How Entrepreneurs Could Stay Healthy On The Road!

Reports indicate that 70% of travellers gain weight on the road. This is pretty bad news for entrepreneurs who regularly engage in business travel to keep their businesses afloat. From client dinners out on the town to long hours spent sitting in meeting rooms, business travel doesn’t necessarily go hand-in-hand with your efforts to lead a healthy lifestyle. Fortunately, there are several ways you can streamline your business travel habits so your time working offsite doesn’t compromise your ability to eat well and exercise.
These are six smart things you can do to stay healthy as an entrepreneur and still keep a busy travel schedule connecting with clients, vendors, and business partners around the globe.

1. Set yourself up for success

Many of us pack our tennis shoes and workout clothing in our bags thinking this is the first step to ensuring a healthy trip on the road. We vow to work out when we catch a break in between meetings or after we’re completely done with the day’s work. The problem is, many entrepreneurs spend what little free time they get during a business trip putting out virtual fires that started at the home office throughout the day. This is why the first step to ensuring a healthy business trip should be to organize operations at your headquarters.
Take a moment to create a system for communication and effective internal problem solving at your office before you leave. Make sure your employees know who to contact with questions and where to go to find any materials they might need while you’re away. Frontier Business offers up a solid guide if you’re not sure where or how to start preparing your office for your time away.

Six simple tips for entrepreneurs to stay healthy while traveling. Credit: https://pixabay.com/en/users/TheAndrasBarta-2004841/

2. Plan for a comfortable plane ride

Another way you can set yourself up for success is to start your plan for a healthy trip with the flight. Pack your own nutritious snacks and purchase a water at the gate to ensure you’ll have food and hydration throughout the duration of your flight. If you’re travelling pretty far, try doing some plane exercises to keep your blood flowing every hour or so. Engaging in a little yoga will help you feel more refreshed, calm your nerves, improve circulation, and keep your body limber as you travel long distances.

3. Hold yourself accountable

Traveling solo means you only have yourself to hold you accountable for waking up when your alarm goes off at six AM to hit the gym. Although it can be tough to shake the urge to press snooze, it’s certainly possible to muster up the motivation to get up and get moving on your own. "Since having a private trainer join me for a routine business trip to one of our stores in the islands isn’t practical, I’m a stickler about following my own fitness rules,” said Aaron Hobson, Cariloha Executive VP of Marketing. “When I’m eating out with business associates and store owners for every meal of the day, the calories add up quickly, which is why I discipline myself to follow these three guidelines: eat light/eat less, walk whenever possible, 10-15 minutes of cardio pre-shower. Living a fit, healthy and comfortable lifestyle has always been top of mind and a driving force behind the creation of our bamboo fitness apparel and our bamboo bedding and bath good lines. Over the past 20 years of doing retail business in the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska, I’ve managed to stay at my same ideal body weight and blood pressure.”

4. Be strategic about dining out

A significant problem with staying healthy on the road is the need to eat out for most of your meals. Whether you’re dining out with clients or simply trying to find a decent spot for dinner, sticking to your nutritional goals can be tricky when you’re relying on a restaurant to provide healthy options. Although it will take a little extra research and forethought on your part, planning out where to eat based on the menu and food choices offered will go a long way towards making sure you still look and feel your best when you return home.
In an interview with U.S. News, Elisabetta Politi, nutrition director at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center suggests that business travelers avoid the menu at restaurants altogether and opt for a build-your-own salad instead. "When we go out to restaurants, we want to eat what we won't eat at home," which often leads to poor dietary choices, says Politi. "If you don't look at the menu, you won't be tempted." 

5. Don’t count on having a hotel gym

Picking a hotel with a gym is ideal, but not always possible. That’s why you shouldn’t count on having a gym with the equipment you need to carry out an effective fitness routine on the road. Check out the amenities your hotel provides ahead of time and plan accordingly.
In an interview with Forbes, health and fitness mogul Jillian Michaels advised business travelers who do not have access to a hotel gym to, “Buy a guest pass at a local gym for a nominal fee.” She adds that travellers should also, “Travel with resistance tubing. It's cheap, light weight and in conjunction with your own body weight resistance you can get a thorough full body workout even in the smallest of hotel rooms.”

6. Avoid the downward spiral

Finally, we get to one of the most important things you can do to stay healthy on the road. Avoid a downward spiral at all costs! Most of us will crack and enjoy one of the doughnuts provided in a morning session at a conference or indulge in a savory meal at dinner, and that’s alright. The problem with indulging comes when you allow this one slip up to derail your fitness and nutrition goals for the rest of the trip.

In an interview with Nomadic Matt, Steve Kamb recommends employing what he calls the “Never 2” rule to avoid snowballing into unhealthy eating habits on the road.
He explains this simple yet effective concept by saying “If you miss a day of exercise for whatever reason, don’t allow yourself to miss two days in a row. If you eat one bad meal, that next meal should be healthy. Never two in a row.”
Sticking to healthy habits as you travel isn’t easy. Add on the fact that you’re actually working during your trip, and this difficulty multiplies. The good news is, the more you travel while implementing health-conscious behavior, the easier it becomes to be a globe-trotting entrepreneur without compromising your wellness. Because the satisfaction and reward of building your own career or business shouldn’t come at the cost of your health.

www.forbes.com/sites/melissathompson/2016/12/07/smart-fitness-ideas-for-entrepreneurs-to-stay-healthy-on-the-road/#7aeb88357480

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