Dealing with business trips

Mostly use portion control.
Look for grilled, boiled, broiled, baked. If you can, limit anything with sauces (usually have oil or sugar) or anything fried. Limit bread, deserts, alcohol.
Eat fruits and vegetables when you can.

Okapi42 wrote: »

There's no opportunity for getting in a run or anything,

I travel for business quote often as well, and 90% of the time is to attend conferences. Why are you not able to work out while traveling? I just got back from a trip and worked out everyday. I sacrificed getting an hour more of sleep, but it is worth it.

What types of foods have you been eating? What kind of suggestions would help you?

I travel quite a bit for business. Here are some suggestions that may or may not work for you:

• Use the hotel gym to work out. Most companies put employees up at hotels with fitness centres, swimming pools or gyms. Pack workout clothes and take advantage of them!
• Even if there's only one thing to eat, eat less of it. Leave some food on your plate. European portions tend to be smaller than American ones, anyway. If anyone asks or comments, just say "it's delicious but I can't eat another bite!" and leave it at that.
• Skip the alcohol. Social drinking is a big temptation / pressure at business conferences, when everyone goes down to the hotel bar for just one/two/three more drinks after a long day. Instead, have one (or none) and just get sparkling water after that. Most people won't notice, and if anyone asks, you'll just look like a responsible employee who doesn't want to get drunk every night on the company dime -- not exactly the worst reputation to have!

I don't mean to be rude, but 20-25% travel is 1 out of every 4 or 5 weeks. Your 10lb gain didn't come from traveling - it came from not making the right choices while on travel AND not making the right choices at home.

As long as you don't go crazy on travel and are "good" the during the home weeks, you will still be fine. If you just aim to maintain during the travel weeks, you'll still make progress. Even at planned meals and social gatherings you can make choices - how much you eat, which things on the plate you eat, if/how much you drink, etc. Heck, if you talk to the planners beforehand, they might even hook you up with a custom meal - tell them you are on a very strict diet and you CAN'T eat certain things or you are allergic - whatever, they aren't going to request a doctor's note.

I had a similar experience where I was at a new job and traveling for projects 1 out of every 4-5 weeks and, after I made a couple of adjustments, I still lost about 30 lbs during that time. I "plateau'ed" for a month or two, but once I realized I was making excuses during my travel time, I fixed my mindset and made it happen. For me, what I had to get over was 1) pretending that just because I was in a different setting that I needed to behave differently than I would at home and 2) being afraid other people would judge me for being health conscious.

What I found was that once I started no caring what other people thought of my health choices, other people started joining me - some were relieved that I "broke the mold" and others just thought it would be a good idea to eat better and exercise while on travel.

Just food for thought.

Okapi42 wrote: »

LeanButNotMean44 wrote: »

Okapi42 wrote: »

There's no opportunity for getting in a run or anything,

I travel for business quote often as well, and 90% of the time is to attend conferences. Why are you not able to work out while traveling? I just got back from a trip and worked out everyday. I sacrificed getting an hour more of sleep, but it is worth it.

For the last conference, we stayed in a hotel in the city centre. Usually left there at 8:00 am and returned after midnight. Ok, we were walking 20 minutes each way to the conference centre, so that's some exercise. But there just wasn't time or room to run anywhere - I'm not about to run the gauntlet of drunks and drug addicts after midnight in a strange city!

I totally agree with you not wanting to run outside in an unfamiliar place. Do the hotels you stay at have gyms? If you get to bed at 12:30 and wake at 6:30am you can get in a quick workout before the conference. I know 6 hours isn't a lot of sleep for some (it isn't for me), but I know that with the food choices on the road, I have to get my workout in.

Even if the hotel you're at doesn't have a gym or doesn't have the equipment you need/want, you can always do a workout in your room. I was very impressed with the Fitness Blender video I did a few weeks ago.

Okapi42 wrote: »

Sorry, segacs, didn't see you there!

Since we're employed by universities, not businesses, we don't get the fancy hotels with gyms, unfortunately.

I'm already not much of a drinker - maybe a glass of wine once or twice a month at social events, so that fortunately isn't an issue...

And I do try to leave some food on the plate, but that's considered pretty rude here!

I've long since gotten over worrying about it being considered rude to leave over food. I mean, I'm a 5'1" woman. If I felt compelled to clean my plate at every meal, I'd weigh a thousand pounds by now. I understand the need to be delicate about offending sensibilities during business travel, especially in a different culture where you don't want to make a misstep. One thing you could try might be to ask for a half portion at the outset when you're ordering. Or to ask if you could box up the rest and bring it back to the hotel, hostel or lodging area if there's a mini-fridge where you could store it.

I also stay in hostels or cheaper accommodations when I travel for personal reasons. A cheap-and-cheerful hotel workout that works *anywhere* is to run up and down the stairs for a while. European hotels often don't have elevators, so there will be constantly people going up and down the stairs. Even just fifteen or twenty minutes of running the stairs every day can help you burn off a few hundred calories and feel healthier.

Ultimately, if you're not drinking, not excessively snacking, and not eating too-large portions, you probably won't have too much trouble during those business trips. If you're travelling long term, try to see if you can stay someplace with a kitchenette (in your room or, more likely, common for all guests) so you can go to the local supermarket and buy and prepare some basic fresh food.

I travel a fair amount for business as well and it helped me on my way to a 3 stone weight gain over the last few years. Now before I get jumped on I fully realise its the choices I made while travelling not the travelling.

Here is what I do to try and curb the effects of my ridiculous appetite.

1) Try and have a healthy and filling breakfast. I tend to try and go for the oatmeal ( porridge) if it looks edible or eggs
2) Attempt to drink plenty of water, not only do I retain like a camel if I don't I also find myself feeling hungry when I'm actually thirsty.
3) Stay out the bar
4) If there is no gym do body weight exercises in your room. Squats, lunges, burpees, press ups sit ups take no room at all and don't require any real space. Running the stairs is also good, I try not to take the elevator unless I'm carrying my bag.
5) Attempt to make healthy dinner options. Baked potatoes, salads ( no dressing), I realise you are vegetarian so the suggestions of chicken and steak with veg won't be useful. I also try to have a filling healthy starter if possible. Something like vegetable soup, I have a sweet tooth so if I can fill up on the first two courses it helps me avoid snacking and dessert.
6) If there are self service vegetables I try to stack my plate with them, it keeps me full with less calories.
7) I try to find a supermarket for lunch or snacks and buy fruit or greek yogurt or something else healthy

Sorry I know its a bit all over the place but its what I try to do and it seems to at least prevent an increase while travelling.

Good luck

What I've found that works for me when I travel for business

• Skip the hotel breakfasts. If I'm traveling in the US, I take my own stuff with me. If I'm overseas, I locate a grocery store before I leave (Google maps..) and go there and buy my own. I tend to go for fruit, but also high-fiber bran crackers, low fat cheeses (like Babybels) and nuts (I divide them up into serving portions).
• At mealtimes, I skip the free bread, take the top layer of bread off sandwiches, go for lean proteins, pack on the fruit and veg, go easy on the potatoes/starch and skip desserts. I also scrape sauces off meats etc. I do this pretty subtly, but other people are not interested in what you're eating, only in what they're eating.
• I go easy on alcohol, but I don't deny myself. I drink industrial quantities of water.
• I get some exercise every day, even if I have to get up at 5 am and simply walk the corridors of the hotel. I prefer to walk outside, but sometimes that's not possible. I did go through a phase of pre-loading exercise podcasts, which I quite liked.

It takes a certain amount of planning ahead and switching your mindset a bit, but I quite enjoy the challenge, and weight loss and fitness is all about planning anyway, it seems.