Traveling for work is hard, and maintaining any sort of normal, healthy lifestyle is even more difficult. With the constant eating out, entertaining clients and sleeping in new beds you are left worn out, craving comfort foods and with no energy for exercise.
If traveling for work and entertaining clients is a big part of your job, then you need to make it sustainable with your lifestyle. Stop making excuses and start building routines that will help you succeed in focusing not only on your business, but your health.
Here are 6 tips to get you started right away:
1. Exercise in the morning
Your day starts with a workout…no excuses! Too many drinks at the hotel bar last night? Late night entertaining clients? Don’t let excuses creep into your schedule. The morning workout will set the tone for the rest of the day. You already know you are busy after work and won’t have time to exercise later, so make sure you set your alarm early and get up for a workout. Even if your hotel doesn’t have a gym, there are plenty of bodyweight workouts you can do on the road or simply go for a run outside.
2. Control the calories you can
Dinner might not be in your control since you are on your clients schedule, but breakfast, lunch and snacks are yours to plan for. The routine and boring choices have a place in eating healthy on the road. Find your 3 – 4 restaurants where you can go and know that you can get healthy food. If you have a refrigerator in your hotel room, stop by the grocery store and keep yogurt and fresh fruit in your room for breakfast. Finally, always keep fresh fruit, almonds or other healthy snacks on hand in the office so you aren’t starving by dinner time.
3. Alternate your drink order with a glass of water
Most of our entertaining centers on drinks. Meet at the bar after work, move on to drinks during dinner and then maybe back to the bar for after dinner drinks. Alternate your drink schedule by adding in a glass of water between each glass of wine or whiskey. This will help keep your head clear as you talk to your client and ensure you don’t wake up with an unnecessary headache.
4. Don’t clean your plate
Eating out at nice restaurants night after night will quickly start to add on unwanted weight. You can’t always just order a salad, but you still need to be conscious of the portions you’re eating. Restaurants typically serve us enough food for 3 – 4 people to eat off of. Eat half of your meal and if you have a fridge pack up the rest for lunch the next day… or simply leave it on your plate and ask the waiter to take it away so you don’t continue to munch on it.
5. Just because you are expensing your meal, doesn’t mean you need to order one of everything
Most likely you are expensing your meal so it seems silly to skimp on the appetizers, entree or, of course, dessert. I understand you still need to show your client a good time, but that doesn’t mean filling the table with one of everything from the menu. Most likely they are in the same boat as you and eating out more often than they should. Order enough food so that you both are leaving satisfied and not so stuffed you regret the last few bites of cheesecake.
6. Suggest unique events other than dinner
Your clients probably like to do more than just eat. Suggest meeting at a local basketball game or a wine and cheese tasting. Get creative with your events and you will save yourself from another big meal out on the town… and you will also impress them with an out of the box experience!
These are just the basics. Start here, and once these are part of your routine, start challenging yourself to find new ways to continue building your strength and health on the road.
I want to hear from you! How do you maintain a healthy lifestyle while you are traveling for work?
Caroline Eaton is a certified personal trainer and co-founder of Sticky Marketing, helping spread the word of cool companies doing cool things. She developed MarketingMinds to train interns on mastering social media strategies for their company’s brand. She believes that healthier lifestyles lead to healthier businesses. Follow her today at @stickymktg.
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