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.
- 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/
- 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.
- 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.”
- 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."
- 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.”
- 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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