Vacation's Over -- Take It Easy

Vacation's over. You ate and drank your way to oblivion. Now the bill's do. It's time to hit the gym or streets and you just don't want to. Well, it's not that you don't want to, it's that you know what's waiting when you get there.

Exercises that were pretty effortless before you left on your trip are going to be hard as hell. A ten pound weight is going to feel like twenty pounds. The first five miles are going to feel like ten. And the ring around your waist that you worked off the last couple of months is going to be jiggling like a Jello belt.

Yick.

The strong temptation is to throw in the towel and let your body continue to enjoy the lazy, hazy, crazy days of vacation even at home. You'll pay the bill another time.

Don't do it.

A better solution is to not pretend that you're in the exact same shape and condition you were in when you left. Instead, recognize that you've lost a little fitness edge and ease back into your routine. This is the smart approach on two counts:

1. If you immediately jump back into the intensity of workouts you were participating in before you left -- before you let yourself go for a week or more -- you're at greater risk of hurting yourself.
2. Backing off a little bit on weight, distance or time, will keep you from becoming discouraged by the inability to work out at the level you did before your trip.

If you take this approach, you will not only enjoy your workouts, but you will be amazed at how quickly you recover your pre-vacation level of fitness. Now get to it!