Advice for a frequent flyer

caprica

Hi,

Is anyone out there a frequent flyer? I notice that every time I go on a work trip (which is sadly a weekly event for me and some times three or four times a week) my weight goes up even when i keep inside my calories and when I am home my weight goes down.

My gut feel is the restaurant and function food has many more calories, sugar and fat in it than I am estimating. Those drinks with clients cause me to consume MORE bad food than I should (and maybe even retain water). The hotel gym is always substandard and busy so I don't push myself as hard as I should (also pretty hard to do in between catching planes, working late, switching time zones).

Are there any road warriors out there that know the tricks to loosing weight when your life is full of flights, hotels and bad functions?

Thanks

ginnyroxx

are you drinking a lot of water, too? flying makes you retain water.

4lafz

Travelled on the on the job for many years. Flying DOES make you retain water. If you have to drink with clients - have one low cal drink (wine, vodka) and switch to water with a squeeze of lime - soda water has salt. When at restaurants do special ordering - grilled, no sauce, no starch and extra veggies. Leave the bread on the table. Ask them about low cal dressing for the salad - most places have an option now. At the very least get dressing on the side and drizzle a tiny bit. At functions request the vegetarian option. Drink LOTS of water - more than you would normally. Don't eat airplane food - pack protein bars (I like Zone Perfect) and some healthy snacks with you. Most hotels have a store nearby where you can find a yogurt and piece of fruit (before meetings start - breakfast). Good luck!

MzBug

I always gain weight while flying. I don't like to use the lavatory on the plane so I try not to drink too much. I found the trip I made last month, that if I drank LOTS of water on the plane (east coast to west coast flight) I did better. I still don't like the lavatory on the plane, but I didn't like the knee and ankle puffiness worse. I also found myself walking to the lavatory every hour or so helped with the creaky knees after the flight.

TrainingWithTonya

For years I was not only traveling to a new city daily, I was doing so as an athlete who had to maintain my fitness and athletic performance level while doing it. The best thing I can recommend is to skip the drinks. If you have to go out with clients, it's better to drink bottled water anyway so that you can maintain a clear head for any business that may be discussed. As for food, I would always book a hotel with a kitchenette so that I could go to the local grocery story and prepare my own food. I would also pack protein shakes and bars that I could easily do when I wasn't able to cook in a timely manner. I would pre-portion out chocolate protein powder and fat free dry milk in ziplock bags and put them in a shaker cup with a bottle of water so I could literally mix and go and didn't even need a cooler. As for restaurant eating, the dressing on the side option is great. I always dipped a corner of each bite of salad into it and still had at least 75% of the dressing left when my salad was gone. Also, ask how the food is prepared and request your own form of cooking if necessary. For example, a lot of meats (specifically steak that I know of) are cooked in butter to make them juicier. Feign an allergy if you have to in order to make the restaurant fix it the way you want. They will do anything to appease you if they think their normal practices or ingredients will cause you to go into anaphalactic shock and die in their dining room. ;-) I didn't do that often, but after one really bad reaction to mushrooms at a steakhouse, my co-workers were so afraid of me having another reaction that they would often step in and insist that my food be prepared separately and according to my specifications if the staff didn't seem helpful enough in meeting my needs. Of course, I was a professional wrestler, so most people didn't argue with a table full of very large, angry looking guys. LOL

As for exercise, there are a lot of exercise videos you can do in your room with a laptop and no equipment. Check out www.exercisetv.tv or even youtube.com. Or you can always take a resistance band so that you can get some resistance even if it isn't the normal amount of weight you prefer to work with.

caprica

thanks for the help guys - I will be much better prepared for my next trip

weaklink109

One tip about salad dressing. I discovered that I like my salads just fine without any dressing--just ask for some lemon wedges and squeeze lemon juice on your salad. I do this all the time at Olive Garden. And order your salad without croutons. Those little buggers have lots of fat, usually, and sodium too.

I don't fly often--haven't been on a plane since 1995, now that I think about it. I do remember that my feet and ankles swelled on my last trip. It was in the summer, and the heat seemed to make it worse. Good luck.

caprica

thanks for the tips guys. On my last work trip I drank plenty of water and stayed away from alcohol and I didn't get the weight fluctuation. It seems that flying and drinking does make you retain water.