So I did something crazy (for me) last week.

I took a vacation.

It had been over ten years since my family had gone on a trip together longer than a weekend, and the goal was to make this one really special and relaxing.  We stayed at the Grand Cayman Ritz-Carlton—it was absolutely beautiful. We pretty much spent the trip hanging out by the pool, going to the beach, and enjoying delicious meals at the resort. They also had a very nice gym and a bunch of different fitness classes. I’m terrible at slowing down and relaxing (New Yorker problems), so it was good to have a place to blow off steam. I also checked in on work stuff a few times a day: once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once more before dinner. I know this approach isn’t the right fit for everyone, but it kept me from getting irritable from feeling antsy about things piling up.

For today’s food journal-style post, I’m sharing a look at a day early into our trip. I get a lot of questions from clients about how to stay on track when they’re traveling, One of the things that can help is choosing your moments to indulge. For example, pick one meal where you know you’ll want to  enjoy a special treat or local specialty. On this day, I knew that dinner would be a larger meal, so I kept breakfast, lunch, and a snack pretty simple. Choosing ahead of time how much you plan to drink can help keep alcohol in check too. Haha there’s no such thing as perfect, though—and that’s okay. Going into this day, for example, I thought that three drinks (instead of the usual two I try to stick to on vacation) spread out through the day would be doable for me, but, um, not—apparently I’m too old or something. After this I went back to capping it at two drinks a day.

While we had breakfast in our room a lot (usually a combo of dinner leftovers and hard-boiled eggs), on this particular day we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Lunch was by the pool, and then we had dinner at the hotel’s fancy seafood restaurant Blue. While the atmosphere was a bit stuffy, the food was absolutely amazing.

Breakfast: 2 poached eggs & avocado over arugula salad, coffee
Lunch: Salad with grilled chicken , glass of prosecco
Snack: Plain 5% Greek yogurt with a Hodgson Mill Travel Flax Chia Blend
Dinner: 4-course tasting menu at the hotel’s Blue: amuses bouches and salad to start, grilled octopus, halibut with mushrooms, a bite of each of the cheeses in this platter ; one pre-dinner bourbon at the bar and a glass of sparkling wine at dinner

What’s the best vacation you ever took?

To see more WIAW, check out founder Jenn’s blog Peas & Crayons or visit host Laura‘s blog.

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