5 Tips to Get Back on Track After Vacation

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If you follow us on Snapchat (hesheeatclean) or our other social media accounts Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, you probably know already that we just got back from a vacation in San Diego. Scott had to go to LA for work for a few days so I tagged along and met up with some of my friends and business partners in San Diego.

Related: Read about our travels here.

Workout wise we didn't lift weights (we usually take our vacations as lifting breaks) but we did a lot of hiking while we were there, although we couldn't do everything we wanted because of the weather.

Nutrition wise we try to keep our meals healthy while on vacation. In order to save money we rent an Airbnb property (email us at thegang@heandsheeatclean.com for more information on Airbnb) or a hotel room with a kitchenette. While it may seem more expensive each night, it definitely pays off being able to eat a few meals in the room. We enjoyed the food in San Diego eating tacos multiple times, donuts from the Donut Bar, and cookie ice cream sandwiches from the Baked Bear (yes, it was all just as good as it sounds). On the other hand, many of our meals consisted of the Whole Foods salad bar and eggs and toast or oats for breakfast and turkey sandwiches for lunch (made in our condo). Even though we only ate out once a day at the most, my body was definitely feeling the oils and sodium that it isn't used to.

Related: Tips to Eat Healthy and Save Money While Traveling

This is what we call vacation balance:

As I "reset" my body this past week I decided that I would share this information since many of you will probably be taking vacations soon too. These tips don't apply to just vacations though, these are tips to get back on track at anytime!

5 Tips to Get Back on Track After Vacation

1. Don't Beat Yourself Up - You don't need to get back from vacation and "work off" what you ate. You don't need to do two hour cardio sessions. You don't need to mentally abuse yourself with negative thoughts about how you should have done things differently. There is absolutely nothing positive that will come of this behavior. 
2. Don't Weigh Yourself - If you feel sluggish and/or bloated, you know it. The scale is only going to tell you the same thing but will more than likely put you in a bad mood and maybe even make your behavior spiral out of control and send you into a binge. You know how you feel and how your pants fit, weighing yourself only to find out you've "gained" five pounds on vacation will do no good. Speaking of, most of the "weight" you gain will be in the form of water weight. Related: Stories from my scale and why you need to ditch yours for good.
3. Increase Water Consumption and Avoid Alcohol - Increase your water consumption when you return from your trip. Try making the Jillian Michaels' Detox Water, Refreshing Apple Cider Vinegar Detox Drink, or one of our many other flavored waters for a little different twist on just plain water. Try to only drink water or unsweetened tea - no juice or soda. Also, try to avoid alcohol.
4. Start/Continue Your Workout Plan - Now is a great time to start a new workout plan or pick up where you left off on your previous plan. Going into the gym (or your home workout space) with a clear direction will help you get back into the habit and reach your goals much faster. We have 4, 6, and 12 week workout plans to choose from! Related: 5 Reasons why you need a fitness plan.
5. Do A Short Detox/Eat Real, Whole Unprocessed Foods - You might be thinking, why are they talking about a detox. Well, we don't believe in juice cleanses or crazy restrictive detoxes. But we do like to do a detox once a quarter or every 6 months. This is basically just a push for us to jump back into eating real, whole foods as quickly as possible. Although prepping food might be the last thing you want to do, your body will thank you! You can learn about our preferred detox here and also request more information on our 21-Day Challenge here.

5 Reasons Why You Need A Fitness Plan

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I've seen it over and over again in the gym, people (mainly females but some males) will walk in the door and either hop on the cardio machine for an extended period of time and maybe throw in some ab moves at the end or they will go up and down the rows of machines without a clear purpose.

Yes, I think it is magnificent that they made it to the gym and applaud them for taking the first step but failing to have a plan when entering the gym can result in burnout from lack of results. As a certified personal trainer, I do think it is a good idea to have a few sessions so that you can learn where everything is and build a working base of exercises. However, I do not think that every person needs a personal trainer. If you are training for something specific or you need that accountability to get to the gym, by all means, hire a trainer! Make sure you do your homework and find one that aligns with your vision.

RELATED: 5 Things We Have Done to Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle for 5+ Years

This isn't just limited to the gym though, I receive emails from people all the time that say they do workout videos at home or grab a random workout off the internet. Again, this is great but if you really want to see results you do need a workout plan to follow. Ever since I started living this lifestyle I've followed a plan, even as a trainer! I always follow one of our plans, switching it up along the way as I see fit. I had a trainer for about three months while I was preparing for a photo shoot but ever since then I've had my own set plans - which is ultimately why we released our first plan, the She Sweats 12-Week Transformation.

You may have even noticed that on our monthly challenges I state that you should also be following a workout plan, doing 5 push-ups per day or a 30 second plank isn't going to produce the results you are looking for without more substance.

So, below are my reasons why you need a plan to follow and I'm not even the "planning" personality.

5 Reasons Why You Need A Workout Plan

1. Helps Prevent Under or Over Training - This is one of the most important reasons for having a workout plan. If you are just trying piece together different workouts or wandering around the gym, you could be training the same body part too close together or not enough. You may also be working out too long and/or doing too much cardio for your goals, etc. There's so many factors that can go into under or over training.
2. Provides Structure - There's nothing worse than feeling like you are wasting time. Having a workout plan provides you with structure so that you aren't wondering what to do next or just reverting back to the ol' cardio equipment. Our workout plans tell you which exercise to do, how many reps, how many sets, etc. Everything is laid out for you.
3. Provides Goals - A workout plan with a set number of weeks (such as a 4, 6, or 12 week workout plan like we have) provides you with an automatic goal - to complete the workout plan! You can even break it down further and look at it as a daily or weekly goal to complete all of the workouts.
4. Provides a Checklist - If you are a person that loves to be able to "check" something off, you will LOVE a structured workout plan! It's like giving yourself a pat on the back each day you complete your workout.
5. Prevents Burnout - As I mentioned before, not having a plan can and will lead to burnout. Sure, you might be tired of working out or might not be feeling the gym for a few days but if you keep moving forward you will see results. A well-structured workout plan will help prevent burnout because it should be changing every few weeks.

I can't speak for all the workout plans out there but I know that ours produces results and is structured so it takes the planning out of it for you. You are optimally training each body part in the most efficient way possible. We don't live in the gym and don't think that you should either!

Guess which workout plan works? The one you complete! You can't just do a workout plan for a few days or even for a few weeks and expect immediate results. You have to actually do the work to see the results - there is no magic pill!

Mount Whitney + Tahoe

Trip Date: September 2014

READ FIRST | RELATED: Hiking in Yosemite National Park (and climbing Half Dome!).

Standing at a height of 14,505 feet, Mount Whitney is the tallest peak in the lower 48 - which means we conquered the highest mountain in the lower 48! Rumor has it that 70% of the people who attempt to summit Mount Whitney don't make it there. Using the Mount Whitney Trail (which is the one we did) the elevation gain is 6,137 feet.

Mount Whitney

23 miles, 6,000 calories

This trip to climb Mount Whitney and visiting Tahoe was part of our trip to Yosemite National Park in September.

Similar to Half Dome, permits are required to climb the mountain and getting one is a story itself! ;-) You can learn more about the permit process here.

Monday & Tuesday - Mt Whitney (23 miles, 6,000 calories)

On Monday morning (September 8th) we drove from Mammoth to Lone Pine to hike Mt Whitney. We stopped by an outdoor store to rent hiking poles for me (Scott had already bought some in Mammoth) and also stopped to eat breakfast/lunch at Alabama Hills Cafe. We got a late start (on purpose because of weather) and as we were hiking up to our campsite the hikers that were coming down told us they were not even able to make it to the top of Mt Whitney because of the weather.

This was at the very beginning of the trail, before I knew what was really about to happen...

First, our plans were to do this as a day hike but the weather kept changing so we decided that we would do it as an overnight hike. At that point our plans were to hike up to the camp farthest up (Trail Camp) so that we wouldn't have as much to hike the next morning. Well, heavy rain and hail prevented that from happening so we ended up having to camp at Outpost Camp, which was only 3.8 miles from the start, which meant we would have to hike 18.2 miles the next day.

We stayed dry for the most part but it started pouring on us the last half mile into camp. Once we got there we were soaking wet and exhausted. We didn't even want to eat but knew that we needed to since we had to finish the trek in the morning - even farther than expected since we had to stop at the lower camp. It stopped raining just long enough for us to get the tent set up and as soon as we did, it started pouring again. Scott made us dinner in the rain and we went to bed around 8 PM.

Scott woke up around 3 AM and stepped outside the tent and couldn't believe his eyes. The storm had moved out and the sky was absolutely clear. He woke me up (not like I was actually sleeping anyway!) and we decided that we would go ahead and start the climb up Mount Whitney. This was one of the best decisions we ever made! We were able to leave most of our stuff at camp and take just a few things to eat in our packs.

So much like we did with Half Dome, we started hiking with our headlamps and we were the only people for a while. We started up some of the switchbacks and looked back down to see others with their headlamps on. It was like a pilgrimage. It was out of this world.

The dramatic changing colors as the time passed was truly breathtaking. I still say to this day that I do not think I would have been able to finish this hike if we didn't start super early like we did. I swear I was "sleep hiking" for part of it. We did have time to get acclimated to the elevation because we spent the first part of the trip in Mammoth but both of us did feel a little sick during parts of the hike but we listened to our bodies and took our time.

With every single step - every SINGLE step - we wanted to give up. Scott was usually a few hundred feet ahead of me but we were both thinking the same thing...just keep going. One foot in front of the other. Each time we did "meet up" again we contemplated giving up and just turning around but we pressed on. I KNEW that if other people had done it before us that we could too. It's hard to describe but it was almost like an out of body experience.

After climbing the 99 switchbacks we reached Trail Crest. I was so excited because it said we only had 1.9 more miles. That gave me a big push to keep going - Scott had the opposite reaction to the 1.9 miles we had left. ;-)

Can you see me? This was during that "only" 1.9 miles left! The last 1.9 miles was very difficult, maybe because we were actually waking up and realized we were actually hiking. We both talked about how we were basically hallucinating during the final push to the top.

Once we could see the hut I finally believed that the top of the mountain actually existed.

WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It really hadn't fully hit us yet but we just climbed the highest mountain in the lower 48!

The picture below was on the way back down the mountain.

This was when it really hit me. It was really cold on top of Mount Whitney but we had to start shedding layers on the way down. We stopped and I was just giddy that we just climbed that mountain. It was SUCH an amazing feeling.

Once we got down back to camp we had to finish packing up and then we hit the trail to leave. The trek down obviously wasn't as hard as going up but it was still difficult and we were tired. We both rolled our ankles a few times and I really thought that we would never make it down, even when we only had one mile to go.

We made it down, visited the Whitney Portal Store and made the trek all the way to Tahoe (a five hour drive!).

Tahoe

Wednesday

We arrived in Tahoe late Tuesday and took it easy on Wednesday, just exploring the city and lake. We said we weren't going to hike anymore after Mt Whitney since we already hiked over 100 miles but that changed when we woke up Thursday morning...

Thursday - Lake Tahoe: Rubicon Trail (10 miles) + Kayaking

We had to hit the trail! We did a 10 mile hike on the Rubicon Trail. We hiked in to kayak at Emerald Bay and then hiked back out. Yes, we could have parked at the kayak rental place and not hiked but that didn't sound like much fun, plus we wouldn't have seen things like this:

Friday

We flew back to Atlanta and when we got home they were talking about fires in Tahoe on the news! We dodged bad weather (rain, hail, and snow on Whitney and fires in Yosemite and Tahoe) three different times on our trip! Little did we know we would be back to Yosemite National Park a few months later considering a possible move.

We ate at Base Camp Pizza twice while we were in Tahoe. Highly recommended - it was delicious!

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Many people ask what we do to prepare for our hiking trips. Honestly, we don't do anything different from our normal workout routine. We workout similar to the way the She Sweats 12-Week Transformation is structured with weight training and cardio. Closer to the trip, we may steer more towards the She Sweats 12-Week Run Builder, trading in some of the running for incline walking/sprints but we don't spend hours a day working out (unless we are hiking). It's just not necessary or healthy for most people.

We will be sharing A LOT more of our traveling tips. We have posts planned on every single thing we do to save money before the trip and during the trip. We will share how/where we book our lodging, flights, and how we handle meals while traveling. Traveling does not have to be as expensive as you may think. Sign up for our newsletter so you never miss a post!

We've created a few new boards on Pinterest for our hiking pictures so be sure to follow us on Pinterest so you never miss a post! You can find us on the social media networks below plus snapchat under hesheeatclean.

I just found this picture of where we signed the register on top of Mount Whitney. We were brain dead by the time we got there and when Scott asked me what he should write - he wrote exactly what I said. That's what happens after two weeks of non-stop hiking and climbing the tallest mountain in the lower 48.

We have our hiking adventures spread throughout our house, so much so that I will probably need to do a separate post! I love this California/Mount Whitney art that I had made for Scott (okay, really for me too!) in our living room.

Climbing Mount Whitney