Travelling Business & Diet

yasminara

What are your go-to tips on staying lean with the work dinners, long flights and on the road travel? I keep having to travel for weeks at a time, and my whole team doesn't always have the same goals. I don't want to be the stick in the mud, so any advice on how to manage would be great! Thanks!

4legsRbetterthan2

1. pack snacks to bring along and a water bottle (this also saves you alot of money )
2. see if you can prelog when your going out or check out the nutrition info before hand so you can make a good decision instead of feeling guilty afterwards.
3. if you can't do #2, as a general rule I have found ordering a meat entre (steak, fish, or leaner prepared chicken) and veggies as a side often times is fewer calories than those "healthy" salads at restaurants. and it has the added bonus of not being a stereotypical "diet" food so people don't start getting into your business over what you order.

MidModJenn

I'm in the same boat (or airplane, so to speak). I travel a ton, and I've let if affect my waistline. I love eating out and consider it special, so I'm having to retrain my brain to say that when it's an every day thing, I have to eat regular food instead of "special" (big) meals. My formula has become:

- Breakfast: eggs scrambled with meat and veg, sometimes fruit on the side
- Lunch: a salad of some sort (even if you're eating at a buffet, there's always at least some sort of veggie and meat)
- Dinner: protein and green veg

And I'll keep nuts with me to snack on if I'm getting ravenous between meals. Also, drink tons of water -- no sodas! Sodas (even diet ones) can screw with you and make you hungry, and more likely to go off the rails at mealtime.

mulecanter

I get the stick in the mud thing. What's your exercise regime? I used to be a pilot and I had running routes figured out for most of my regular destinations. Make workouts part of your travel routine. I think setting expectations with your associates before dinner time is important, let them know you are going to the gym and/or skipping the dinner early so you don't get the razzing later. Invite them on your ten mile run before dinner--that will shut them up!

thomasegbert09

Portion control and ask for substitutions. Instead of mash potatoes, ask for veggies. If it's pasta, cut the meal in half immediately and ask the waiter for a take home bin. This will help with temptation.

lorrpb

What you eat shouldn't affect your coworkers' ability to enjoy themselves. So don't worry about being a "stick in the mud." If you're perceived like that, it's not your problem. Limit alcohol, pre-meal bread, and dessert. Is there anyone else in your group who would enjoy splitting a plate or sharing a dessert occasionally?
Good advice above from other posters!

zanzan07

Ugh. This is so hard, and almost entirely the reason that I weigh more than I'd like (I travel about 40-45 weeks out of the year.) My personal strategy, which isn't necessarily the best one, but it's what I can make work for me, is to focus 100% on calories. When the hotel doesn't have a fridge, and you're going out to eat for every meal for weeks on end, for me it becomes impossible to focus on macros. I give up and just start eating whatever I want.

So, for example, whatever I order, I immediately halve (or third, depending on calories) the meal on my plate. If my hotel has a fridge, I keep it for the next day. If not, I throw it away. It's difficult, and goes against what a lot of us were raised to think, but it's not worth your health to finish your plate. I've also learned to turn down going out, but I know that's not possible in every corporate culture. My typical schedule is to do a group dinner on Tuesday, but stay in on Wednesday and Thursday. Of course, I can fall back on "having too much work to do," which is usually true!

If you have a choice, stay in a homewood suites, residence inn, etc. One of those hotels that have a fridge and microwave and even a stove. When I'm lucky enough, I can stop by a Whole Foods, Wegmans, etc. and get a bunch of healthy prepared foods. If I'm less lucky, I track down a Wal-Mart and get Lean Cuisines. Sometimes you can't even do that. =/

I also try to prioritize exercise more than I used to. I know you can't outrun a bad diet, but logging 5 miles a night running, on an elliptical, etc. sure does help with that cream you didn't know was mixed in to the hotel's scrambled eggs!