Staying on plan while travelling

dawnp917

A big test is coming up for me at the end of the week.   Friday morning I head to London for the week.  It's primarily a business trip but I am heading over early to visit with some friends.  Usually when I travel I do manage to get work outs in but I 'm typically only travelling for 2-3 days.   This is 1 week of eating out, jet lag, and plane rides.   I always bring 1 L bottle of water on a plane with me to stay hydrated.  Need to figure out additional tricks to make sure I stay on plane.  My first dress fitting is the Monday I get back.  Any tips or tricks?

turtleslove

I take protien bars (personally use the P90X ones because of the balanced nutrition and quality) beef jerkey and almonds. I buy fruit like bananas and apples and carrots where I can and then stick to low carb options when I eat out. Greek yogurt can usually be found in the same cases as fruit here in the states, so that is another great option for filling up with out the bulk.. Hope that helps!

prdreamaker24

When I travel, I pack food just like I do clothes. Almonds, protein bars, homemade granola, protein powder, ect. I also bring the DVDs for the workout I plan to do, my HRM and resistance bands. At reastaurants, I do splurge at least once but most times, I stick with grilled chicken and veggies. Hope this helps!

Tanq&Tonic

Just a bit of warning -- you will be flagged if you bring food back into the country.  Generally pre-packaged bars are fine, but beef jerkey often raises a flag with the Dept of Food & Agriculture. 

My tricks:

1) Take advantage of the jetlag -- if you wake up ungodly early, or can't sleep at night, sneak in a workout.  Just 20 minutes for maintenance even if you're not making major progress.

2) YES to carrying your own bars -- keep it with you in your work bag to enusre you are fueling regularly and keeping the metabolism up.  Nothing worse than hunger kicking in with jetlag while being stuck in an unending meeting.

3) Splurge and enjoy local cuisine, but be mindful of wine consumption.  I try to keep it to 1 glass a night when I'm out with coworkers just to make the next morning's run not so painful.

4) RUN.  If you run at all, running in a foreign city is even better.  If I'm in a place I don't know well, I ask the concierge for a route, an map, and a biz card from the hotel just in case.  And I bring my iPhone and snap pictures of major landmarks along the way.  You can see a lot on a fairly short run.

5) Choose hotels carefully -- if at all possible, book ones with gyms, or near cool landmarks or parks (see #4 above)

6) Stock up on workouts you can do in a hotel room with little to no modification, and load them up on your iPad/laptop.  10 Minute Trainer is a good one for a quickie, Insanity, Zumba, I even do 30 Day Shred modified without weights.

7) On the flight, keep super hydrated (even moreso than on the ground, and depending on flight length, 1L won't be enough), walk and stretch frequently (aisle seats are awesome for this), and eat carefully.  Avoid the booze in flight, and whenever possible, time your naps on the plane with the local time at your destination to ensure you hit the ground running as adjusted as possible.

8) Set a goal for the # of workouts you intend to complete while you're out.  I usually allow myself 1 or 2 sleep in days on a trip, but having an objective of what I expect for myself helps to keep me accountable.

Enjoy London!