Good morning! I hope you all had an awesome weekend 🙂 It felt good to be home and able to do things that helped me feel back to normal after getting home from Italy. Speaking of Italy, today’s post is going to talk about my workouts while I was gone, as well as my mentality behind them and tips to getting them in. I want to preface this post that as I mentioned in my “Ciao America” post, I went into this vacation with a different mentality towards working out than I normally do. I only packed a few outfits and mentally was really OK with not working out at all if that’s how it panned out. And, just because I ended up working out more than I anticipated, it really was just the way it ended up panning out like that. When you’re traveling for 10+ days abroad with a big group of people, it’s also nice to get in some “me” time before joining the gang for breakfast. Ya hear me on that?! 😉

So, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the workouts! First off, we WALKED a LOT. Seriously, when we were in Rome, we were logging anywhere from 8-11 miles, which is no joke! With that said, during those days I definitely wasn’t focusing on running much, but instead would do push-ups, squats, lunges, planks, etc. Here’s the roundup:

• Friday & Saturday (5/22 & 5/23)- No workouts these days as we arrived in Rome at noon on Friday and Saturday we took our time getting up and getting going. However, we still walked over 9 miles on Friday and 10 miles on Saturday! I love being active and moving a lot, so this made me happy 🙂

• Sunday (5/24)- I woke up Sunday feeling the itch to move and sweat, so I laced up and gave myself 20 minutes to do that. Our apartment was across the street from a river and I had seen people running along it the day before so figured that would be a good idea (I was nervous about the workout scene as I didn’t want to look like “that American” who NEEDED to workout and run, but it was a very common thing to see in the city!). I even found some steps to run up and down and an area to do some walking lunges, squats, push-ups, etc. It was a great start to the day.

• Monday (5/24 & 5/25)- I FINALLY got RM to go for a run with me 🙂 I knew we’d be in the car for 2+ hours on our way to Pienza, so I wanted to get some movement in before that- and good endorphins going to help get me through the car ride 😉 We did a 20 minute run throughout some super cute streets- it was fun to run together!
• Tuesday (5/26)- We were going to a winery so I didn’t have much time, but squeezed in 15 minutes of squats, lunges, push-ups, planks, tricep dips, leg lifts, etc. before we met for breakfast.
• Wednesday (5/27)- I went out by the pool at our B&B and did this 20 minute workout.

• Thursday (5/28)- I went out by the pool again and was able to do 25 minutes of various exercises. This view was so awesome!

• Friday (5/29)- Even though I knew I’d be in the car for 2+ hours, I decided it was a good rest day for me since we had to be up early and since I hadn’t rested in a bit.
• Saturday (5/30)- I went for a 25 minute run since our final destination was on much flatter ground than Pienza 😉 We also walked a lot!
• Sunday (5/31)- Rest day. We were out late the night before and RM said that biking to the city center would be our exercise for the day.

• Monday (6/1)- This was our departure day and I knew it was going to be a LONG day of travel between the 2+ hour ride to the airport and the 8+ hour flight home, so I knew a run first thing was going to make me feel so much better. I ran for 28 minutes.

And, that’s it! As you can see, I stayed really active, but I never once felt like it was impending on my vacation or my time with others, which is good because that was not something I wanted. I didn’t want my workouts to run my day, and my 20ish minute quickie workouts certainly didn’t do that. But, since I love moving and sweating and the feeling during and after a workout, I’m glad that I was able to squeeze stuff in. Not to mention it made getting back into the swing of things muchhh easier upon my return to the gym! But let me tell you- I was SO SORE last week after a few strength training sessions- I guess not lifting a weight for 12 days will do that to you 😉

I’ll end this post with 3 tips to get in your workouts when traveling:

1. Do it first thing in the morning, this way, you won’t risk the chance of having cocktails or a nap replace your workout. Plus, who wants an afternoon workout looming over their heads all day?!
2. Make them short- as I mentioned, I kept mine right around the 20 minute mark which was more than enough time. Let’s face it, your workouts probably aren’t going to be the same as they would be back home, especially if you’re traveling abroad, so figure out what you can do with what you have and bust it out. There’s no need to be spending 45-60 minutes working out when you’re on vacation (in my opinion).
3. Make it fun! I didn’t even think about inquiring where the closest gym was while I was in Italy. Rather, I made due with what I had- either running or bodyweight HIIT workouts was what worked for me. It was fun to get creative and do things I might not normally do if I had access to a full gym.

If you’re looking for more tips for staying active while on the road, check out these posts:

NBGNO: How to stay fit while on the road
Tips to stay healthy while on the road
Tips for morning workouts

Questions for you: How do you stay active on the road? Do you like to workout when you’re on vacation? What’s your “go-to” travel workout if you don’t have a gym?