On The Road – Day 1

Long time readers of WorldFitnessNetwork.com know that I don’t really run this site like a “blog” – the layout looks like a blog, but I focus mostly on sharing articles.

In contrast, “blogs” are more traditionally about the person writing.

Well, regardless of the definition, I’m going to try something for the next several days and I hope you’ll gain something from it.

See, I’m traveling on business.  Since I’m not on vacation, I’m sticking to my eating and workout plans.

But it’s hard.

And I think you’ll learn from it.

So I’m going to share each day what happened the day before, regarding eating and exercise.  You’ll see that, like you, I’m not perfect.  But I have a determination that I think you can borrow, plus some tips, that might help you the next time you are traveling.

If this doesn’t interest you, fine, you can skip these.  But don’t unsubscribe!  I’ve already got two great articles queued up for when I get back.

Day 1 – Exercise

Normally, yesterday would have been a “leg” day for me.  (I’m using my own 6×6x6 Routine right now.)

I usually work out in the mornings, but I was traveling across country and had to leave early.

And I knew I’d be too wiped out at the end of the flights to do legs.

First key:  be flexible.

So I simply shifted so that my travel day was a “rest and recovery” day and the next day would resume my workout – right where it left off.  In other words, missing one day doesn’t mean you trash the whole week.  Just because “Tuesday is my leg day” doesn’t mean I can’t shift.

That said, travel has a lot of walking (low intensity cardio).  I try to avoid shuttles from parking garages and stuff, intentionally to get extra walking in.  So I did do a lot of walking – I’m guessing a total of about 4 miles.

Day 1 – Eating

Eating on the road is sooooo tough.  But you need to plan ahead.  I packed a couple of “protein bars” which I usually avoid because they aren’t great for you.   But they are better than greasy burgers and fries.  Having these helped because I eat every 3 hours and one of my flights was 5 hrs.  And the layover was only 45 minutes so I knew I couldn’t order a custom meal.

If you do get protein bars, make sure they use whey protein as the main ingredient.  So many of them use soy protein, which is not good in large quantities for men.  And some protein bars even have chocolate and/or sugars as the main ingredient.  Watch what you buy!

I also stopped, on the way to the airport, and got a footlong chicken breast sub at Subway.  I ordered all the veggies and had them scoop out some of the bread before preparing to reduce simple carbs (yes, even their “whole grain” is mostly simple carbs).  No cheese, no dressing.  This ended up lasting me for two meals (small meals, but still meals).

Now here’s one of the most important items:  when I booked my hotel, I asked for a fridge to be added to my room.  No charge (sometimes hotels charge).  But this allowed for the second most important item:

On the drive from the airport, I stopped at a grocery store and bought healthy supplies, even things that needed to be refrigerated:

• skim milk
• cottage cheese
• berries
• cucumbers (easy to throw in your bag to eat between meetings)
• bottled water

Of course, I got other things that don’t need the fridge.  But even though the food cost almost $50, that’s healthier  – and cheaper – than eating out for those meals.  And it allows me to eat early and late so I’m getting in my 6 meals.

Tomorrow I’ll share what happened today…

Is this useful?  Questions?

[Edit:  Here are the later posts:]

On The Road – Day 1

On The Road – Day 2

On The Road – Day 2 – Hotel Room Workout Videos

On The Road – Day 3

On The Road – Day 4

On The Road – Day 5 – Unbelievable

On The Road – Day 6

On The Road – Day 7

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Related posts:

1. On The Road – Day 7
2. On The Road – Day 2
3. On The Road – Day 6

Tags: diet, traveling workouts