Healthy Eating on Holiday: Lessons from Paris and Disneyland

Introduction to Podcast

Ever wondered how to keep up with healthy eating while on vacation? 🍏✨ Join me, Dr. Orlena, in our latest episode of "Fit and Fabulous" where I share my recent adventures in Paris and Disneyland! 🗼🎢

In "Healthy Eating on Holiday: Lessons from Paris and Disneyland," I dive into the challenges of maintaining a balanced diet while enjoying life's special moments. From navigating tiny Parisian kitchens to the food frenzy at Disneyland, I've got you covered with practical tips and strategies. 🍇🥐🍎

Discover how to: ✅ Stick to your healthy habits even when eating out ✅ Find the balance between indulgence and nutrition ✅ Reboot and get back on track post-vacation

Whether you're planning a trip or just curious about making healthier choices, this episode is packed with insights to keep you feeling amazing and fabulous, no matter where you are. 💪💖

Tune in now and let's make every holiday a healthy one! 🎙️✨

Mentioned in the Podcast

To claim 1 of the 10 Magic Likes and Dislikes Exercises (normally $299) sign up here: https://www.drorlena.com/offers/z2MkKmkC?coupon_code=JULY 

Interested in working with Dr Orlena and having her support as you transform your life? Book a call! Click the link and find a time that works for you: http://drorlena.com/book-a-call-fb

Grab your review copy of Building Simple Habits to a Healthy Me: https://www.drorlena.com/book-dr-orlena

Transcription of Podcast

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Fit and Fabulous with me, Dr. Orlena. How are you doing today? I hope that you are feeling amazing. I hope that you are feeling fabulous. Now, here's a question that I get asked quite a lot. What do you do when you go on holiday? Or it could be a wedding, it could be a party, it could be something like that.

But how do you get the balance right of enjoying life, being on holiday. And also maintaining a little bit of healthy eating, healthy living, stuff like that. I'm going to tell you about my recent trip to Paris, which was amazing, we had a fabulous time, we had a fabulous time. There were some challenges.

Now, not least of the challenges was, to be perfectly honest, how to eat healthily. Not only in Paris, in a big city. Where we had to eat out far more than we would normally. Here's tip number one. If you are self catering, it is so much easier to eat out. Be healthy, because you can go and buy whatever you want to buy.

When we were in Paris, the kitchen was so tiny that we didn't have the ability to be able to cook anything at all. The kitchen wasn't really equipped for cooking. So we went out and we were only there for three days. And then we spent three days in Disneyland, which was Fun, but oh my goodness. There is nothing resembling healthy eating in Disneyland.

What did we do? What did we do? Well, I always say to people when you're in this situation you have three options now I'm gonna go through the three options in theory because there's also in theory and there is theory , whenever you have a situation, it could be, I'm going to go and eat out, I'm going for a weekend, I'm going for a week, I'm going for a month, whatever your, let's call it obstacle is, there are three different things you can do.

Number one, you can say, I am going to stick to the way, the healthy way that I eat and I'm just going to carry on doing what I want to do. Now, I will caveat that with, the longer you have been doing it, the easier it is to do that. Because, When you first start making changes, everything feels a bit new, and a little bit strange.

And you might find, actually, I want to eat in the other way that I used to eat. And I like that way of eating. It feels familiar to me. , If you have been In your new way of eating. And you've been doing it for years and years and years. It just is, it's not new anymore. It's just how you eat. And I have to say, that is where I have got to.

Like, this is where I eat. Like, I do eat ice cream from time to time. Particularly as I have kids. But, I tend not to eat bread. Not because I'm super what's the word? Disciplined. I just actually don't find bread, I've sort of trained it out of my brain. my desires. I'll eat it from time to time, particularly if there's something nice that goes with bread.

For example, yesterday for lunch I made some anchovies and we had anchovies and sardines and that goes very nicely with bread. So I had a little bit of bread, but not heaps and heaps of bread. And I don't miss bread when other people are eating bread and I've got other salads and vegetables and healthy stuff.

I'm much happier with my diet than bread and all the stuff that my kids want to eat. Bread and pasta is what my kids want to eat. , the longer you have been doing this, the easier it is for you to stay in your lane, basically. And so that's number one. You can just go, Okay, do you know what? I'm just going to carry on doing it.

Now, I'm going to explain in a minute that that can actually be quite difficult, depending on how you're travelling and where you're travelling to. If you come to Spain, and you come to my amazing little town, and you want to get up and go to market, Every single day. It's gonna be super easy for you, but not all places have those Facilities available to you.

That's number one. Number two is totally the opposite You can just say do you know what? I actually don't care. I am just gonna eat whatever it is that I want to eat I'm on holiday. I want to enjoy this experience and I don't want to be thinking about Healthy foods and stuff like that and just go and do it Now, what I would say, if you want to do that, is that when you come home, you do what I call a reboot.

And that is basically you get back on track. And as a side note, I now offer what is called a guided reboot. Which is, you come and join my program for four weeks and you do what is called a guided reboot. So you do a two week reboot, but I'm helping you through it. You get help at the beginning, you get help all the way through.

Now, it is a really good tool. To get back on track. So I may, it's a really good way of starting, but also it is a tool that my clients use and I would use, well, I kind of don't need to use it because it's just like me going back to normal, but it is definitely a tool that you can use time and time again.

If you're interested in finding out more reboot. then book a call and I will tell you more about the guided reboot. Number two is I'm just going to go wild, I'm going to eat and drink and do whatever I want and reap the consequences. If you do this, whichever one you do, I would say what you want to do is really be aware of how these foods and drinks make you feel.

What does it feel like when you eat and drink that food? A little bit of self awareness. And there's no right or wrong answers to these things, but being self aware is really important. Now, number three is kind of a halfway house between one and two, and it depends where you are in terms of your journey.

Sometimes people actually find this the most difficult, but it does depend. I think at the beginning people find this more difficult and as you get further down the line and you're more used to healthy eating you find it easier and easier and it's basically a halfway house so you might say yeah I'm going to have one glass of wine or I am going to have one ice cream or one dessert or a small piece of this so you're not totally just eating the way you used to eat you're not totally eating healthy healthy healthy but you're eating a little bit in between and as a side note I'm using these words of Like how you did before and healthy, healthy, healthy.

Please remember that nothing is forbidden in moderation. , I eat everything. I really do, but I eat it in moderation. And I have to say, I really don't like eating processed foods. Because I know how damaging highly processed foods are, particularly to your biome. , it's all those emulsifiers that they really damage your biome.

And that, for me, really puts me off having to eat them. I don't want to be doing damage to my body. I kind of think I've got a choice. I can be either damaging my body by the foods I eat, or I can be helping and nurturing and nourishing my body by eating healthy fruits and vegetables. And I eat so much fruit.

I really do. But fruit is jam packed of fiber, and it's awesome. also packed full of phytonutrients, which are antioxidants, which are going around and really, really helping you. Those are the three, basically, categories that you can choose. I can carry on doing everything perfectly, although that might be quite difficult.

Number two, I can eat whatever I want, really thinking that I'm going to get back on track, as soon as I get home, or I can do a halfway house. And obviously it depends on how long you are away for. If you're going away for a month, you might want to err more on the side of Yeah, I'm carrying on going, or I'm going to moderate, as opposed to totally blow it.

But the choice is you, yours, and there is no right or wrong answer to any of these questions. But I would caveat it with, whichever one you choose, remember the self awareness piece. Even if you choose to go for the, I'm going to be totally healthy and I'm going to watch other people eating bread and cake whilst I'm not doing it.

That self awareness piece is still really important because a lot of people find it's the thought of being in that situation that is worse than actually being in that situation. So when you go, and sometimes my kids will have ice cream, and sometimes I do have ice cream. And sometimes I don't. And those days that I don't have ice cream, it's fine.

I make sure I focus on the enjoyment of the moment. Spending time with them. Their enjoyment of the ice cream. Rather than, oh my goodness, I'm depriving myself by not eating ice cream. I'm not depriving myself. I'm making a choice that I don't want to eat it. And I might have a little bite of theirs. What did we do in Paris?

Well, I would like to say that I carried on eating healthy, healthy, healthy, but to be honest, it was kind of impossible and we couldn't do that. It was impossible really for us to have the healthy breakfast that I would normally have. We had some croissants and some bakery goods, but we also had fruit.

And that was when we were in Paris and we could get access to fruit. And then when we went out for dinner. We, I chose a restaurant the first and the third day that was relatively healthy, as in it was French style food. I personally would eat much, much more vegetables and much less protein, but the reality is that most restaurants will serve you a big chunk of protein, whether it's fish or meat, and a small amount of vegetables, and I do things the other way around.

Mostly vegetables with a little bit of protein. meat or fish. Now, obviously, I could have looked for some vegetarian restaurants, but I have kids and they wanted to enjoy being on holiday, so it wasn't just about me, it was about my children and what they would eat too. Now, when we went to Disneyland, oh my goodness, it's a totally different story.

It became almost impossible to be able to get fruit and vegetables. And one day, I walked to the supermarket, which was half an hour in the blazing sun, to get some sandwichy things and some fruit and vegetables. And I realised that in those days that we were in Disneyland, our fruit and vegetables Consumption went down, although I would say we still maintained my total minimum, which is about five, five different portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

But, normally I would be eating 10, 15, like basically I eat vegetables all the time. Now here's an interesting thing. Here's an exercise that I talk to with my clients. And I always ask them this question. We have something called an I am statement which goes like this. I am somebody who prioritizes my health and wellness.

Now, a lot of people get confused with this because they think we're talking about the outcome, the result. I Are you healthy? Have you lost the weight that you already want to if that's what you're aiming to do? Or are you in that super healthy place? Whereas actually what we're talking about is right now and your actions.

Now the first question is why is this important? Why do you want to think I am somebody who prioritises my health and wellness? And the answer is this. This is your identity. And the more your identity is about somebody who acts in a healthy way, the more you're going to do it. So take, for example, your identity of whether you are a smoker or not.

If you are a smoker, and I say to you, would you like a cigarette? You may say yes, you may say no. There's a possibility that you're going to say yes. If your identity is, I am not a smoker and I offer you a cigarette, you'll be like, No, why, why would I want a cigarette? Like, no, it's just easy. So that is the power of your identity.

Here's a thing that people get confused about. They often think, okay, I've done some unhealthy stuff. Therefore, my identity is I am not healthy. Now, my identity is I am somebody who looks after my health, yes or yes, 11 out of 10. However, when we went to Disneyland, I will tell you that I spent 400 euros, the six of us, 400 euros, and the six of us, we were there for four days, on McDonald's and ice cream.

Because we were in Disneyland, and basically I looked and thought none of these things are particularly healthy, let's go with the cheapest not healthy stuff which happened to be McDonald's. Do I normally eat McDonald's? No. I don't. But, the fact that I ate McDonald's for four days doesn't make me think, oh my goodness, I don't look after myself.

Of course I do. And I know that the minute I'm going to get back, I, well, the minute I was there, I was just so looking forward to going to market on Sunday and being able to buy fruit and vegetables and get back to my normal diet and get back into my routine of swimming in the sea. Like I wanted to get back.

So yes, I ate ice cream. At one stage we had these giant ice creams, which had three balls on them. We don't normally do that, but. You know, it was a once in a lifetime trip for me and my kids. So we ate ice cream and we ate McDonald's, which we wouldn't normally eat. But that does not mean that my identity changes.

A few thoughts for you and how to help you navigate going away or going on holiday and thinking differently. Okay, how does this impact my health and my wellness? I want to get maximum enjoyment, but I also want to look after myself. In a nutshell, there are three ways of doing this. Number one, you carry on with your healthy, wonderful living that you enjoy.

The more you do that, the further you are on your journey, the easier it is for you to do that. Number two, you. Blow it all, you get back on board. Remember, if you're interested in doing a guided reboot with me, book a call and I will explain how it works, but it's a really amazing tool. And number three, you have a halfway house, which can be a little bit more difficult.

Now, on a side note, I want to tell you all the amazing things that are going on in the world of Dr. Alina. Number one, I am currently working on getting reviews for my amazing book, which is called Building Simple Habits to a Healthy Me. And I have had so many fabulous reviews. I think I'm up at 44. I'm aiming to get a hundred.

But it is a really fabulous book because it is a short. read with worksheets in it. So it helps you work through where you are and what you want to do. If you would like a review copy, you can either sign up and it will send it out to you, or if you're on Facebook, you can put your hand up and say, I'd like one and I can send it to you.

That's number one. Number two is through the month of July, I am offering Well, ten, but some have been booked, so I don't know how many are left now. It is an amazing exercise called my Magic Likes and Dislikes exercise, and I normally charge 300 US dollars for this exercise, and I have ten that I am giving away free, and they are done on a first serve, first come, first serve basis, so, and they're only available in July, so they have to be taken in July, you can't carry it on into August.

What is the Magic Likes and Dislikes exercise? It is an amazing exercise that helps you dial up. or dialed down a like. For example, my son, I did it on my son a few years ago, he didn't like red apples and he learned to like red apples. Or you might think, oh, do you know what? I eat chocolate too much or I eat pretzels too much.

I want to just turn down my desire for that red apple. food and it's going to help me get to healthy amazing you so if you want one of those there are i know there's some left i know some have gone sign up do it straight away as i say it's normally 300 euros it is my summer gift to you i love doing these exercises and i love chatting to you so it will be fabulous to talk to you now what i do say is you need to be in a place that is quiet so not like You need to be able to focus on this exercise, it's not a walking around exercise, so if you book one, please make sure you book a time when you know that you can focus and concentrate on what we're talking about.

So my friends, have a lovely, lovely week, and I look forward to chatting to you next week. Bye bye!