How I Stay Fit Travelling Through Europe (Without Coming Home Feeling Like I Have to Start Over)

Last summer I spent two and a half weeks in Italy eating pizza, pasta, and gelato every single day and came home leaner than I left. I wrote about it, and it resonated with a lot of you. So this summer, when I head to Croatia and Greece for three weeks with the family, I’m doing it all again — but this time the stakes are a little different.

Last year was more resort-style: Amalfi Coast, Sardinia, Rome. Hotels with gyms. Longer stretches in one place. This summer we’re moving. Split, Hvar, Athens, Paros, Naxos, Santorini. Boutique hotels. Boats. Cobblestone streets and full tourist days. Several of our accommodations don’t have a gym at all.

And yet my goal is exactly the same: feel energized, vibrant, and toned during the trip, rocking a bikini most days while savouring delicious food, and come home without having gained five to ten pounds or lost too much of the muscle I’ve worked so hard to build.

Here’s how I’m approaching it.

WHY THIS TRIP IS A BIGGER NUTRITIONAL CHALLENGE

Constantly being on the move wrecks you in ways that are easy to underestimate. Long-haul flights, airport connections, ferries, new time zones, long days on your feet, looking after kids with no reprieve — all of it spikes your hunger hormones and makes the path of least resistance look a lot like chips at 4pm and an entire bag of candy on travel days.

Here’s the science behind that: when you don’t sleep well, your ghrelin (hunger hormone) goes up and your leptin (satiety hormone) goes down. The result isn’t just fatigue. It’s cravings, poor food decisions, and a mood that makes everything harder. Managing energy on a trip like this starts well before you think about what’s on the menu.

SLEEP COMES FIRST

I know this feels like the least exciting section of a travel fitness post, but I’m leading with it because nothing else works if sleep falls apart. With a significant time change and the added fun of perimenopause sleep, I’m deliberate about this one.

I always pack a sleep mask, earplugs, and magnesium citrate. The magnesium helps with regularity when travel throws your digestion off (and it will). The mask and earplugs are non-negotiable in boutique hotels with thin curtains and street noise.

The goal is seven hours. Some nights you won’t hit it. But if you consistently under-sleep, your nutritional willpower isn’t the problem — your hormones are. Give yourself the best shot at the foundation.

WHAT I ACTUALLY PACK

A few things make a real difference on a trip like this.

A reusable water bottle. Hydration is genuinely harder when you’re walking everywhere and paying by the bottle. It’s also one of the most important levers I have for keeping energy up and hunger in check. I commit to getting back on it every evening once we’re settled at the hotel.

Protein bars. I keep one in my bag every single day for the late afternoon (non-chocolate ones only — they’ll melt). Restaurants in Croatia and Greece often don’t open for dinner until 7:30pm, and that gap between lunch and dinner is where things fall apart for most people. The rest of the family heads for chips or a pastry. I have a protein bar. It keeps me from arriving at dinner starving, inhaling the bread basket, and being completely hangry.

Electrolyte packets. These are underrated for travel. Long days in the heat, time zone adjustment, the kind of fatigue that builds when you’re constantly moving — electrolytes help. I add them to my water once a day when I need a boost, and especially on days I manage to squeeze in a workout.

MY LEAD SYSTEM ON THE ROAD

The LEAD System stands for Lift Heavy, Eat Sufficient Protein, Adequate Hydration, and Do Enjoyable Cardio. On a trip like this, each pillar looks a little different than it does at home.

L — Lift Heavy. When there’s a gym available and time allows, I take the opportunity, even knowing I’ll often be tired and it won’t be my usual training window. I drink my electrolyte water, get in a 45-minute session: two trisets covering lower body, upper body, and core, three sets of 10 to 15 reps, compound movements. That’s enough to maintain what I’ve built. But I’m also giving myself genuine grace on this one. Some weeks there may not be a gym anywhere near us — and that’s okay. One to two sessions a week if I can get them. Zero if I can’t. This is not the time for perfectionism.

E — Eat Sufficient Protein. At home, I aim for 30 to 50 grams of protein per meal. On vacation, I simplify down to one question: does this meal contain protein? Eggs at breakfast, Greek yogurt with fruit, grilled fish or chicken at dinner, meat on my salad at lunch. I’m not tracking macros. I’m just asking the question every time I sit down to eat.

A — Adequate Hydration. I won’t hit my at-home intake on this trip, and I’ve already accepted that. My focus is on getting it in during downtime, especially in the evenings when we’re back at the hotel. I don’t drink alcohol, so Coke Zero is my vacation drink — something I enjoy but never have at home. It’s a small thing, but having something that feels like a treat matters, and I’d rather save my sugar for gelato.

D — Do Enjoyable Cardio. This one takes care of itself. Exploring Split, wandering through Athens, hiking around Santorini — we’ll easily hit 10,000 to 13,000 steps a day. That’s the cardio. Nothing extra needed.

MODERATION365 ON VACATION: THE DNCs

This is where I want to spend the most time, because this is the framework that actually keeps me on track without feeling like I’m on a diet in the middle of the Greek islands.

Moderation365 is built around four concepts: Moderation, Mindfulness, Abundant Mindset, and Daily Nutritional Commitments. On vacation, the DNCs are the scaffolding that holds the line with my physique without turning every meal into a calculation.

Daily Nutritional Commitments are the foods and behaviours that keep hunger low, energy high, and cravings manageable. They should be enjoyable, effective, and genuinely easy to do. They’re the 80% that moves the needle, even when everything else is flexible.

My vacation DNCs look like this:

At every meal, I ask myself: does this meal contain protein? It’s one question, not a calculation. Greek yogurt, eggs, fish, grilled meat — any of these count. It’s a prompt, not a rule.

Every day, I have a BAS. A Big Ass Salad, either at lunch or dinner, with protein on top. This single habit is probably the most effective thing I do on vacation. It means I’m not having pizza at lunch and pasta at dinner and wondering why I feel sluggish. If I have a salad with chicken or feta and greens at one meal, I’ve given my body something it needs and I feel genuinely satisfied — then the fresh pasta at the other meal is pure joy, not guilt.

I get two to four litres of water in daily, even if it’s on the lower end while we’re out exploring.

I have a protein bar in the afternoon so I don’t arrive at dinner starving.

And I sleep. Seven to eight hours whenever I possibly can, because without that, everything else is harder.

One note: at home, one of my DNCs is a daily protein shake. I don’t do that on vacation — no blender, no ingredients, and most hotels include breakfast. The DNCs adapt to the context. That’s exactly how they’re supposed to work.

ON MODERATION ITSELF

I want to be clear about something: moderation is not an amount. It’s a feeling — a feeling of satisfaction. And on vacation, you actually have an advantage here that you don’t have at home.

You’re not sitting in front of a pantry of snacks at 8pm. You’re not stress-eating between meetings. You’re fully present, genuinely enjoying your surroundings, and naturally eating in a more social, slower, intentional way. The Europeans are onto something, they don’t obsess over protein grams or progressive overload the way North Americans do. They walk more, eat with people they love, and savour the experience. There’s less deprivation, less all-or-nothing thinking, and naturally, less overeating.

I notice it every time I travel, and it reminds me exactly why I teach Moderation365 the way I do.

WHAT I ACTUALLY EAT (AND WHAT I DON’T STRESS ABOUT)

I enjoy everything that’s worth enjoying. Local pastries, gelato most evenings with the kids, whatever the regional specialty happens to be. I don’t restrict myself from any of it. What I do is pay attention to how I feel after.

Croissants with Nutella, for example — I’ve noticed they genuinely don’t make me feel great. A little heavy, a bit of an energy dip. So I might have one every few days when the moment is really right, and then I’m satisfied. It’s not a rule. It’s self-awareness. That’s mindfulness in practice.

Gelato is a different story. I enjoy it most nights with my family and have zero ambivalence about it. It’s one of the best parts of travelling in this part of the world and I’m not going to spend a single second feeling guilty about it.

The abundant mindset piece matters here too. There will be more tomorrow. There is more where this came from. The temptation when a buffet breakfast is built into your rate is to eat your money’s worth — but there’s a cost beyond the financial one. Arriving home feeling like you have to dig yourself out of a hole is its own kind of tax. You worked hard all year to build the body and the habits you have. This is a few weeks out of fifty-two. Enjoy it fully, without abandoning the few things that keep you anchored.

THE GOAL ISN’T PERFECTION. IT’S NOT STARTING OVER.

I’m not trying to come home stronger and fitter than I am now. I’m trying to come home feeling like myself — lean, energized, and not needing to spend all of fall in recovery mode.

If you’re heading into summer travel with that same goal, my Signature LEAD System and Moderation365 are the frameworks I trust to get me there. Not because they’re restrictive (they’re the opposite of that) but because they give me enough structure that I’m not making every decision from scratch at every meal, in every new city, on four hours of sleep.

That’s the freedom that comes from having a system. You spend less mental energy anxious about food choices and missed workouts, and more of it on the reason you’re actually there.