Any frequent travelers here?

I can totally relate! I travel pretty frequently and for me it’s eating out all three meals and the social part which includes drinking.

My tricks: eat the same breakfast every day (usually the protein plate from Starbucks or something easy like that, that I can find no matter what town I’m in); aim for a healthy lunch because usually that’s where I have control over where and what I eat. I also try to order seafood or just meat and vegetable for dinner when traveling a) because I’m not great at cooking it at home and b) if prepared well it starts with less calories. I have started working out which I don’t do otherwise but helps with travel calories. I also found a few things that I like that are on almost any menu—a particular salad; French dip without cheese; or hummus and if I need to stick to those. If all else fails I have a bounce back plan as soon as I come home!

Work travel is how I ended up here

No advice but lots of commiseration.

Lets see in my last job I traveled 85-95% which helped me to get back up to 320+. I will say as long as I am a hermit I could maintain my weight at first ie no social evenings, no drinking, eating very clean etc. But the more pressure I got under for not being a good little stereotype, I had to drink a lot to get through.

Now I am in a regular go home at night job that is for a health and wellness technology company so we have a gym on site. One friend from my last job who was oh so dreamy fit would either cook his meals or go by one of those healthy food premade places and freeze it before his trip and check the bag. He could ensure he only ate what he brought and kept his body looking yummy.

Survival tips from a fellow road warrior....

1) don’t drink or stick to one glass of wine. No one, and I mean no one gives a crap if you drink or not. You don’t need to make any excuses, practice saying “I’ll stick with water”

2) get up early and go for a walk outside if it’s safe, or use the hotel gym. Try a trial membership to the app Apptiv that has a gazillion workouts you can do anywhere

3) pick some restaurant meals that aren’t that exciting and stick with them. You’ll be less likely to overeat if it’s nothing exotic. Chicken or fish with grilled veggies you can get anywhere. Don’t order a dessert, share and just have a bite or two

4) if you are in meetings where they bring lunch or breakfast in, ask for vegetarian or vegan. It’s less likely to be high calories.

5) don’t be afraid to bring some snacks to meetings (packaged nuts, bars, banana,etc) if it helps you pass on doughnuts, cookies, pastries

And last, maybe hardest, understand that you’re not going to starve to death on an airplane. I used to bring piles of snacks and eat them to pass the time, or panic that I didn’t know when I would eat next. It’s not an emergency, yiu might get a little hungry in the 5 hours it takes to get across the country. But you’ll servive. Drink water, water and more water. Aisle seat to pee.

For me the key is to travel with appropriate snacks in my carryon so I never find myself overly hungry and tempted by the unfortunate food choices available at most airports and hotels. I will still eat airport and hotel food (difficult not to when traveling) but make much better choices if I have sensible snacks available to take the edge off.

Try eating in. There are some amazing websites out there explaining how to cook something as simple as a boiled egg/heating up cans in a hotel room kettle to poaching salmon + veg in a coffee jug! (Just promise to wash properly for the next person!!) There are plenty of soups and noodles you can buy which mix with hot water, which provides warming satisfaction, while you can pair with pre-prepared salads bought at a supermarket. Agreed, you couldn’t rely on this all the time, but it might give you the odd break from eating out. Alternatively, ask your company to book you into AirBnBs where you get use of a kitchen.