51- How to Handle Vacations + Breaks Without Losing Momentum

Have you ever felt like a vacation totally derailed your workouts? Like everything was finally clicking… and then spring break or summer hits, and boom, momentum is gone?

You’re not alone. But what if I told you that taking a break doesn’t have to mean starting over?

In this episode of Miles From Her View, I’m sharing the exact mindset and strategies I coach my KatFit Strength clients through so they can take time off without spiraling into the all-or-nothing trap. Whether it’s spring break, a two-week summer trip, or a rough week at home, you’ll learn how to keep progressing, even when life gets lifey.

I’ll discuss real client examples (like Jess and Sarah), explain how I handled my own 12-day national park trip in the middle of 100-mile ultra training, and give you actionable ways to prep for and bounce back from any break.

Because fitness isn’t about perfection, it’s about flexibility.

You’ll learn:

• What to do before a vacation to stay consistent
• How to reframe “time off” as part of your training
• Why movement counts (even when it’s not a “workout”)
• How to pick up where you left off without guilt

Let this episode be your permission slip to take a break and keep going.

Ready to stop starting over and start training smarter?
Let’s talk. Book a call with me to find out how KatFit Strength can help you build strength, consistency, and confidence without the burnout.

☎️ - Schedule a complimentary call to see if KatFit Strength is a good fit for you: https://katfit.moxieapp.com/public/katfit/consultation-call

📩 KatFit Strength Weekly Newsletter:
https://katfit.kit.com/7564404daa

❓ - Have A Question About Strength Training, Nutrition, and cardio training? Submit It HERE: https://forms.gle/kndmqaf91psZEmPs6

Transcript

Kat: 0:00

If spring break or summer vacation has ever thrown off your workouts and made you feel like you had to start over again, you are not alone. But what if I told you that breaks don't derail progress when you plan for them the right way? Welcome to MilesFromHerView. The podcast powered by KatFit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultra marathon runner and a strength trainer in her forties with nearly two decades of experience. I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood. All while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in. Welcome. I'm Kat, your host as I'm recording this. My kids are home on spring break. If you were a parent with school-aged kids or have kids in a daycare program, find yourself dealing with breaks. Oftentimes, you may have to work or you have to work from home, causing you to interrupt your whole routine. I get it. I know how it feels. When you're building that momentum. Your workouts are finally clicking. You're finally feeling strong again, and these breaks. Hit at the worst time. The routine changes, the schedule's packed with kids stuff, and suddenly your workout time just disappears. Well, like I mentioned, my kids are on spring break and summer's coming up, and there's gonna be a lot of disruption in summer. Their schedule changes. They're no longer in school, they're in different programs. Meanwhile, myself and my partner, my husband is. We're scheduling or we're juggling our work schedule as well as our workout schedules. So this used to stress me out a lot and as a former athlete competing in college, I hated when holidays would crop up or breaks would crop up. Which would throw me off my routine. Now, when I was in college, it was a little easier because I would just go home, do my workouts at home. I didn't really like it because it wasn't what I was used to. I didn't have the field house and the the strength training room available to me, but I made it work. As I got older, I still thrived in that structure and I used to panic when little vacations or breaks hit. I have learned some things along the way. What now I coach my clients through is taking breaks or shifting into that lower gear, and it's not the same as giving up. What I tell my clients all the time is we don't need a perfect plan. We need a flexible one. So for example, one of my clients, Sarah, who's a mom of three, has a demanding job. She knew spring break was going to be chaos. So a few weeks ahead of time, we built in a mini maintenance plant that worked with her schedule for that time to juggle her demanding job, as well as working from home with her kids there. So we knew that two full body, two short, full body lifts around 20 minutes and a few walks with the kids or getting out to the park with them was what was going to help her. And that was it. The thing is. When clients do this, when we put together a plan, yes, there's nervousness because it is something they've never done before. I tend to get messages like this. I didn't feel like I fell off this time. I knew what to do. This is huge. It's a mindset shift. This is something we want to break. Is this all or nothing mindset of when something comes up, the first thing to go is our fitness. Our nutrition because the routine is interrupted. I also do this for myself. Like I mentioned, this is something that I have inter integrated into my own workout. So this past summer I did a huge trip to the Pacific Northwest area with my family. We did six national parks in 12 days. It was an incredible trip. It was jam packed. I was also in the height of my training for my second a hundred mile race. There was no time for me to do a workout. I didn't bring bands. I didn't bring dumbbells. It definitely did not fly with tumbles. It was something I decided ahead of time that this week would be about movement. And not training. I hiked. I moved and I let my body recover. The thing is, it was okay. I came back and I didn't just jump back into training. I knew I would resume training when I returned from my trip and I went from there. I want to give you tangible, actionable items as we move throughout this podcast so that you can take what I'm seeing here and start to apply it before any big plan, trip or vacation. That's the big thing here. So if something is happens outta the blue, life gets lifey. You can adapt with that. But in the sense of planning about two to four weeks before any big trip or vacation, zoom out and ask yourself what is realistic for me during that time, not just ideal, just real. And think about what would work for you. So with summer, oftentimes my clients, you know, I ask my clients when they have vacations planned so we can plan their fitness around that. Maybe the plan is to seek movement and recovery. Maybe the plan is to do short lifts. And walks some vacations. My clients are like, I actually have more time and I'm going to be able to work out. So we keep the plan the way it is or readjust for what they have available to them. Another client, her name's Jess, was in the middle of a strength phase before her beach vacation and. She was dreading going on vacation, but excited because she knew she was making such great progress. Instead of squeezing in those workouts during her vacation, she agreed that we were gonna focus on body weight, mobility flows, and long walks. And you know what? She realized she needed that rest and came back so excited to get back into her workouts. So movement doesn't have to be a workout to count when you swap out structured workouts for exploring the outdoors that. Counts. I find that we tend to think if we're not in a gym or turning on whatever smart device to track our movement in our minds, we discredit it as a form of movement that counts towards our working out. To kind of reframe that there, it's okay to swap out structured workouts for movement and exploring outside. A little takeaway here. So if you have a vacation coming up, keep moving in. Whatever way feels good, play, walk, stretch, and let go of the all or nothing thinking. So that's huge there. So we wanna let go of that all or nothing thinking, figure out what feels good, figure out how your body would feel good on that. Alright, now let's talk about the return because most people do struggle with, well, if I take this break. I'm gonna get back. I am gonna be tired. I'm gonna have work to come back to. I'm gonna have all these things that are gonna be piling up, meeting it me when I cross the threshold into my everyday life. Well, we gotta plan for that. So one of my favorite mantras I give to clients is pick up where you left. Don't start over so you don't need to make up, missed sessions. You don't need to punish yourself and you just need to get back to the plan. The other thing is clients tend to stress that they might lose fitness. Hey, I'm, I'm right there with you. So take my summer vacation. Last year it was 12 days. That was a long vacation. That was the first time we ever took that length of vacation with my kids. I was nervous I was gonna lose fitness. Well, the thing is with science is it takes. 10 to 14 days of full inactivity to notice endurance, loss and strength does stick around even longer. However, I wanna take a side, John here, this works. If you have been consistently working out, that does not mean six days or seven days a week. But what that means is if you have been consistently working out two to three times per week for at least three to four months, minimally, if not longer. For the fitness to maintain. If you and I, I wanna say if you are starting a workout program and you do have a vacation coming, do not stress out that you've undone all your progress. Okay? This is just kind of that extreme situation here is that you're not going to lose a lot by taking time off or doing alternative movements or doing body weight versus weight resisted. Workouts. So yes, in those first few workouts back, you might feel a little sluggish. You might feel like you have a lost fitness by picking up the same dumbbells or loading the barbell with the same weight that you did before. But that's totally normal. You've not lost at all. You are not starting from zero. It is just, I'm gonna say, shaking off that. Vacation vibe and getting back into that routine. So when I came back for myself from the trip, everything felt a little off. That first run, that first lift just felt sluggish. I needed to remind myself this, that my body was just getting back into that routine and this little dip is just part of the process. It's really not a red flag. It's not a sign that you've lost things. So here's a tangible action for you to take away. If you are on a trip right now and you're listening to this and you're like, oh, I didn't plan for this break, schedule your workout for your first week back. If you have a trip coming back, schedule. Your first week before your trip starts, set the expectation. Even with that note, let's say it's a Monday or Tuesday, whatever day you get back, and that you have that workout scheduled, put a note to yourself that this workout could feel a little meh, may not feel the best, does not mean you've lost strength. It just means you're adjusting. So you can just add that little note like, Hey, first workout back. It's all good. If it feels a little meh. In the days of my. College coaching era. There were seasons that I programmed for the athletes, so I would take the entire year and each season with their training period would be a different focus to get them to be able to perform well at indoor NCAA championships and outdoor NCAA championships with everyday training. That you may be engaging in. You may not think about different seasons. However, your seasons are not going to be as cookie cutter as they were when I was a college track and field coach. If you look at the entire year, and especially if you have children in grade school, there is the predictable summer when they're out and maybe doing camps or maybe you're doing some vacationing in. Then around in that 10 week period during the school year, there is. There tends to be a break, whether in fall or sometimes some school districts do a longer break around Thanksgiving and then a winter break, or typically around the winter holidays through New Year, and then a spring break. So these breaks tend to be planned if you look at your schedule and say, okay, well summer, I wanna. Downshift my workouts. That would be a maintenance period. That would be something where we're maintaining the fitness that we have worked on getting or gaining September through May, September through June, August through June, whatever your school year looks like for your children. Just taking that as a, as an idea, and then. Looking at that as maybe when the kids get back to school, you can have a little bit more of a push phase where you're really focused on building up that strength. Again, I wanna be crystal clear here. This is not a making up for lost time because we were on summer vacation, we scaled back. It's a, okay, we're looking at building. More muscles mass. Here we're looking at building more cardio output here because we have more of a routine and you can schedule that time for yourself. There are also gonna be periods of recovery. I tend to, in my own schedule, look at my winter holiday season as a time for recovery. That does not mean I am not working out. What that looks like is my workouts are very scaled back for me. I do train for ultra marathons. And my racing season tends to be more from, you know, April to September. October does not mean I'm racing every weekend. I might have two or three big races, big efforts that I do throughout that time. And then in that six week period from November to, I'm gonna say January one, is really scaled back. I am focused on recovery lifting. I'm focused on recovery, cardio, workouts, cardio, running, where my program is downshift. It's a little bit different than a maintenance period, but they all matter and this is why having a plan. That is well written out can help you or help honor the seasons of the life that you're in. Again, there's no badge for doing this perfectly year round. I'd rather see someone train two to three times per week most of the year than being burnt out of forcing themselves to train for five to six days. For three to four weeks, seeking that perfection, right? So the thing is like we want that long-term consistency. Even with lower weekly frequency, this leads to better results than these short bursts of over training. That is what I want you to really, really take away with this. If we can scale back or find that lower weekly frequency to help you maintain that progress is gonna be huge than doing these short bursts of over training. It's a short one this week, a lot packed in. I hope you have some good takeaways and if you're heading out on to spring break or. Thinking about summer vacation or maybe life is just chaotic in the season that you're in, I want you to hear this. You can be flexible and consistent. You can rest and still progress. You are definitely not behind and you don't need to earn your vacation. Your strength doesn't go away just because your schedule changes. You know how to return, you know how to move your body, and when you treat your training like a long-term relationship instead of a to-do list, that's when everything shifts. All right. This episode was brought to you by KatFit strength training that fits into your life. Not the other way around. Whether you're in the middle of perimenopause, newly postpartum, or juggling kids sports every night of the week. My programs are designed with the flexibility, strength, and real life support mind. Had to ww.cat.fit to learn more about training with me online or in my in-person studio in Malvern, pa. If this episode hit home for you, let's talk. I work with women who are done with the all or nothing approach and are ready to build strength and energy that actually supports their life. You can schedule a free connection call with me using the link in the show notes and I'd love to meet you. Thank you for tuning in to MilesFromHerView Powered by KatFit Strength. If this podcast inspires you, don't keep it for yourself. Hit follow or subscribe to Stay updated on the new episodes and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space. Your feedback fuels this podcast and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into Next. You can connect with me on Instagram at MilesFromHerView Strength or share this episode with a friend who is ready to embrace her strength. Remember, fitness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey. Until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time.