Fitness at the Beach? It can be done.

Do you remember sending postcards to friends and families when you were on vacation at the Jersey Shore.  Just a 1 ½ hours away and we were “Wishing they were here”. Not really though. Right? The whole point of getting away is to “get away” so you can miss home a bit.  If everyone you sent a post card to were “Here or There” then it wouldn’t really be a get- away. Would it? In addition, if vacation was just like home, then well it wouldn’t really be a vacation.

While vacation time is a temporary leave of absence from our daily routine, for some, it means eating poorly, sleeping late, spending extra money and if you are like me, you may use they “Hey, I’m on vacation” as a justifiable immunity clause from healthy habits. Although I am more apt to take a bike ride at the shore than I am at home, I am also more apt to eating things like Johnsons Popcorn, salt water taffy and boardwalk pizza and fries than when I am not away.

However, there are a few tradeoffs we can do to balance the imbalance of summer escapes.  According to http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/  there are 10 things we can do at the beach to burn calories.  One of them is sitting on the beach….hmmm 80 calories an hour just sitting on the sand with our feet in the water? Must be all the shifting towards the sun and lifting the chair out incoming waters of high tide.

 Ok. So how about something a little more active: (This caloric expenditure is per hour and usually for a 150 lb person- so it could be more or less)  Building a sandcastle – 100 cal/hour; fishing off the beach – 125-150 cal/hour; playing frizbee – 125 cal/hour; Boogie boarding 200-250 cal/hour; Jumping waves – 300 cal/hour; sea kayaking – 350 cal/hour; walking/jogging on the beach – 300-800 cal/hour; beach racquetball/paddle ball-300-450 cal/hour; swimming – 410 cal/hour and beach volleyball -500 cal/hour.

If you add a little pep in your step while doing all the activities or try walking against the current of the ocean or kick a little more using the boogie board, you can add to the amount of calories expended with a day at the beach.

In the meantime, go ahead and treat yourself on your retreat. That is what vacations are for. But steady the sails of guilty pleasures with a little extra healthy indulgence of activity. Enjoy the rest of your summer!