The battle of the bulge is in full swing for the 40% of Americans who made New Year’s weight loss resolutions. Are you one of them? According to researchers, there will be more bulging than battling as January wears on.

A study of Australian and United Kingdom adults shows that a staggering 64% fail to maintain their New Year resolutions past January 31st.

These numbers correspond with the drop-off in gym interest in Google Trends. Over the 10-year period from 2013 to 2022, the search term “gym membership” was highest in January in all but two years. Search interest was notably lower in February.

Willpower Isn’t Powerful

In his New York Times best-selling book Atomic Habits, James Clear theorizes that one’s environment often plays a bigger role than willpower in a person’s success in changing habits.

Clear encourages people to adjust their home and work environments to facilitate new habit formation. But with National Plan for Vacation Day on January 31st fast approaching, travelers-to-be may find themselves weighing how a destination’s cuisine and activities could impact their waistline.

Luckily for those needing to reignite their motivation, retreats specializing in wellness and weight loss are popping up around the globe. While gym memberships have their benefits, exercise is only a portion of the weight loss process, according to Elena Papanikitopoulou from Euphoria Retreat.

Papanikitopoulou emphasizes that retreats offer added “benefits to guests such as the opportunity to meet like-minded people” and that “achieving the ideal weight is a combination of a nutritional plan, emotional support, and exercise. If you combine all three, you achieve better and long-lasting results.”

Booking a stay at a wellness retreat could be the ticket to sticking to a New Year’s weight loss resolution. Below are some options to spark vacation planning.

Sunshine-Fueled Workouts in California

Studies show that people are nearly 3.5 times more likely to delay a workout in bad weather. Following that logic, vacationing in sunny San Diego sets up travelers to stay on track with exercising more than if they stay in their snow-laden hometown.

Omni Resorts La Costa is ready to help clients do just that with their University of California-designed Premier Fitness Club weight loss program. They offer one to four-week-long retreats that include a health assessment, daily exercise, and meals curated by a certified nutritionist. When sore muscles need rest, retreat-goers can hang out with sea lions and seals in trendy La Jolla.

Customized Weight Loss in Greece

Euphoria Retreat is a facility that offers three health-focused programs in the scenic Peloponnese region of Greece. Their patented 3GL Plus Therapy determines a client’s baseline for metabolic health, longevity, and metabolites. Euphoria’s expert team then customizes a Mediterranean diet nutrition plan based on the results.

Euphoria tailors its retreat to clients who experience weight fluctuations, crave carbohydrates, and want to improve their habits and self-esteem. They use a combination of holistic techniques and the latest scientific findings to not only help clients lose weight and keep it off but improve their physical and emotional state.

Start Tomorrow in Turkey

There’s no time like the present to drop everything and reconnect with a New Year’s resolution. TheLifeCo in Bodrum and Antalya, Turkey, operates a tailored weight loss retreat where guests can choose the start date and duration of their package.

TheLifeCo recommends staying a minimum of four days to kickstart weight loss transformation, which they do through a targeted nutrition program of the client’s choice. After completing the retreat, rejuvenated vacationers can continue their travels to other parts of Turkey, exploring the Pammukale travertines or taking a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia.

Cleansing Therapies in Thailand

Absolute Sanctuary calls Ko Samui Island home, where lush forests meet shores with tropical fish. Absolute prides itself on offering a combination of physical activity like yoga with cleansing therapies, including colon hydrotherapy, to help clients lose weight.

Thai cuisine makes healthy eating possible for clients that continue their travels after completing Absolute’s all-inclusive program. Fresh vegetables, herbs, and lean protein are common throughout the country, though passing on calorie-dense dishes like deep-fried silkworms help keep the scale tipping in weight loss favor.

Get Bikini Ready in South Africa

While people in the Northern Hemisphere pull out their winter boots, people in Cape Town, South Africa, enjoy their warmest weather of the year. Travelers can reignite their weight loss resolution at Santé Wellness Retreat and Spa, which works with its clients to determine how they can best achieve weight loss by performing a personal analysis down to the cellular level.

Not only does Santé design custom nutritional plans, but they also use neuro-biofeedback technology to determine emotional triggers that cause their clients’ unhealthy eating habits.

Lose Weight in The Australian Countryside

Gaia Retreat is committed to helping travelers stick with their weight loss goals. Their personalized programs target the area of health where clients need the most help, allowing vacationers to choose a program that fits their needs.

Examples of the programs at Gaia include Forage & Graze, Fitness & Vitality, and Yoga & Pilates. After clients complete their stay at Gaia, they can harness their renewed motivation to explore New South Wales alongside kangaroos and wallabies or head to another destination in Australia.

Countries Hard on The Waistline

Statistically, Pacific island countries are the worst region for travelers trying to shed weight. Nauru ranks as the most overweight country in the world. The Cook Islands, Palau, and the Marshall Islands come in second through fourth, respectively.

Meanwhile, Bobby Pinson’s song, “Don’t Ask Me How I Know,” would do well by not only advising people not to drink the water in Mexico but also not to eat tacos, burritos, and tortilla chips if they want to avoid excess pounds.

Circling back to the other side of the world, Indonesia is a country where menus abound with the word goreng (fried). Travelers might have to spend their vacation scaling cliffs at the beaches in Uluwatu to work off the calories, but the ocean views and entertaining wild monkeys could make up for it.

Pack on The Muscle

Taking a vacation doesn’t have to be the stamp of death to a wobbling New Year’s resolution. By choosing a retreat that caters to weight loss, travelers can improve the chances of muscle being the only mass they gain during their trip.

This article was produced by A Piece of Travel and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.