Health on the run: How to stay healthy while traveling
Filed under: Eating Healthy, Exercise, Time Management
One of the challenges we face in trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, is what to do when traveling. How do we eat healthy when we’re limited to airport food and business dinners? How do we keep up our exercise routine when we’re on a plane most of the day or in meetings?
Business vs. Leisure Travel
First, let’s separate out vacations from business travel. In a vacation you typically control your own schedule. This means that you should have time to work out if you choose to. If you choose not to, that’s your choice, but remember that taking a vacation should not mean abandoning all your healthy lifestyle choices. Also, while on a vacation, you’re typically in control of your eating selections, much more so than while traveling for business. Again, you can choose to eat unhealthy while on vacation, but why would you do so? Once you realize that eating healthy can be very enjoyable and does not have to consist of a green salad for each meal, you’ll be just fine continuing your healthy eating habits while on vacation. Basically, staying healthy on a vacation is a matter of choice. It’s your choice to do so or not.
The Challenges of Business Travel
Business travel on the other hand, is different. Your schedule is not your choice when traveling for business. There are meetings to make, business dinners to attend and deadlines to meet. Time is off the essence when traveling for business and it seems like there’s never enough time for health. So how can you meet your work obligations while still staying healthy?
On the Plane
It starts on the plane. A few tips for healthy plane travel which also apply to vacations.
- Don’t eat the airline food - Yes, it’s very tempting to take those peanuts or cookies or whatever the flight attendants are passing out, but don’t. Those snacks are nothing but sugars and junk carbs. The same goes for most full meals on a plane. They’re low quality and unhealthy. Pack some food ahead of time and munch on it if you get hungry. Good choices are fruit or healthy sandwiches. For example, I usually try to find a Subway sandwich store at the airport I’m flying out of. I order a veggie wrap or two to go. These are low calories (about 200 to 300 each) and relatively healthy. Much better than the junk food on the airplane. Takes me zero additional time since I’m waiting to board anyway.
- Get up at least once an hour - Get up once an hour and stretch. In fact, you should do more than stretch, you should actually do a very light workout. You can in fact exercise on a plane. It requires a bit of improvisation and a friendly flight attendant, but it’s possible. Exercises like squats, lunges and calf raises can all be done without any equipment. You can also go through the movements of other exercises like shrugs, curls and triceps extensions without any weights. Is this as good as a normal workout? No, of course not, but it will keep you alert, active and moving.
- Try not to sleep - Sleeping on a plane is bad. It’s usually very poor quality sleep in uncomfortable positions. You’ll wake up feeling unrested and your body will ache. Do something more productive instead. Work, read, watch a movie, whatever it is, do that instead of sleeping. You’ll feel better.
At the Hotel
- Bring your gym gear - Most hotels do have a gym. It may be small and underequipped but it’s still a gym. A simple workout doesn’t have to involve much equipment. Pushups, situps, lunges, squats and other exercises can be done with just body weight. Plus most hotels have cardio gear. It’s not ideal, but I usually find enough time in the evening to catch up on my workout. I won’t do a full one since I have emails to catch up on but I’ll spend 30 to 45 minutes in the gym on a short (15 to 20 minute) weight workout and a short (another 15 to 20 minute) cardio workout.
- Get some sleep - Resist the urge to stay up all night working. You’re not being productive, you’re being destructive. You’ll be sleepy and tired the next day, preventing you from doing actual work. Get your work done on the plane if you can and hold off those emails for later. You need a solid 8 hours of sleep a day for both your health and your productivity.
- Watch that room service - It’s easy to overeat while traveling on business. Everything is paid for by the company, so why not splurge with that big steak and the cheesecake. Well, because your health is not covered by your expense check. Traveling on business is not an excuse to overeat. Keep your portion size and selection normal.
Business Meals
Business meals come in two flavors, slow meals with customers or other coworkers where you spend hours at the dinner table or fast meals on the run where you’re in a hurry and need to eat something fast.
- Slow meals - You’ll usually have a good selection of food here so there won’t be a problem choosing something healthy. However, you’ll also have the temptation of dessert and that endless wine bottle. Yep, it’s hard saying no to those, especially if you’re with important clients or coworkers who expect you to indulge with them. If you cannot avoid it, at least minimize the damage. Go with the lighter desserts like fruit and cheese platters. Order a wine instead of a mixed drink or beer. It will have less calories and you can easily nurse it along for hours.
- Fast meals - You’re on the run, you need to catch a plane and you only have 10 minutes for lunch. You need food now and you have no time to look for something healthy. What do you do? Two things to remember here. First of all, healthy food does not have to be slow. There are a wide variety of things that can be had quickly and are still healthy. The Subway wraps I mentioned before are fast. A Taco Bell bean burrito, not exactly the paragon of good health but still better than a giant burger, can be had quickly. Mexican food in general can be healthy while still being quick. Also, even if you go to a fast food place, learn to minimize the damage by picking healthier options. Chicken sandwiches for example, are almost always better than hamburgers. Fries are not a good option so lay off them, and don’t even think about the large soda. Get your sandwich on its own with a bottle of water, and ask for your sandwich without all those special sauces, they’re nothing but fat. As I said, it’s not exactly a healthy meal but neither is it a gut buster.
Summary
Travel, especially business travel, can be a bit of a strain on your healthy lifestyle, but it doesn’t have to break it. Yes, you can be healthy while traveling and it doesn’t really take that much more effort. The key point is to make smart decisions and not allow the travel to become an excuse for unhealthy habits.
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Instead of taking a cab everywhere or driving short distances, walk from your hotel to the restaurant you want to eat at. If you’re in a city with a subway, take that instead of a cab because it won’t drop you at the door and you’ll have to walk a bit to reach your destination. In cities like Chicago and NYC, a hotel close to a subway still requires you walk at least 500 feet to reach a station.
Also use common sense when ordering from whatever restaurant you choose. You can find low calorie, semi-low fat meals at any resaurant, even McDonalds (hamburger with veggies). Drink water instead of soda to further hinder the amount of empty calories you consume.
If possible when traveling (for either business or pleasure), try to get a hotel with a refrigerator and microwave (or at least a refrigerator). That way you can go to the grocery store (again, if possible) and buy some of your own food and have more control over what you eat.
Sandwiches and fruit are always great to keep on hand. Instant oatmeal makes a great breakfast (you can even use the in-room coffee pot to heat the water if you don’t have a microwave).
One of my favorite business travel meals is brown rice, black beans, salsa and cheddar cheese. The rice is “ready rice”, I think it’s Uncle Bens (orange package) that you just have to heat. Beans are canned (make sure you rinse them well. Dump them into the ice bucket to improvise a collander.). I like Pace salsa, especially since it comes in a little jar, but use what you like/can find. Cheese is pre-shredded. Mix rice and beans about 1-1 (again, if needed use the ice bucket. Or buy disposable plastic containers at the grocery store.), add salsa and cheese to taste. Microwave about 2 minutes (depending on the wattage of the microwave). It’a hot, filling meal that’s pretty healthy and resembles real food.
Leftover meat (I like chicken) can be added to beef this up a bit. (No pun intended, especially since I prefer chicken. The rotissary stuff is good.).
I’ve pretty much lived on this, instant oatmeal, peanut butter and honey sandwiches and apples for weeks at a time while traveling (oh, and lots of tea for the caffeine, especially when I’m working long night shifts). Not a lot of variety, but it’s pretty quick, not bad healthwise and keeps me going.
On the “exercise” side of things, I have spent an hour a week for the last year or so doing Tai Chi lessons, and the basic “24 forms” represent a decent stretching and movement set of exercise.
If done, with some vigor, for an hour, you can get up a pretty good sweat; if you cut it down to about 10 minutes, it at least means you get a reasonably complete “stretch” of the muscles along with getting circulation moving, and exercising a bit of balance.
re: meals on the plane. if your flight offers a full meal, don’t skip it, just order one of the better alternatives ahead of time. Nearly all airlines will prepare something vegetarian, diabetic, or even a fruit plate, if asked, which has been superior to the regular meal 100% of the dozens of time I’ve tried this. as a bonus, you’ll get served first (and therefore receive a fresher meal).
for exercise, I pack one of those pilates figure-eight elastic cords. it’s tiny and weighs nothing, but offers numerous possibilities for stretching and strength training. lots of hotels will give advice on nearby running routes as well, just ask.
perishables from the grocery store also keep surprisingly well in an ice bucket filled regularly - yogurt, fruit etc are much healthier & save time, especially for breakfast.
Dan and Ruth Ann,
Great suggestions about walking and meals on the go.
Christopher,
Do you have any recommendations on sites where someone can learn more about Tai Chi? Would love to post something for other readers.
Anonymous,
That’s absolutely true. I guess I overlooked it because I usually fly within the US and on those flights all they have is snacks. I’m not sure there’s any airline left that offers full meals on domestic flights. However, on longer flights picking the veggie meals is probably your best choice. Also a great idea to bring exercise bands.
Will do a follow up post on Monday and add all of these suggestions. Thank you all for adding them.
Gal
Some links I have collected on Tai Chi:
http://linuxdatabases.info/info/taiji.html
There are links there to an 8-part tutorial presented by a school in Vancouver, BC that are quite good.
The Wikipedia has a central page that’s pretty well descriptive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%27ai_Chi_Ch%27uan
Great tips. Thank you!
trying to stick to your workout regime while traveling is impossible. these are great tips to follow.
use common sense when ordering from whatever restaurant you choose.
Very useful article. Dont forget to drink lots of water on the plane to keep your body hydrated, it will reduce the dehydration in your skin which we all hate.