Ever arrived back from holiday with the feeling that you need another holiday to get over the first one? It was that bad – or indeed that “good”. Or maybe you just had small children with you ...
A holiday should be beneficial for our health. Certainly any employer would like to think that holiday pay is a sound investment in keeping staff well, productive and happy. But obviously we all have a vested interest in feeling better for a break. “A proper holiday where you get to recharge is good for your physical and mental health, mood, productivity creativity and job performance,” says Dr Mark Rowe, who specialises in burnout prevention and lifestyle medicine. “It can strengthen social relationships, boosting wellbeing and overall life satisfaction.”
However, holidays do not need to be either long or expensive. “Simply seeing your weekend as a real break from routine can lead to more happiness and satisfaction when Monday morning comes.”
Yet, dedicated “wellness” holidays are a booming business. Pilates in Greece, yoga in the Maldives or forest bathing in Finland perhaps? A “sleep” break in Ibiza or detox in Sri Lanka anyone? Fitness fans might like river swimming in Slovenia or trail running in Wales. Closer to home there are retreats ranging from, for example, “Eight-Day Singing on the Wild Side” in Co Donegal, or a quickie, three-day “juice-cleanse and yoga retreat” in Co Wexford.
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These may be your idea of heaven – or hell – but relatively few people have the opportunity and the finances to head off to some scenic retreat for specialist programmes in the rebooting of body and soul.
What if you can’t see beyond a budget-constrained, summer break with your children?
How do you maximise the health benefits then?
Here we pool expert advice for a dozen-plus ways to increase the chances of returning from your holidays healthier and happier:
1) Plan ahead
Anticipating an upcoming break by doing some reading and research may not only make the trip go smoother but it also lifts the mood. Known as “savouring”, this technique has been found to provide significant wellbeing benefits, almost as good as the holiday itself, says Rowe, referring to a 2010 Dutch study. Being organised should also lower mid-holiday stress levels, particularly if there are specific activities or sights you want to include.
2) Beware of over-scheduling
Don’t make the mistake of trying to cram too much into an itinerary, says Susi Lodola, a psychotherapist for adults and teenagers. Prioritise and take enough rest in between. Leave some days to be spontaneous, agrees Dr Rowe.
3) Be mindful of diminishing returns
The positive effects of a break on health and wellbeing are short-lived, says Lodola. Many studies find that health benefits seem to go back to pre-holiday levels just about two weeks after coming back. What surprised her was that research indicates the length of the holiday has little impact on that post-break, feel-good fortnight so you would be better off taking regular shorter breaks than one long holiday to enjoy two weeks of elevated mood back home more often. Dr Vincent McDarby, a chartered member of the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI), says most research would suggest you reach peak benefit on day eight of your holidays.
“We do know that people that take holidays regularly, they’re more refreshed, they’re less stressed, they’re more engaged in work, and tend to have lower levels of absenteeism.”
4) Try something new
If possible use your break to try something you have never done. “Your brain seeks novelty,” says Dr Rowe, “so new experiences boost dopamine – the brain’s pleasure and reward system. It is always a balance between doing this and spending time just chilling out and the sweet spot for everyone is different.”
Create a holiday that contrasts with your everyday routine. “If your life is busy and stressful, then prioritise rest and recharge. On the other hand if your life feels somewhat monotonous and boring, build in some adventure and excitement.”
5) Negotiate and compromise
Family holidays can feel like one long compromise, from the choice of location and accommodation to how the days pan out, with nobody getting exactly what they want.
“It takes a lot of planning when you’re bringing children on holidays, depending on their age, to make sure that the holiday is enjoyable for you and for the children,” says Dr McDarby. “If it is not enjoyable for the children, it’s not going to be enjoyable for you.” While parents may have to prioritise their children, you don’t have to do everything as one family unit. Couples should make sure they take turns to allow each other a little “me” time.
If you are holidaying with teenagers, negotiate beforehand, says Lodola. Discuss what each of you would enjoy and look at what the family wants to do together and what might be done individually. “Once you get there, then there’s a kind of a loose plan in place where you don’t have to have the arguments. You have them before you go.”
Lodola has first-hand experience of that. Being Austrian, she thought it was a great idea to book an Alpine holiday for her teenagers and immerse them in her native culture. When they heard what was planned “they had a meltdown,” she laughs. Yet, as it turned out, they remember it now as one of the best family holidays, despite the lack of a beach.
6) Enjoy without guilt
Cardiologist Dr Paddy Barrett of the Blackrock Clinic, who specialises in heart disease prevention, says, “if you’re going to go on holidays, you might as well enjoy them. I think you might as well stay out late, get less sleep, drink the alcohol, smoke the cigarettes. Do all those things and enjoy your holidays for what they’re supposed to be.
“I’m not bothered about the one to two weeks that you’re on holidays I’m more bothered about the 50 to 51 weeks that you’re not on holidays.”
7) But build in routine activity
Holidays are supposed to throw us out of routine, but this is what makes it difficult to get good health behaviours back on track. At times even the lead-up, particularly to end-of-year breaks, is enough to disrupt them. “If you look at the weight gain over Christmas, it actually starts in early December, not just over the week of Christmas,” says Dr Barrett. It might take until at least March to shift (if it doesn’t take up permanent residency). To counteract unwanted excess baggage, try to build as much physical activity as possible into your temporary holiday routines.
“Get out and about and get your step count up.” Or whatever type of exercise you enjoy.
“None of this should be like going to a penal colony,” he stresses.
8) Disconnect and reconnect
There is a good reason why mobiles phones are sometimes termed “weapons of mass distraction”, says Dr Rowe, who reckons probably the most important advice he can offer is to unplug from your mobile device. Easier said than done, he acknowledges, “but the truth is you can never be present if or when you are distracted. “A friend of mine recently deleted all his social media apps from his phone when going away and said afterwards he never enjoyed a holiday as much. Someone else I know deliberately chose a remote location with no wifi or signal for a complete recharge.”
If there are family members you want to keep in touch with back home, or you are self-employed and really need to do an occasional check-in, maybe allocate a set half an hour a day to do this, suggests Lodola, and switch off the rest of the time.
9) Or at least put the phone down occasionally . ..
Let’s face it, for many Gen Z, Millennials, and some older who should know better, being able to share holiday snaps online as you go is half the point. Social media drives travel choices these days and destinations have “Instaworthy” ratings. So the idea of disconnecting would be laughable. In moderation, it’s fine, and you could always just take photos and not post them until your return.
But if you are always thinking about how to capture a moment for a social media post, your holiday is not your priority but what other people think. In such a case, “I’m not focused on my life, I’m focused on the life I want to project, and that’s not a holiday”, says Dr McDarby.
10) Think fibre
Not eating enough fruit and vegetables on holiday is a common mistake, says dietitian Sarah Keogh. Even if you opt for plenty of salads, there is not as much fibre in them as you might think. If you normally eat a high-fibre breakfast, bring that cereal with you, she suggests. It is the simplest way to keep your gut happy.
“It is very common for people to get constipation and while that might sound like a small thing, if it gets bad you’re nauseous and it’ll make you feel quite sick.”
11) Drink more water
Extra glasses of water cannot only help to combat constipation but can be wisely deployed to reduce the consumption and impact of excess alcohol. If you do overeat during your holidays – a particular hazard for those on cruises and on all-in packages – your weight will generally rebalance on return to your normal eating patterns, says Keogh, founder of eatwell. But where she does see problematic weight gain is for people who get intoxicated every night of their holidays, “and obviously that’s not going to be fantastic for your liver”.
She knows it’s not a message anybody wants to hear; she made a lot of people cross recently by posting about how sipping your way through a bottle of holiday wine is the same as drinking seven gin and tonics ...
12) Begin with the end in mind
Avoid the work sandwich, says Dr Rowe, whereby your workload right before and after your break are so exhausting that your holiday does not have the desired, rejuvenating effect. As business columnist Pilita Clark wrote recently in this newspaper “leisure sickness” is a thing – that headache, cold and other ailments which descend at the start of your holiday.
One suggested cause is the immune system being unable to cope with a sharp drop in adrenaline levels after the heightened stress of trying to get through the “to do list” before your departure. Not only do you have to be realistic about what you can clear before you go but you also have to plan to ease yourself back into work and routine. While it is tempting to maximise your time away from home, maybe keep at least one day of annual leave for after your return, suggest both Lodola and Dr Rowe. Avoid scheduling meetings for your first day back at work if you can, says Dr McDarby, which might leave you time to work through your emails. He commends one company policy he came across where if you email somebody who works there while they are on holiday, you are informed the email has been automatically deleted and you can either contact a colleague or email the intended recipient again after they have come back.
We may be powerless in the face of airport problems and flight delays when returning from abroad, but “control the controllables”, says Dr Rowe, author of The Vitality Mark. For instance, can you also ensure that there are not unpaid bills or urgent tasks awaiting you when you arrive back? “A little bit of advance planning,” he adds, “can stop you feeling overwhelmed on your first day back at work, feeling you need another holiday.”
13) Finally, recognise when a holiday is not a holiday
“If you’re bringing small children, you’re not going on a holiday, you’re going on a trip,” says Dr Barrett. “And if you are bringing camping gear, you’re not even going on a trip.”
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