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.

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

Yosemite National Park + Mammoth Lakes, CA

Trip Date: September 2014

I know that this post is late but since we have been incorporating more personal stories and posting about our travel/hikes, I've been going back to get our trips organized and posted. These are really important for us to share because as we've mentioned many times before, we do not live in the gym. We don't diet and exercise to look a certain way. This is a lifestyle for us because it allows us to do the activities we love.

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!

Related: A possible move to live INSIDE Yosemite National Park!

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I can’t even express how much these trips mean to us. It’s a time to get away, disconnect (for the most part), and just enjoy and live life. This trip wasn’t quite as “disconnected” as our trip to Montana last year because we did have Wi-Fi at the condo (but not in the park) but we still didn’t check our social media a million times a day. We posted what we wanted to and then logged out.

These trips take a lot of researching and planning months in advance (all of which Scott does). One of the books we utilized was Yosemite - The Complete Guide by James Kaiser. We obviously have no control over the weather once we get there but with being gone for two weeks we always tell ourselves we will have at least some good days! We really lucked out our entire trip this year and we are so thankful!

Related: How to Save Money + Eat Healthy While Traveling

Yosemite National Park

This trip to Yosemite National Park was the first part of our two week hiking trip which also included climbing Mount Whitney. We flew from Atlanta to Reno on Sunday (August 31, 2014) and spent the first 8 nights at a condo in Mammoth Mountain. We drove into Yosemite National Park almost every day from there, which was a 45 minute drive (each way). We hiked over 120 miles and most were day hikes except for Half Dome and Mount Whitney. In order to save money we always go grocery shopping once we get to our destination. We were lucky to have a great grocery store in Mammoth and many great restaurants as well (our recommendations are at the end of this post).

As a disclaimer, these trips (especially climbing Half Dome and Mount Whitney) are not to be taken lightly, care is needed to make sure that you stay safe as well as those around you. We will be sharing more information on this topic. Always leave no trace - be part of the solution, not the problem.

Monday

• Mount Hoffman (6.46 miles, 1,578 calories)
• Cathedral Lakes (7.8 miles, 1,230 calories)

Our first hike in the park was Mount Hoffman. It was beautiful but there is no official trail so it was hard to stay on track at some points. It was definitely worth the effort though! After Mount Hoffman we still had time so we did Cathedral Lakes. Cathedral Lakes was not one of my favorites hikes but it was good to get our legs warmed up for the rest of the trip!

"Go straight to Mt Hoffman ... From the summit nearly all the Yosemite park is displayed like a map." -John Muir

We grilled out after we got back from hiking and had leftovers for the next day as well. We will go into this more in our saving money while traveling post but we almost always eat breakfast where we are staying in order to save money. Below is what we had almost every morning which included scrambled eggs, oats with fruit and avocado. You must fuel your body in order to be able to perform!

Tuesday

• Clouds Rest (14 miles, 2,210 calories)
  • Related: Trip Report on Clouds Rest
• Gaylor Lakes (5 miles, 833 calories)

Clouds Rest - it was just as amazing as it sounds. It was a moderately strenuous hike stretching to 14 miles and had sweeping views of the park from the top. As we were descending from the top of Clouds Rest we passed a group where a few of the hikers were freaking out about the steep descents on each side. I honestly don't even remember it being scary but I can definitely say that making it all the way to the top is worth the effort!

As if Clouds Rest wasn't enough, we did Gaylor Lakes on the way out of the park. We thought it would just be an easier hike to cross off the list but it was actually rather difficult!

Wednesday

• Mammoth Lakes, CA: Crystal Lake (3.2 miles)
• Panorama Dome (0.8 miles)

We "tried" to take it easy since we had a huge hike the next day (an overnight trip to climb Half Dome) but we ended up hiking/trail running anyway. We just had to get out an explore more. Mammoth is AMAZING! We did a trail run at Crystal Lake and finished up with a short hike at Panorama Dome.

I was looking for a hat and while we were exploring Mammoth, I happened to find a Prana hat on the top shelf (it was really more like in the rafters of this store). You will see it in many of the following pictures but I have never received so many compliments on a hat before in my life! I could never find the hat again until we went to Colorado last year so I bought it in pink. I discovered when we got home that now someone is selling them on Amazon so I got the blue one as a Christmas gift! You can find them here if you are interested.

Scott was obsessed with the Minarets (pictured in the center of the picture below)!

Thursday

• Four Mile to Panorama (14.5 miles, 4,500 calories)

The pictures below were before the terror of the Four Mile to Panorama trek. We decided to do the Four Mile Trail (which isn't 4 miles long - it's 4.7 miles) and connect to the Panorama Trail (which is 8.5 miles). THIS WAS BRUTAL. Below is how Yosemite Hikes described the route we took:

Kick-Ass Alternate Route:  If you're in excellent shape and don't want to be bothered with catching buses, try hiking the 4-Mile Trail up from the valley to Glacier Point and then the Panorama Trail back down again.

Scott was carrying the heavy pack we had with our tent and most of our food. We only brought one large pack and I had my smaller pack stuffed full. This 4-Mile Trail was STRAIGHT UP. Once we made it to the top we were able to stop for a few minutes at Glacier Point before moving on. We honestly didn't spend much time there though because it's basically a tourist trap.

We continued our long trek on the seemingly never-ending Panorama Trail before finally making it to our campsite at Little Yosemite Valley. After unpacking and eating a quick dinner we went to bed because we were going to start our trek to Half Dome around 4 AM.

Friday

• Campsite to Half Dome & back down to Happy Isles via the John Muir Trail (13.5 miles)

If you haven't noticed yet, we like to beat the crowds! Even though you DO have to have a permit to climb Half Dome (yes, there were rangers checking at the base), a line still forms and we did not want to have to wait in line to climb. We woke up at 4 AM to start the 3.5 mile one way trek. A 4 AM wake up call to climb Half Dome calls for an Awake Energy Shot. Hiking with headlamps is always fun too! ;-)

We made it to the base of Half Dome rather quickly, especially considering the hike we just did the night before. I'll be completely honest again, Scott plans these trips and I normally just nod my head, like yep that sounds good - let's do it! I don't go back and research or even really look at much about the hikes. Now, I'm standing at the base of this huge rock that we are supposed to be climbing up. IT WAS SO SCARY. I almost backed out about 10 times. I was terrified but told myself that many other people had done it so I definitely could as well.

This is what I wrote on Instagram when I posted about it: "What an experience...that I will never do again. I was SO SCARED. I was still shaking 10 min after climbing back down!"

So, you have to climb up these cables that are SHAKY and they have boards across some of the poles to help you step but some of them don't have them and some of them are broken and some of the poles even come out of the granite. Not to mention, everyone behind you is waiting and basically all climbing up at the same time (another reason we woke up super early). I was scared to death. To death. I made it up but all I could think about was going back down. Once we got to the top, I asked Scott how much it would cost to hire a helicopter to come and pick me up off the top. The next day we learned that they actually did have to rescue climbers off the top because of wildfires!

After goofing off at the top for a few minutes (and doing backbends) we decided to start back down before the cables got really busy. There's only one set of cables so people are going up and down at the same time. You can see from the picture above that the cables are about two feet apart so many times you are stopping and waiting for someone or having to move out of the way - which was the scariest thing to me.

Random Memory: When we were going down a few people stopped to let us cross over a broken board and the lady said to me "Look at those biceps, you have awesome arms!". Take the time to compliment someone - for a split second it took my mind off of my fears and I still remember it to this day.

Obviously we made it back down and all is well but it was a very scary experience and I am not even scared of heights! Although I said I would never do it again, I definitely would!

Tips: Take gloves and wear the right kind of shoes. You will need shoes that will grip the surface well.

After making it off Half Dome, we hiked back down to our campsite to finish packing up and hit the John Muir Trail back down to our car. On the way down to our campsite Scott could not find his phone anywhere. We were about halfway down and he was about to turn around and have to hike back up to find it, butttt I had it in my pocket. ;-) Our brains turn to mush after awhile!

Saturday

• Devils Postpile National Monument (1.5 miles)
• Mono Pass (9.2 miles)
• Lembert Dome (2 miles)

Call us crazy but our plan for Saturday was to hike Mount Dana in order to "prep" for Mount Whitney. We always, always, always wake up super early (like 5 AM) to get into the parks before the crowds and this day we actually slept in until around 7 AM because of the crazy day we had before. Wouldn't you know that the one day we "sleep in" there's a road bike race on the main highway going to the park. We didn't know anything about it and didn't want to sit in traffic only moving about 15 MPH so we had to change our plans.

We went to Devils Postpile National Monument until the roads were clear. When we finally made it into the park we did Mono Pass and climbed Lembert Done to watch the sunset.

"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness." -John Muir

Sunday

• Shadow Lake (7.4 miles)

We didn't want to drive all the way into the park on Sunday since we had a long drive the next day to climb Mount Whitney so we tried to find local Mammoth hikes and I came across Shadow Lake in a magazine that was left at the condo. It looked pretty good so we just went with it. We were amazed. It turned out to be one of our favorite hikes and it wasn't even "planned". The entire hike was beautiful and once we reached the top our breath was taken away at the secluded lake. We took a break at the top in our hammocks (we have eno hammocks) and just relaxed a bit. Next time we are in Mammoth we are definitely hiking this one again and exploring the area more! 

"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in." -John Muir

Monday

On Monday morning (September 8th) we drove to Lone Pine to hike Mount Whitney - the highest mountain in the lower 48!

Restaurants we ate at in Mammoth:

• Good Life Cafe - we ate here three times
• Roberto's Cafe (Mexican) - we ate here twice

Below was one of the meals we had at Roberto's, plus chips and salsa! Hiking makes you hungry!

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.

Have you ever visited Yosemite National Park? Did you climb Half Dome while you were there?

- Whitney

Climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park