On The Road – Day 7

Today was the last day of my trip – whew!  6 airports and two destination cities, plus business conferences, was quite a challenge.

I learned a lot myself by writing all this down for you – the act of writing gave me a few insights I might have otherwise glossed over so thanks for indulging me.  I hope you learned something as well.

If you have any lingering questions about what to do for fitness on the road, or how to eat right when traveling, this is the post to reply to. I’m also including links at the end to all the previous days’ posts, plus some of my earlier posts on traveling.  Let me know what you think!

On to the summaries…

Day 7 – Eating

Eating on planes and at the airport is always tough.  You really have to plan ahead.  I’ve heard some people use it as a day to fast – it’s easier to eat nothing than to deal with airports and planes!  I’m not into fasting (I’ve done it, but I get headaches) so I had to do my best.

My first flight of the day was really early so I had a light cottage cheese and banana breakfast before cabbing it to the airport.  I was hoping to get there in time to buy some eggs there.  But when I arrived, the check-in line was long and the security line was even longer.  I ended up getting to my gate exactly at boarding time.

So no hot breakfast for me.

On the plane itself, they were serving breakfast, but it was crap (excuse my crudeness but that’s what it was).  I’d rather skip a meal than eat their sugar and fat “meal”.

So I resorted to my carry-on: a protein bar, a banana, and some GoLean cereal (dry).

My first/second lunch was in the airport during a layover, but I only had 10 minutes before again boarding so I got a hamburger and a turkey sandwich.  Alas, light on veggies.  Veggies are the hardest thing to get when traveling.  With the time zone change, I’m losing a meal today so this one was higher calorie and quantity.

First dinner:  I had 15 minutes between deboarding and boarding on the third leg of my trip home and so I stopped at a restaurant in the airport (not a fast-food joint).  I ordered a grilled chicken breast sandwich, no sauce, with lettuce, tomato, onion.  And instead of fries?  You guessed it – broccoli.  They had it done in 10 minutes and I was good to go.

Lesson:  I asked for what I wanted, and got it, and it took less time than waiting in line at one of the fast-food places.

Last meal of the day:  after landing, I hit a grocery store on the way home and got fat-free cottage cheese, added my chocolate protein powder and raisins, plus an apple.  Yum!

Day 8 – Exercise.

Nada.  Zippo.  Zilch.  Nothing.

I had intended to wake up even earlier than normal so that I could do some HIIT (intense, but short duration) but I had some business emails I had to get out and so I did nothing.

:(

Summary

So my trip is over and several things helped me succeed:
- preparation, both mental and actual
- focus
- discipline (except for that cinnamon roll moment of weakness)
- flexibility
- time management

I’m pleased at how well I did.  That said, I wasn’t as “good” as I am when at home.

Here are the individual 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

And for reference, here are some previous articles I’ve written about travel and fitness:

My 24Hr Fitness Experience – Part 1 of 2

My 24Hr Fitness Experience – Part 2 of 2

Top 8.5 Tips For More Efficient Workouts In Unfamiliar Gyms

What Are The 3 Things You Wish Your Gym Had?

Did you learn anything from this series?  Please share with a comment below.

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Related posts:

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

Tags: diet, traveling workouts