Business Travelers - Tips and Tricks

phog007

Hey guys,

I just wanted to query all the other business travelers out there to see what all tips and tricks you use to stay on track while on the road.

A couple of things I do...

1.) Try to book hotels in nice and interesting areas to encourage evening runs and walks...

2.) Bring a couple of boxes of my favorite granola bars for emergency meals and snacks...

3.) Quit trying to eat at nice places all the time. Sometimes as business travelers we get caught up on the perk of eating out at nice places. I save the good restaurants for clients.

What do you do?

epj78

1) I try to book at Residence Inn. They have a stove and refrigerator so my first trip is to a grocery store so I don't have to eat out at all unless it's a business dinner.

2) I bring my workout videos with me. See #1 - always enough room in these rooms to do a good workout

3) Go with the mind set "This is NOT vacation." Too often it is too easy to say "heck, I'm eating it" - it's NOT vacation no saying "to heck with it"

4) No room service. Ever.

5) Keep the same schedule as at home - same workout time etc - whenever possible.

6) Get out and do something in the evenings (boredom eating is a big deal for me)

7) Just do the best you can when you do eat or get something catered - make good choices and don't worry about what other people will think

melsinct

Perks? HA! I am a government contractor working on a per diem, so no fancy meals for me, lol. I bring some food, like nuts or granola bars, but usually between my work bag and my clothes, I don't have much room (I always carry on, NEVER check!).

I always check out airports before hand, e.g. What do they have to eat? Will they have a healthy choice for me? From there I just kind of go with the flow. I can't stand most chain restaurant food. While it is handy to know their nutritional value, most of it is oversalted, processed, subpar crap (Chili's, Olive Garden, etc.). I can usually find something at local restaurants that is good and healthy while staying at hotels. 80% of my work brings me to specific places I have traveled before, so I know the lay of the land so to speak. My trip next week is bringing me south to an area with not many options besides barbecue or fast food, so that should be interesting to try and find something healthy!

The most important thing I do is always go for long walks (especially when I am in a city) or hit the hotel gym.

Barneystinson

Eat at nicer places

Well, let me re-phrase that, non-fast food and non-chain restaurants that have a reasonably good offering. I like small cafes. You can usually grab a good salad or lunch special at those on the cheap.

I try to stay at Hilton chain hotels - Hilton Garden Inns, Hampton, Hilton, etc. - as they have nice fitness facilities. If the weather permits and the area is nice, I try to pick a hotel near walking trails (not in crime areas). My fave cities walking / fitness wise have been Vancouver and San Antonio. Great walking opportunities in both.

EMc4452

Go with a workout plan...if you dont have time to visit the hotel fitness center, then make up workout routines you can do in the room quickly before getting ready in the morning or at night before bed. Pushups, plyo, core exercises are all good.

epj78

Oh and I haven't used them yet (actually haven't gotten here yet), but I bought the FitDeck body weight and plyo cards. I figure those are easy to bring with me to do a "made up" bootcamp-esque workout on the fly in a hotel room. Search for them on Amazon. No bigger than a deck of cards, no excuse not to pack.

wewon

I try to mitigate my bad habits, that means working around my typical excuses to eat junk and/or not work out and veg in front of the TV.

1) ALWAYS bring work out clothes and make sure I have access to a gym/work out room in the hotel.

2) Find a Walmart or Target to buy some healthy snacks/dinner items. Get plenty of bottled water to avoid sodas

3) Load up on fruits and whole grains at breakfast to tide me over well into lunch.

4) Avoid all fast food places.

5) Even more diligent about logging my calories into MFP so that I still feel accountable (this avoids the I'm on vacation syndrome).

melsinct

I stay at Marriotts and Hiltons, both usually have good fitness centers. I was just at the Capital Hilton in DC and they wanted $15/day for use of the gym if you weren't an HHonor silver or better! I am a silver but the weather was nice, so I just went on a lot of walks when I stayed there.

I forgot to add a good tip: Starbucks have snacks that are really filling when on the go. I eat their protein plate for lunch while traveling since Starbucks is everywhere. The protein plate has a hard boiled egg, cheese, peanut butter, a little scone thing, apple slices, etc. all for under 400 calories (I believe).

Kolohe71

Marriott Platimun Elite Member here, so you know I travel a lot. Here are my suggestions:

1) Most business friendly hotels have fitness centers. Bring workout clothes and use them.
2) Bring or buy protien bars... The snacks in the mini bar are WAY too tempting when you'r bored and someone else is footing the bill. (I have even gone as far as putting all of the items in a drawer or the closet so I don't see them).
3) Buy bottled water and keep up on your water intake.
4) NEVER order room service. If you're hungry at least make the effort to walk down stairs to the restaurant. You will usually have healthier options that way too.
5) Take the stairs to your room instead of the elevator. Especially if it is only 1 or 2 floors (not 10-12).
6) Go ahead and eat out with clients/customers. Just stick to the fish & chicken.
7) Avoid the cocktails... If you must have one, order something you can sip so that you don't drink to many. If your client/customer want's to make a party out of it, just say it's a personnel thing and that you don't like to have more than 2 drinks in a night. In most cases they will accept that answer and not make an issue out of it.