Hey friends!
Today on Episode 14 of The Grapefruit & Granola Podcast, I’m interviewing my blogging pal and fellow dietitian Jen from Pretty Little Grub. Jen and her husband just got back from traveling for an entire year around the world, and she has some great tips for staying healthy on vacation. Enjoy!
Nutrition and Exercise Tips While on Vacation
Jen’s Trip
We start out the episode discussing Jen’s trip. Jen and her husband both just left their full-time job and traveled all around the world. Visit Jen’s instagram for photos of their travels! They were gone for a full calendar year but they did take some breaks during their trip to travel back home for a few weddings.
Jen and her husband stayed in a variety of different housing situations, such as living out of a car, working on a vineyard in exchange for housing and even staying at people’s houses for free to take care of their pets in exchange for free room and board.
Jen’s Advice If you’d Like to Travel the World (and leave your job)
She recommends starting to prepare early. She and her husband started making financial plans 2 years in advance. There are lots of blogs that give great tips, and she recommends checking those for inspiration. Here are her 2 favorites:
Nutrition While on Vacation
Jen recommends letting your body be your guide while you’re on vacation. Eat something when you’re hungry and give yourself permission to stop when you’re full. Jen also points out that you don’t have to eat based off of hunger *all* the time. For example, if she passed by a street fair and really wanted to try something new then she did. But she also allowed herself to stop when she became satisfied instead of feeling like she had to eat the entire item.
Exercise on Vacation
Jen is a marathon runner and regularly ran at home prior to leaving on her trip. Her exercise habits changed on vacation when some days she felt like running and other days different types of movement felt good. Some areas during her travels were unsafe, so that was a factor in her exercise as well.
She previously was not very into yoga but started practicing it more when she was in Indonesia. She and her husband even got yoga mats and practiced it together.
Jen’s Thoughts on Intuitive Eating
Jen discusses intuitive eating and the perception that it’s all about eating dessert with no nutrition education. Jen’s view on this is great. She points out that most media messaging is all about food rules and diet culture, so the dessert photos are posted in an effort to normalize foods that we may view as “unhealthy”.
Jen also points out that a 1-1 setting is really a better place to provide “gentle nutrition” education, because nutrition recommendations can change from person to person. There are many vulnerable people online, and she doesn’t want someone to see a photo of a salad online and make assumptions that you have to eat salads at every meal in order to be health.
Your Body is Not a Garbage Can
Something Jen said that I love is that your body is not a garbage can. Many people continue to eat past the point of satiety because they don’t want to put food in the garbage. Our bodies were not made to be waste collectors, either.
How Her Nutrition and Exercise Philosophy Changed After Her Trip
Jen thinks that she will probably do less formal trainings for races, as a training plan is not very intuitive. In thinking of her marathon training, there were some days in her training where she had to go out on a long run even when she didn’t feel like it, and she would like to move away from that.
Although she still loves running and will likely still continue to do some races from time to time!
Jen’s Advice
If you’re a woman wanting to live a healthier life and aren’t quiet sure where to start, Jen recommends doing what works for you. Just because you see your favorite blogger doing something, or you see someone on TV eating a certain way does not mean that that specific thing has to work for you.
Jen’s Bio
Jen Rawson is a Registered Dietitian from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She works for Ignite Nutrition, a virtual and in person private practice where she focuses on intuitive eating, sports nutrition, and hormone health. She also writes a blog called Pretty Little Grub, which focuses on Intuitive Eating, joyful movement and her travel adventures. Jen just recently returned from a one year trip around the world with her husband, she says the best part was eating all the cultural food and the best food in the world comes from Vietnam.
Blog: http://www.prettylittlegrub.com/
PLG Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prettylittlegrub/
Travel Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coupleofsuitcases/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prettylittlegrub
Jen’s guest blog post in 2015 about becoming a dietitian in Canada: here
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