydrate far more than you think.

As a general rule, women need roughly 2.2 to 2.7 litres of total fluids a day, and men roughly 3 to 3.7 litres, and that goes up with heat or activity, generally an extra 0.5 to 1 litre for every hour of exercise or real heat exposure. If you’re out in the sun all day, whether that’s hiking, at the beach, or just wandering around a hot city, you need more than the baseline.

Through the sweat process you are also losing loads of salt. Sodium is the main electrolyte your body sheds through sweat, and some people lose noticeably more than others. If you’ve ever tasted your own skin after a heavy sweat, or noticed white streaks on dark clothing, that’s your sodium loss made visible. I’d call myself a salty sweater, personally. On hot days, or after doing anything sweaty, it’s worth replenishing salt alongside fluids.

Beyond plain water, I’d always recommend coconut water when you can get it, it’s naturally rich in potassium, often more than a banana or most sports drinks, plus a decent hit of magnesium too. It’s generally one of my go-tos on holidays and year round. Worth knowing, though: it’s actually fairly low in sodium, so it’s a great complement to replacing your salt, not a replacement for it. And I appreciate it’s not always accessible everywhere, so it’s a nice-to-have when you can find it, not a must.

Alcohol, Briefly

I won’t dwell on this one, I’ve made the case elsewhere for why I don’t drink regularly, and none of that changes just because you’re on holiday. If it’s not a habit at home, I don´t see why a holiday would be a reason to start. It’s a bit at odds with everything else in this piece, why adopt a pattern on holiday that runs completely counter what you do the other fifty weeks of the year? Same principle as everything else here: consistency is key.

Sleep, Same Rules Apply

I’ve written a whole piece on this already, so I’ll keep it brief here: the same principles hold on holiday as they do at home. You’re in a different rhythm, but if you can, try to maintain some form of consistency in your sleep. As I said in that last piece, rising at the same time matters more than going to bed at the same time, though both is obviously preferable. Whether you’re away for a week or ten days, the general mantra is be consistent for most of it. And if you’re not every single day, that’s okay too, don’t beat yourself up over it. Don’t say no to something, a late dinner, a night out, just because it might throw your sleep off. That’s not the point of any of this.

Where you can, try to replicate your usual sleeping conditions too. Look for accommodation with blackout curtains or proper shutters, and somewhere that stays reasonably cool. Same advice as before, just applied to wherever you happen to be staying.

Don’t Forget the Travel Days

The travel days themselves are often the part people overlook, the day you’re actually getting there, or getting home. A few things help.

Pack healthy snacks before you leave, whatever mode of transport you’re taking. If you’re flying, driving, or on a train, grab something decent from a grocery store or fruit stand beforehand rather than relying on whatever’s available once you’re already stuck somewhere with limited options. On a road trip specifically, use pit stops as an excuse to get out of the car, shake out your legs, and move around properly, rather than just topping up on petrol and getting straight back in.

If you’re flying, buy water once you’re through security. Cabin air is very low humidity, drier than the Sahara Desert, in fact, and while it might not dehydrate you as dramatically as people assume, it does dry out your skin, sinuses, and general comfort, so keeping water on hand helps regardless. And get up during the flight. Move around. If you can, fit in a couple of small exercises near the bathroom or in the aisle. It looks a bit silly, but it makes a real difference, especially for circulation on longer flights.

And if you’re suffering from jet lag, that might be one of the few cases where it’s actually worth reaching for melatonin. That’s advice that comes from Dr. Breus, who I referenced in my last piece, who’s generally cautious about melatonin as an everyday habit, but treats jet lag specifically as one of the legitimate exceptions, a real, short-term tool for resetting your body clock across time zones, not a nightly crutch.

Easing Back In

Coming home and getting back into routine is its own challenge, if you let it be one. Some people ignore it and let things prolong for days longer than necessary. Others overcorrect immediately, straight back to full intensity, no transition at all.

My honest advice: get back on the saddle as quickly as possible, but do it cautiously. Everything already covered earlier still applies here, none of what you’ve built is undone by a short break, but jumping straight back to full intensity before your body’s ready is how a good rest turns into an unnecessary injury.

In my own experience, lifting weights comes back easily, maybe not at the exact same numbers straight away, but close enough. I actually just went through this coming back from this trip, and the DOMS hit pretty hard, especially going back to the same or heavier weight than before I left. Cardio’s a different story. Cardiovascular fitness starts declining within about two weeks, mostly down to reduced blood volume, while strength holds up well past four weeks before any real drop-off. So if cardio feels brutal on your return while your lifts feel mostly fine, that’s not in your head, the two systems just detrain differently.

Get back to your routine, but there's no need to rush getting there.

Let It Actually Be a Holiday

At the end of the day, a holiday is a good time to decompress. To rest, recover, and actually enjoy life and all its splendour. It shouldn’t be something you spend worried or nervous about, feeling like you’ve fallen off your routine the second you leave home.

This whole piece really comes down to one thing: be consistent where you can, and don’t beat yourself up when you can’t be, all of it. Muscle has memory, and everything you´ve put in over months and years doesn´t disappear because of one trip. So let it actually be a holiday.