Ep. 59 How to Reset After Vacation Mode Without Restriction or Regret: Your step-by-step guide to bounce back after travel, birthdays, or that extra margarita.

Hey friend,

You know that feeling after a vacation or celebration where your jeans are tight and your energy is low?

You’re not broken—you’re just human. And in this week’s episode, I’m showing you how to reset without restriction, guilt, or green juice punishment.

🎧 Listen to: How to Reset After Vacation Mode Without Restriction or Regret

Inside this episode, I break down:

• How to support your gut and metabolism after overeating or drinking
• Why fiber is your #1 ally for digestion and detox
• Tips to keep weight gain low while traveling (without skipping dessert!)
• A 3-day post-celebration reset plan that actually works

You deserve joy and hormone balance. Let’s do both.

In health,

Tracy Erin

✨ Ready to reset your hormones for real?

Apply now for The Balanced Hormone Solution

Transcript

0:01

Have you been celebrating lately? For me, things like France, feasts, family birthdays, even an anniversary, maybe even a little too much champagne. Well, if you are wondering how to reset after indulging without punishment. Or guilt, then this episode is for you. Now, before I dive in, if your energy, mood, or metabolism feel off, you're just tired of trying to get back on track alone, I want you to apply for the balanced hormone solution. This is my 90 day signature program. While I will walk with you through the exact steps of how to restore your hormones, gut, and energy without prescriptions or guesswork, again, you're gonna find that link in the show notes.

Speaker 7: 0:54

Welcome to the Balance Hormone Solution Podcast. If you're a woman 35 plus feeling exhausted, struggling to lose weight, and wondering where your libido went, this is for you. I am Tracy Aaron, a functional medicine practitioner who helps women balance their hormones naturally. Without prescriptions, guesswork, or trending Nonsense.'cause here's the truth, your symptoms aren't random. They're signals. And if you know how to listen, you can fix the root cause and start feeling like yourself again. If you're ready for real solutions, let's get to it.

1:39

All right, so welcome back to the Balanced Hormone Solution Podcast. I am Tracy Aaron, your host, a registered nurse, functional medicine practitioner, mom of five travel lover, and your go-to hormone detective. Today we're talking about how to reset your body after a stretch of celebration because listen. Life is meant to be enjoyed, and healing does not mean hiding. Okay, first, some real talk. I just got back from two week in France. I had one goal. I was gonna eat a croissant every single day, and did I ever, I feasted, I drank wine, I had baguettes and cheese and french butter, and more than one creme brule. And guess what? I loved every second of it, but when I came home. I noticed something I wasn't quite ready to get back to my routine, and then came a family birthday and then my anniversary just yesterday, we went to a fresh French restaurant in Nashville and it was amazing from start to finish. I hope you saw it on my stories. For me, it was celebration after celebration, and honestly, my body when I woke up this morning just started to ask me for a reset. Not a punishment, not like time to lose that weight girl, but a reset. And that's what I'm going to give you today. The practical, powerful plan to bounce back after indulgence. The big question is, is how do we do this correctly? Right. So let's get to a couple points that I've got in my mind of what I'm gonna do and how I can help you do the same thing. So, number one, it always starts in our mind, right? First, it's a reframe. We're gonna reframe the idea of getting back on track. So too many women. What I notice is they go, and I used to do this too, we go straight into restriction mode, right? Last night I had an amazing dinner that lasted about three hours long from start to finish. They gave us champagne because if it was our wedding anniversary, 25 years to be exact, they gave us a cheese plate to celebrate. We shared a bottle of wine together. There was a Somalia. From out of state, and he was fantastic to work with. He understood everything we were gonna order, found us the perfect bottle of wine to go with that, and we both had entrees. We ate off of each other's plates. It was just a euphoric evening of amazing French food. You know how that goes, right? And the tendency is, I have eaten so much the next day. I'm not gonna eat anything. I'm going right into a fasting mode. Or I'm not going to eat until I'm hungry again. Or, uh, you know, until I can button my pants with ease. I'm not gonna have any more meals or cutting out bread, whatever that goes like for you. But the thing is, is that. When we have that tendency to jump right into things like skipping meals or like, I'm gonna walk twice, I'm gonna go running, even over exercising, or just cutting out those carbs, it usually backfires. Okay? And here's what to do instead. I want you to focus on nourishment the next day, not punishment. So I want you to ask yourself, how can I support my body today? Because remember, your body wants to come back to balance. We just have to give it what it needs and what it's asking for. So for me and my ladies in the balance hormone solution. We're gonna go back to the basic nutrition guidelines right from the beginning. Everything we learned, then that's what we're going to jump right back into. And for my ladies, we know we have a formula that we're following, right? We've got 30 grams of protein at every single meal. We've got fruit at breakfast, never after 2:00 PM And we've got two to three cups of vegetables that we're enjoying at lunch and dinner, and minimizing the carbs that we have at dinner. Okay? Unless you've got a hypoglycemic situation, in which case this is a general podcast, I'm speaking to the masses, so I can't give personalized advice and better yet, become my client and I will help walk you through what you can eat before bedtime, that's going to help you lose weight and also help your blood sugar and you won't keep waking up throughout the night. Waking up exhausted. All right, so that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna focus on that nourishment and not punishment the next day. Okay. In a sense, it's, it's not, less is more. It's just we need to eat differently. Okay. So what do I mean by that? Well, number two. Increase our fiber. This is non-negotiable after indulgence. Your gut needs a lot of love, and the one way to give it that naturally is fiber. Okay? Because fiber is gonna help form bulky regular bowel movements, and it's gonna help eliminate the toxins and excess. Estrogen that is circulating around. It's going to also feed our beneficial gut bacteria, right? We need short chain fatty acids in our gut. It's going to build that back up. It's also going to help keep our blood sugar stable and help reduce cravings. Ever notice when you have one amazing dinner out, or when you have cake to celebrate your son's birthday the night before the next day, he wants sweets too. Or you enjoy a bottle of wine with your husband on your 25th wedding anniversary, and the next day you start thinking, Ooh, I wonder what wine I'll have with dinner tonight. It's like you get right back into this crazy cycle. That's how cravings work in the body. But when we. Boost our fiber intake. We drastically reduce those cravings that come after that moment or period of time of indulgence. So some fiber rich foods that you can include, like think about a breakfast time, chia seed puddings, flax seed on our cereal, granola, uh, small amounts of granola, not huge amounts of granola. Um, Greek yogurt, lots of berries, right? Um, breakfast, and you can even do cooked greens in your egg omelet or next to your eggs. Um, you can put them in a smoothie, lots of ways to do fiber at breakfast, for lunch and dinner. My personal rule is it's always raw at lunch and it's cooked at dinner. So big salads, uh. Vegetables right from the refrigerator. That's what I do for lunch. And then for dinner, it's going to include, um, more of like the roasted vegetables, the steamed broccoli, the um, cauliflower rice, et cetera. But you need to make sure you are at least getting two cups at every single meal. By the end of that day, I want nine cups of fiber inside of you. Okay? So post vacation, we're looking at 30 to 40 grams. A fiber minimum, and here's a word to the wise, just add that slowly if you're not used to that. But it will reduce that bloating. We often experience from overindulging, from eating out, from eating the wrong foods, including alcohol or just, uh, getting that, you know, getting over that hump and further away from that vacation mindset we had when it came to food. All right, number three. So here's how to travel or celebrate without gaining those 10 pounds. Okay? Or 15 pounds, right? Let's prevent the vacation. 15. With these strategies, I want you to start every day with protein and fiber. Not a coffee and croissant, as tempting as that was even in Paris, that's not how I started my day. I made sure that I eat, had a minimum of one hard boiled egg, a couple pieces of bacon or ham, some kind of Turkey or breakfast meat that hit with the protein. Right off the bat, fruit perfect for breakfast, and then enjoy that beautiful cappuccino and that croissant, right? So we're not gonna dive into that first. Doesn't mean you're not gonna have it. You're just going to choose an order that's best for you. Uh, the second thing here is that we're gonna hydrate, especially with minerals or electrolytes. There's so many great supplements out now that are liquid minerals. You can drop right into your water bottle. You can drop into your water glass right at the restaurant. Electrolytes come in, travel packets. You don't need to carry a bunch of powder with you these days. You can do. One single use travel packet. Put it in your purse or your pocket, and you are always good to go with minerals and electrolytes. This is so important. Third thing under this category is to walk, walk, walk. 10,000 steps a day. Okay? And we're looking at movement. We're looking at regular movement. What's best is to eat. And enjoy that movement. Have a walk 10 to 20 minutes, right afterwards. Lunch, same thing. Walk afterwards, dinner. Same thing. Walk, walk, walk after every single meal. Here's another one too. If you overate from the meal before, don't skip the next meal. It really does cause your blood sugar to crash and it can lead you. Set you up for overeating later, so don't skip the next meal. Make it a. It's balanced meal. Just make it smaller, right? So you're not gonna overindulge in the calories or the components to that meal, but you wanna make sure that you definitely have some protein, fat, and carbs in the form of fiber three times a day, even if one of those meals is smaller or what I might consider a mini meal. Here's an alcohol tip. Sip slowly. Always have food with it and alternate with water. What do I mean by that? While you're, you're out to dinner, you're gonna celebrate your 25 year wedding anniversary and your husband, and you wanna share a bottle of French wine from a winery that you just visited a couple weeks ago in France, yourself, right? Talk about dreamy. How could you say no to that? Right? So there's better ways to do it though. Enjoy it. Savor it slowly. Make sure you have food. And for every glass of wine that you drink, make sure you have a minimum of one glass of water. So you have a glass of wine, glass of water, glass of wine, a glass of water, and then after that, continue with your water. Okay? All right, number four. So when you do indulge, here's how. To mitigate the damage. So if you had a really big meal celebrating with a bunch of, you know, birthday cake and pizza and type of food that you'll readily find at children's birthday parties and this type of thing, you can try this protocol. And this includes alcohol too. So take digestive enzymes with the meal. Capsules are really easy just to throw into your pocket, your husband's pocket, or drop them in your purse, take them at the beginning of the meal. They're really going to help you digest this food and utilize what you can and get rid of the rest. Another idea is to add some bitters. So I used to like to travel with a liquid dropper of bitters. I no longer do that, and I just have Dan delay in tea bags with me. Really simple. If, if at a restaurant I am feeling like, whoa, I just ate so much and now I'm very full. So easy to ask for a glass of hot water and drop your dandelion tea bag in it and sip on that until you're ready to leave the restaurant and go walk around a little bit. You can find dandelion tea and tea sachets almost at every single grocery store, so it's not impossible. Also, before bed, take that extra dose of magnesium and. Some electrolytes in a little bit of water right before bed. Electrolytes are not there to wake you up or energize you. They're just there to restore. Okay. And they're there for cellular hydration, so you're likely going to have burned up quite a bit of magnesium and, um, it's amazing how thirsty you can get after alcohol especially, or even sweetss. So, um, having some sodium potassium that really helps with the cravings and a solid night's sleep. And I keep mentioning this, but go on a 15 to 30 minute walk after eating this cuts your glucose spikes big time. If you've ever worn a continuous glucose monitor and you walked after a big meal, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Okay, so last thing. This is something that I call the three day reset plan. Okay? So think of this in terms of post feasting or post vacation. It's gonna look like this. Day one is a reboot. Day two is regulate. Day three is reignite. Okay, so let's go back to day one with reboots. You're gonna hydrate with warm lemon water and minerals. You can sip on that all day long. There's no such thing as too much of that. If you're enjoying it, have several servings throughout the day. I want you to eat every three to four, um, depending on what time you wake up. Maybe five hours. Protein, fiber, healthy fat. Okay, and then obviously prioritize walking. Go to bed early. That first night, sleep really does wonders. They say like, Hey, you want to be skinny? Go to bed earlier. It's true. Let's go to day two. You're gonna regulate, what does that mean? This is where I really need you to bring in that fiber. Okay? You're gonna add in additional one to two servings of like cooked cruciferous veggies, right? Steam broccoli. One of the easiest things to do, start tracking your poop quality. I want you to pay attention to yourself. Are you pooping? That's the first question. If you're not pooping, we need a lot of help here. Okay? But if you, and a lot of times vacation makes people constipated, so I should do an entire episode on how to handle that. I'll make a note of that. That's actually a good idea. But let's say you are pooping, it's just not quite back to normal yet. If you've ever seen the Bristol stool chart, I want you to aim for three or four. This is like solid. Stool that is easy to evacuate, pleasantly satisfying, and you feel that, um, you, you're done. When you're done, you know the difference. Where you've pooped, but you know there's more, but you can't get it out without pushing too hard. That's not what I'm talking about. Okay. Another thing for regulating is this would be a great day. We're on day two now to incorporate some light strike training or body weight movement. Okay? This is really easy. In your own house, you can just do some lunges back and forth, some air squats in your kitchen. You can do some wall pushups. You can sit down in a chair and stand back up. Right. There's lots of body weight movements that you can get just to start burning up all the sugar stores that you have ready to be burned at, you know, initially. Then lastly, day three is at Reignite. So what does that look like? We're talking about starting to support your liver. Okay. Something like a castor oil pack. Again, dandelion tea, like I mentioned, if you own a sauna or if you live in Tennessee in the summer, that's all you need. Um, but a sauna would be perfect. Just helps to get your liver back on track. Another thing here is to start your morning with sunlight exposure. Totally, totally underrated life game changer here. Here's something special that you can bring in journal. Reflect what's one thing you learned from this trip? Or the celebration. Get your mind off of how your pants feel these days, or beating yourself up if you actually did gain that weight. Okay. Reflect on those other things that that trip gave you, and sure, it's a good time to ask yourself, you know, could I have done things differently? Could I have eaten less? What would that have looked like? There's no harm in that. Okay. In terms of like more action steps, after you're giving yourself three full days of nourished focused reset, remember what that's looking like is high fiber, consistent protein movement, sleep. Give yourself an earlier bedtime supportive mindset, not a guilty mindset. Okay? When I skip the guilt, skip the restriction. And choose repair. Okay, so here's the thing. You're not off track. You're living. Your body doesn't need punishment, it needs partnership. So whether it's France, your child's birthday, a family reunion, or a barbecue, the point of wellness is to live life fully and to know exactly how to bounce back with ease. Grace and strength. Alright, until next time, I will see you in the next episode of the Balanced Hormone Solution. I hope this helps. Please share it with a friend. If you enjoyed this, take some notes, come back to the podcast. There's plenty of other episodes that I think you can get a lot of value out of. All right, see you next time.

Speaker 5: 18:26

That's it for today's episode of the Balanced Hormone Solution Podcast. If this resonated, don't just listen. Do something about it. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you know another woman who's tired of feeling like a stranger in her own body. Send her this way for more support. Check out the show notes. I've got resources to help you get started. Just remember, your body isn't broken, you just need the right tools. See you next time.