Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
This is Dr. Sarah Stombaugh and you are listening to the Conquer Your Weight Podcast.

Announcer:
Welcome to the Conquer Your Weight Podcast, where you will learn to understand your mind and body so you can achieve long-term weight loss. Here’s your host, obesity medicine physician and life coach, Dr. Sarah Stombaugh.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week’s episode where we are talking about how to be successful in your weight loss journey on spring break. Now, I have to tell you starting out that this podcast episode today was inspired by my good friend, Dr. Nikita Shah. She is an obesity medicine physician in the Orlando, Florida area. Her practice is called Weight Sense. And recently, she and her team sent out an email talking about how to be successful on spring break during your weight loss journey. And I read that email and I was like, oh my gosh, this is great content that I want to share with my audience as well. So inspired by her today, we are talking about that. Now, if you are in the Orlando, Florida area, you are looking for a doctor to support you in your weight loss journey, make sure to check out Dr. Shah.

We will put all of her practice information in the show notes so you can connect with her or even just subscribe to her email list because she has some great content for ways that you can be successful in your weight loss journey. But let’s talk about this because we are coming up on spring break. I know there’s probably some people who have had spring break already, but certainly in my area, a lot of times spring break is anchored around Easter, like the first week before or week after Easter. So we are getting ready to go on spring break in a couple of weeks. And vacations, whether it’s spring break or honestly any vacation. So if you don’t have spring break, if you’re just thinking about maybe a vacation you have coming up this summer, vacations can really throw us out of routine and it can be really disorienting.

A lot of times we’re going along in our weight loss journey. We’re doing so well. We’re feeling so pleased with how that is going, and then vacation just throws a wrench and whole process. So today we are going to talk about how can you be successful in your weight loss journey during spring break, and let’s dive into that. Now, the first thing I’m going to tackle is traveling with your medications, because this can be a very stressful thing. After we talk about traveling though, we’re going to talk about how to send intention, how to make a plan, and then how to reset once you come back, because a lot of times it’s not even vacation itself, it’s the hardest, it’s that transition back. So make sure you stay throughout the whole episode where we’re talking about each of these things. So when you are traveling with your medications, this could be really stressful.

Now, one thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that most of the GLP medications, even the injections that are designed to be kept in the refrigerator, most of these do have some shelf life where they are stable at room temperature. So you do want to check this for the specific medication that you’re on, but there are medications like the Wegovy pill, for example, that is fully stable at room temperature. So they can always be at room temperature. These single dose injections, so whether we’re talking about Wegovy single dose injection, Zepbound single dose injection, any of the other single dose injection pens, those can be kept at room temperature for a period of time, 21 to 28 days, depending on the medication that we’re talking about. But either way, you can bring one or even two with you on spring break, not run into any issues.

Some of the multi-dose pens we do want to be careful with. There are multi-dose pens like the Zepbound QuickPen, for example, that as long as they’re being used in the intended fashion, so you’re giving the prescribed dose of medication, you’re using that over the course of four weeks. That is safe to keep at room temperature. The medications like Xenda or Liraglutide, you’re going to use those within a month. Those are safe to be kept at room temperature. Really, the only time that we need to be particularly careful about keeping the medication cold is if we’re using the medication for a longer period of time. So typically that will apply to people who are using partial doses of Ozempic. So Ozempic click counting technique or people who are using partial doses of the Zepbound QuickPen and doing that partial dosing click counting technique for Zepbound. Or the vial, sometimes people are splitting those as well.

But unless you are using something for a longer period of time than intended, all of these have really good room temperature options available. And like I said, just do a quick check because you might realize, oh, this thing is actually safe at room temperature. Now, if it is safe at room temperature, room temperature means room temperature. So that is in the range of, I always forget the exact numbers, but it’s like 56 degrees to low 80s. And so kind of a broad range there, but you do want it within that range. So you don’t want the medication getting frozen, you don’t want the medication exposed to extreme hot temperatures. So if you are traveling by airplane, for example, you should make sure the medication stays on your person. So you should have it in your purse. You can have it in your carry on luguage.

Living in Charlottesville, Virginia, one thing that always throws me off is if I put something in my carry-on luggage, it still is likely to go underneath the airplane because the overhead compartments are not particularly large. So that would be a situation that make sure it’s in your purse, for example, in your briefcase, in your backpack, something that’s going to be staying in the cabin of the airplane. Anything that’s going underneath the airplane has that risk of being exposed to really extreme temperatures, maybe even both. We think about being up at 30,000 feet, for example, the temperatures get very, very cold and the medication could get frozen. Alternatively, when we think about the really hot temperatures, you’re traveling to a spring break destination, sitting on the tarmac for a period of time, that can get incredibly hot. So make sure it stays in the cabin of the airplane with you.

If you are traveling by car, similarly, make sure that it’s just coming in your purse, in your backpack. If you are stopping for lunch on a road trip, make sure that it’s in your purse and coming into the restaurant. You don’t want it sitting in a hot car for a prolonged period of time. That can destabilize the medication and render it ineffective. So these medications are so expensive. They’re so valuable. We do not want them to be rendered ineffective. So it’s not going to be dangerous. It’s just not necessarily going to work and that is not ideal. So if you are traveling by car and you want to keep it in a cooler or something like that, you may choose to do that just so you can go to a rest area, get out, use the restroom, you can go to a restaurant and not feel like, “Oh my gosh, is this medication staying at a stable temperature?” So keeping it in the main part of the car, I would keep it out of the trunk unless you do have it in a cooler.

If you do have it in a cooler, don’t pack it directly on ice, but have it in its original box or in a Tupperware container, then have ice in the package just so that the ice is also not directly against it. I’ve had patients whose medication has gotten frozen just because it’s been touching ice. So I feel like I said, don’t worry about it. It’s not that stressful. And that I made it a little bit stressful. But most things can be at room temperature. Just make sure that you don’t leave them in the car for long periods of time underneath the airplane. Otherwise, you’re going to be totally safe to travel with it at room temperature. Honestly, even once you get into your hotel, keeping it in your suitcase, for example, is a great idea. You can put it in the refrigerator of your hotel room, which is fine.

One of the challenges you might run into though is do not forget your medication. I have had patients who have left their medication in the trunk of their car. They’ve left the medication in the hotel refrigerator and left it there. So I just do not want you losing your medication or leaving it behind, especially if you’re in any sort of multi-dose pen where you’re going to be using that for a longer period of time. So just make sure maybe you have alarms set on your phone, notifications so that on your travel day you remember, “Hey, I need to pull this thing out of the refrigerator, put your car keys in the refrigerator,” something that’s going to make you go into the refrigerator to make sure you get your medication because I do not want you leaving your medication in the hotel room either. But really traveling with these can be pretty easy.

If you are traveling through the airport, going through TSA, you do not need to declare your medications at all. So you can just have them go through the x-ray scanner. That’s totally fine. You do want them to be in original packaging. If you have needles and syringes for any reason based on the type of medication you’re taking, just leave those in their original packaging. TSA does not love open needles traveling through, but a insulin syringe, a needle, any of those things as long as they’re in their original plastic paper packaging is totally fine. So you can absolutely do that. If you’re traveling internationally, I usually do recommend to have a letter just stating the medications that you’re on, but honestly, it’s not like they’re digging through your luggage and looking for those things anyway. So you’re probably also safe, but having that letter can just help you feel confident that you’re not going to have your medications confiscated for any reason because sometimes if you declare that you have medication, then it’s not in its original container.

The Border Control does not love that. And so you don’t want your medication taken at customs. But traveling with medication is pretty easy. I’ve personally traveled with medication and it is easy to do just to sort of prove like, “Hey, this is not going to be a problem.” So you can absolutely do that and it’s usually a pretty easy process. So let’s talk about though, how do you be successful on spring break in terms of setting that intention, making a plan for your week? Because a lot of times we go into environments and we’re like, “Okay, I’m just going to do my best.” But doing your best honestly in some ways sets you up for just feeling like you’re never quite living up. So sometimes the whole week feels like a failure even if it actually went okay. Sometimes we just feel a little bit disoriented of what are the decisions that I’m making.

We just feel like we constantly have to make the best choice possible. And so we feel like we’re white knuckling through the entire experience versus we’re just like, “Okay, whatever goes.” And then we come back from the trip, we’ve gained a significant amount of weight. We’re feeling physically unwell and feeling both physically and psychologically frustrated with the decisions that we made. So I want you to go into spring break with an intention so that when you come out on the other end, you feel like you were able to stick to that intention and you feel really good about the decision you made. Now, this contention can look like a lot of different things. It can look like, “Hey, I’m trying to lose weight on vacation. Hey, I’m going to try to maintain my weight on vacation versus, you know what, whatever happens, happens.” I’m going to encourage you not to choose the latter one that never feels good on the other side.

So I want you to think about how can I even maintain my weight or possibly lose weight on vacation, choose an intention for either one of those. Now, the intention will depend on a handful of different things. Who are you traveling with? It may look very different if you’re traveling just with your family to visit. Maybe you’re traveling on your own, you’re staying in a single home where you’re going to have access to a full kitchen, maybe you’re staying with people who eat in a certain way or behave in a certain way. Maybe you’re going to be in a hotel and you know that you’ll be eating out more and so that will look very different. You might know that you’re traveling with different people. So maybe you’re going on a girls trip or a guy’s trip, you know that the people you are around will make food choices that are either in line or maybe not in line with your goals.

So there will be some decision based on who are you traveling with, where are you traveling, what will the access to a kitchen look like, for example, so that you can decide, okay, what is my intention for this trip? And a lot of times with that intentionality, we can look at a few very specific components and start building a plan. So this can be a plan for how am I eating? How am I exercising? Are there other things that look like self-care on this journey? So in terms of how am I eating, I want you to think about, hey, how could I be the most successful on this? I think one of the most disempowering things about sometimes a vacation or other experience as well is going and feeling like, okay, I just had to make the best choice available, but a lot of times the choices that were available were not in line with my goals.

So how can we help you to be successful there? So it might look like, are there things that you’re packing and bringing with you? So do you pack certain snacks, whether that is shelf-stable snacks like protein bars, meat sticks, maybe nut packets. I love the chicken and tuna packets that come in little aluminum foil containers. Are you packing things like that? So you just at least always have a high protein, easy to access, shelf stable option. Are you traveling maybe by car and you can bring a cooler, pack a little bit more with you. What is your access to a grocery store going to look like? Are you going to be able to do that early in the journey? What are those type of things? What are the restaurants that are available? You might even, as part of the planning stages of the trip or as you’re getting into the trip, plan out what some of those restaurants look like, pull up the menus, choose in advance, what are things that both look really good, but also are in line with your health goals.

You might make some decisions of, okay, I’m going to make sure I have a serving of protein three times per day, for example, or that every time I eat, there’s going to be some sort of protein source with it, or every time you eat, there’s going to be a protein and a fiber source. So some of these decisions in advance can really be pretty helpful for us. You might also make decisions about things like alcohol. So a lot of times vacation becomes a free for all when it comes to alcohol. And so make a very specific intention here. If you reflected back at the end of the vacation and had, okay, ask this question of, okay, I felt like I really stuck in line with my goals. I’m proud of this decision despite choosing that I was going to enjoy myself and have some alcohol, what would that number of drinks be?

Would it be, say you’re gone for a week, would it be having seven drinks? Would it be having five drinks? Would it be having 14 drinks? What is that number? What are the occasions that you’re going to drink and how are you going to make sure to plan in advance for that? A lot of times I will think about not having just an every single day beverage, but really intentionally choosing, okay, this is when I’m going out to dinner, I’m going to have it, or I’m going to have seven over the course of a week, for example, but some days might be two and some days might be zero. I want you to set that intention both for alcohol, but then also for dessert. A lot of times dessert can be a lot more common on vacation as well, whether it’s the people you’re traveling with, it’s a location and feeling like, oh, I need to have the special foods of this location and wanting to go out for dessert maybe even every single day.

So how can I choose in advance? Maybe I am having dessert, but I’m having a smaller portion or I’m sharing it with other people, I’m just trying a bite or two of it, or is it a number of times that you want to have dessert? Setting those very intentional decisions about alcohol about dessert can help you at the end of the week, feel really good about the decisions that you made and feel like, “You know what? I really stuck to my goals.” And a lot of this, you’re like, “Dr. Samba, I don’t know. I’m just going to do the best I can. ” I’m really going to encourage you to set a very specific intention because sometimes doing the best we can feels like either we’re just white knuckling it through the whole experience. And every time you’re always feeling guilty when you didn’t make a better choice, you might be resentful, like you’re watching other people eat fried foods or eat dessert or eat alcohol and you start having a pity party of like, “Oh, I can’t have that thing and woe is me.”

But there’s no reason to do that. Make a decision that you’re going to have three desserts over the course of the week. And then when you have the dessert, have the dessert and really enjoy it. If you’re going to eat the dessert, you’re going to use the calories of having the dessert. You should enjoy that experience. Don’t beat yourself up about that experience. So I want you to set those intentions in advance. This can be really nice if you have a partner or maybe a good friend that you’re traveling with and you can have that accountability to have a conversation with them even while you’re traveling of what some of your goals are to get that accountability. This is sometimes things we do even at appointments in our office that if you have an upcoming trip or maybe an upcoming special occasion, how are you going to plan that in a way that feels really enjoyable while also being really in line with your goal?

So I want you to have some sort of plan there. I also want you to think about a plan for exercise. Now, one of the things that’s always really surprising to people, sometimes exercise is actually a lot easier to do on vacation. It might look different. So it might look like long walks on the beach, for example. It might look like mini golfing or kayaking or snorkeling. It might look like different things than you’re typically doing on a day-to-day basis, but you might still be able to be really active in a way that feels good. So how can you build that activity into your day-to-day routine? Are there things, let’s say you are in a consistent weight training, resistance training regimen where you’re going to the gym two or three days per week. What can you do on vacation that would mimic that? Now, if you’re traveling by car, maybe you’ll throw some dumbbells or something in the back of the car, like a kettlebell or something.

But the reality is you don’t want to be packing heavy. Certainly if you’re traveling by plane, you’re not going to be throwing dumbbells into your suitcase. So are there things you can do like resistance bands? For example, are there things that you can do like body weight resistance, like doing squats, doing pushups, doing lunges, doing wall sits, things that are still working your body without having to have any external weight or just saying like, “Hey, I’m taking a pause from it for a week,” which is totally fine as well. Having a down week where you’re just working on walking and some sort of gentle movement is totally fine. But I want you to think about setting a very specific intention for maybe a step goal, a number of minutes that you’re walking, some ways so that you feel also physically you’re moving, staying active and feeling like you’re staying in line with your goals.

There may be some other pieces around relaxation or sleep. Whenever I travel, one of my top priorities is to make sure that I come home feeling more well rested than when I left. Sometimes it can be really hard because it’s like some people have a vacation that’s like go, go, go, and by the end of the vacation, they need a vacation from their vacation. And so how can you make sure that that’s not the case? Now, there’s nothing wrong with an active vacation, but making sure, “Hey, I’m getting to bed at a consistent time every night. Maybe I’m having a little bit of downtime during the day where I’m sitting and quietly reading or watching a movie with my family, doing something that feels like some downtime can be helpful.” So what would that look like for you? How do you get to plan that piece in as well?

Because let’s not come back from vacation feeling more exhausted. That is absolutely not the goal. Now thinking about that transition back, this is sometimes one of the hardest pieces as well. We come back from vacation, there’s an empty refrigerator and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I guess I’ll just keep eating takeout or sort of scrounge around with whatever’s available.” And it can feel really frustrating because it feels like it takes a while to transition. So sometimes there’s a week or even two weeks after vacation that we’re not quite back in routine. So I want you to think about that piece of it as well. How do we prepare for that? How do we plan ahead so that that’s not going to be the situation when you’re traveling? So I want you to think about, okay, take stock of what’s in your refrigerator before you leave and what would a restock look like?

So can you plan a trip home from the grocery store on the way back from the airport? Now, I hate doing such a thing. I barely go to the grocery store as it is. I get almost all of my groceries delivered or I’ll do the online order ahead where we pull into the grocery store parking lot and then just say, “Hey, I’m here.” And they come put it in the back of our vehicle. That is one of my favorite ways to grocery shop just in general. But certainly when we come back from vacation, we’ll be driving back from the airport and just swing by the grocery store, pull in the parking lot, say, “Hey, we’re here.” And they load up all of our groceries into the back of the vehicle. Now, certainly on the day you’re traveling, you might be like, “I just don’t want to cook, Dr. Stombaugh.” And don’t, make it easy on yourself.

And that can either be, “Hey, we’re eating out, but we’re really intentionally something that’s going to feel good, feel in line with our goals, or we’re getting some pre-made food.” And so this is a great time. I feel like so many grocery stores have really nice pre-made options, pre-made meals where you can get some precooked meat, for example. You can get some pre-cooked vegetables or you can get a bag of salad, maybe just cut up some fruit, something that’s going to be totally easy so that you get to come home, you get to heat and eat. You’re not sleeving the kitchen for an hour after a long day of travel. That is certainly not anyone’s goal. But are there things you can do like that where you feel like you just take a day to transition back and get right back into routine? Another thing we’ve started doing regularly is always traveling back on a Saturday from vacation.

So instead of coming back on a Sunday, then you have to prep, get ready for the week and dive back into it on a Monday. We almost always travel back on Saturday when that’s an option, especially if we’re going for somewhere for a week. Obviously for a weekend, you’re not going to just travel for 24 hours. But if you’re traveling somewhere for a week, if you have the option to come back on Saturday since you can get your groceries, you can maybe get laundry started, get some meal prep going, feel like you have your normal weekend routine to set yourself up for success because on Monday you are right back at it, back into school, back into work, whatever it is. And if you haven’t had that opportunity to set yourself up for success, sometimes it feels like the vacation takes a whole additional week or longer, as I said, to transition back to.

So how do you set yourself up for success transitioning back? I also want you to think about the way that transitions get reflected on the scale. So a lot of times people may step on the scale after a vacation and see the number is up a lot. It is very common for the number to be up like five pounds even. But honestly, even travel, so having your legs in a down position for a long period of time without exercising. If you’re in a car ride, if you’re on an airplane, there can be some swelling that happens. And so that can be very common cause of fluid retention. A lot of times on vacation, especially if we’ve been eating out, there’s more salt content in the meals, so your body might hold onto fluid. So make sure when you get home, you are doing some gentle walking, you’re really pushing hydration in the form of just plain water.

And even if you see that scale pop up, you are likely to see it come back down over a couple of days. If you know that seeing higher numbers on the scale is going to create a lot of mind trauma for you, I would just recommend holding off and weighing for a couple of days and then weigh three or four days later once you’re sort of back into routine, your body’s feeling lighter, you might’ve noticed you’re urinating more, kind of getting rid of that extra salt and fluid that your body was holding onto. So that is very common and I don’t want you to get discouraged just because of some fluid weight that doesn’t even reflect real weight during the weight loss journey. So I want you to have success on your spring break. If you are looking for an accountability partner, I would love to be that person for you.

Like I said, this is something that inpatient visits when they’ve got an upcoming vacation or maybe they’ve come back from vacation and they did gain weight and they’re looking to reframe it, kind of get back into routine, I would love to help you with that. I see patients in person in Charlottesville, Virginia and by telemedicine throughout the states of Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. If you’re interested in learning more, visit my website at www.sarahstombaughmd.com, and you can get started on the medical weight loss page. If you were outside of those states, we do have a great online resource called The GLP Guide that has answers to all of the most frequently asked questions that you will find on your GLP journey. You can find this with answers, video answers to all of those questions so you can get the answers to the questions that you have. You can find this on the website at sarahstumbamd.com/glp. Thank you for joining us for this week’s episode. We’ll see you all next time. Bye-bye.