Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance
One of my clients travels the country nearly every week for business and she has a tough time staying disciplined with healthy eating and consistent exercise while on the road. Many of us are in the same situation. It’s difficult when we’re out of our element, our home turf. But with a little foresight and preparation, we need not worry about it. Here are some tips for maintaining your health and fitness goals on the road…
EXERCISE
- Plan – don’t leave your workouts to chance. Plan them like you plan any other meeting or work function. And then stick to that schedule just like you stick to your work schedule.
- Pack light workout clothes and take advantage of the laundry service at the hotel so you can re-use your outfits.
- Research your hotel’s gym prior to your trip so you can visualize yourself working out there and maybe even getting excited about working out in a new environment, mixing it up a little.
- Find a workout partner that will be on the trip or even a friend in your destination city. This is HUGE from an accountability standpoint.
- Check out a cool running route website like GMap Pedometer or Walk Jog Run and map yourself a cool new running route in your destination city.
- Be a little cultural and run to a cool site, attraction, mall, or store in your downtime.
NUTRITION
- Bring food for the plane. PB&J on WW bread or salad in a container than you can throw away work well
- Plane food is unbelievably horrible for you and it obviously tastes like garbage.
- Don’t eat junk at the airport. How do you do this? Don’t arrive at the airport hungry. Make sure you eat a good meal or snack before you get to the airport so you’re not tempted to eat fast food when there.
- Try to get a hotel room with a fridge. If not, ask for one. Most hotels will deliver one to you for a nominal fee per night, so…
- You can go mini-grocery shopping. Natural peanut butter, nuts, pretzels (not great, but beats the alternative of chips, etc.), string cheese, fruit, mini carrots, hummus, etc.
OUT ON THE TOWN
- Don’t go to cocktail parties or dinners hungry. Eat an apple and PB or something else before. Something with fat like peanut butter will keep you satisfied longer.
- Try everything if you want, but in moderation. Have 1 or 2 brie puffs, not 6.
- Alternate each cocktail, especially a sugary one, with a glass of water
- Limit sugary drinks; stick to light beer, wine, and clear booze. Bellinis and Cosmos contain a lot of sugar.
- If you know where you’re going to dinner in advance, look up the restaurant’s menu and decide what you’re going to order before you even get to the restaurant. This will prevent (or help) you from making bad impulse decisions.
MISC
- Go to bed at a decent hour so you can wake up and workout
- Skip stupid conference sessions if you can and grab a workout then
- Enjoy and don’t be too hard on yourself. Welcome the opportunity to run or workout in a new city, workout in new gyms, break the routine.
These are just a few tips that have worked, and continue to work, for me. Do you have any favorite tips for staying fit on the road? Please share in the comments…