Editor’s note: Sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks, but I was on vacation in Rio. I’ll be posting this week about what I learned on my trip, and hopefully entice you to take a break there. Trust me: it’s awesome!
Rio is such a beautiful city covered in mountains right next to the ocean. The people are lovely, the men are beautiful and the drinks are aplenty. So is the fried food.
While on my trip, I indulged in some of the local delicacies, one of which is called a pastel. It’s basically like an empanada. Because we were trying to be thrifty with our food spending, this fast-food dish showed up quite often on my plate. “That’s fine,” I told myself. “I’ll work it off eventually.”
Well, I was in Rio for almost a week and didn’t run once. Early on my last morning, after a long night out, one of my travel buddies decided to go for a run on the beach and asked me if I’d like to go on a run with her. It was my last day and I needed to do something, so I agreed. “Yes!” she said, obviously more excited about this workout than I was.
Meet Josephine. Jo and I met through our other travel buddy Willa, who did not decide to join us on our run (she had gone paddling the day before, so we gave her a pass). Jo is a bit of a fitness buff, and with good reason as she’s in incredible shape. While most of us will just lay out on the beach and soak up the sun, Jo had no time for that idleness decided to do some yoga in the sand. She’s kinda my workout hero.
The beach was on the other side of a park at the end of our block (we stayed in an Airbnb apartment) Josephine and I got dressed and walked down the block to the park. Once there, Jo took off running. I’ve said before that I’m not a fast runner, clocking in with about a 10-minute mile. Jo’s much faster. Because we had gone our the night before, I found myself getting quite winded in the beginning. But after a few minutes, I was able to get back to my own pace and enjoy the run on the beach.
Running on the beach is not like what you’ve seen in the movies or on “Baywatch.” It’s difficult. Sand is not a sturdy surface. I won’t compare it to running in mud, because with that you can feel like your foots getting stuck. Running in dry sand is like running on squishy twigs: you can’t really get the proper footing and with one wrong move, you’ll twist your ankle. My advice is to get close to the water where the sand has compacted more from the water. It’s still not as hard as concrete or grass, but it’s definitely more ideal than the pits and divots of dry sand.
We ran for a little less than half an hour up and down the beach, then found a park off to the side that had some workout equipment. There were parallel bars (ain’t no way), pull-up bars (you must be joking) and sit-up benches (I guess so). We were able to do a few before adding some jumps, hip hikes and glute stretches. It was a light workout, but I felt better for it.
Verdict
I highly recommend going on vacation (ha!). But seriously, if you don’t want to regret the bad things you did during your time off—and you know did some bad things—I suggest pulling a Josephine and squeezing in a few minutes of exercise during the down time. A few sit-ups here, a couple of squats there and you’ll be ready for all the alcohol you’ll have that night 🙂
What do you to stay fit during your vacation? Or do you just return to the grind when you get home?
I'm Skinny, Now What? 
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