- Oct 25, 2012
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by Tom Venuto
I like to come back from my business trips, vacations and holiday breaks in better shape than when I left: More muscle, less fat, better condition, feeling great. You may be thinking, “Impossible! You can’t even maintain, let alone improve, when you have to deal with airports, airline food, business meetings, all-day seminars, hotels, mini-bars, room service food on speed-dial, restaurants and all that travel stress.” Good news: Yes you can! In fact, while most people slip back or maintain at best, I’ve discovered a way to accelerate my progress when I travel… I got the idea from pro bodybuilders, and it’s actually quite exhilarating to take this challenge and achieve it…
6 Tips To Help You Stick With Your Nutrition and Training Plan When You Travel…
For most people, there’s more travel and temptation over the holidays, so these tips come in very handy at this food-filled, festive time of year… but as you read this, remember that you can use this advice all year round.
If you travel a lot, and you care about health and fitness, these strategies are not only body savers – they’re game changers!
1. Set a goal to come home in better shape than when you left
This is the key to it all:
The next time you travel – a time when most people surrender to stress, fast food and busy schedules – set a goal to come back in better shape than when you left… THAT is the Burn the Fat Travel Challenge.
Naturally, you’re not going to make huge shifts in body composition over a short trip that lasts just days, but you might burn a pound or two of fat. You might look visibly better in the mirror when you get back. You might get stronger. You might break a personal record in the gym. Maybe you simply have a string of better-than-usual workouts, so you know you made progress.
Whatever you do, and however you do it, simply improve yourself in some way. If you set the goal and accept the challenge, you CAN do it. It may not be easy, but that’s the whole idea…
A challenge is a goal that’s not easy to achieve – it makes you stretch! That’s good, because those are the goals that make you grow the most, and because simply accepting a challenge generates energy and enthusiasm that makes you rally.
I love setting and achieving goals, because with each goal achieved comes satisfaction. Even more than a goal, I love a challenge, because with each challenge completed comes exhilaration!
2. Have a plan and schedule your time tightly.
Biggest mistake ever: “I’ll just wing it when I get there.” No matter where you are, you must have a meal (food) plan and a training plan – in writing (not just in your head) – and schedule it into your calendar. You schedule every other meeting or appointment in your date book – and you have to make a travel itinerary anyway – so why not include appointments with the gym and the kitchen?
When you travel, or any time your usual environment or routine changes, make sure you create a new plan or modify your usual plan to accommodate for the changes:
Flying? What will you do for meals at the airports and on the plane? Road trip? What will you bring with you to eat or where will you stop to eat? Out of town? Where will you train? Staying in a hotel? What’s for breakfast? Attending a 12-hour seminar or workshop? What and when will you eat all day long? Business dinner at night? Did you check the restaurant menu online beforehand and commit to your healthy choices, no matter what the rest of the group does?
My hotel kitchen, within 30 minutes after checking in (and food shopping)
3. Book a hotel with a kitchen and go food shopping.
For me, this is the king of nutrition strategies on all extended trips: I book a hotel with a kitchen. I continue to be stunned at how many people complain about how hard it is to eat when traveling. But if you have a kitchen and go food shopping the day you check in, your meal planning and prep is NO DIFFERENT than it is when you’re home, right?
(Tip: REMEMBER your shopping list to avoid multiple trips to the store!)
The availability of these hotels keeps expanding and the best part is, they’re often less expensive. Last month, I stayed at a Hyatt House and previously I’ve checked in at Extended Stay America or Marriott’s Residence Inn.
On my last trip, I went a step further; I scoped out one of these hotels located near a supermarket. I found one – with the food market literally across the parking lot. It was actually MORE convenient and took less time to shop for food than when I was at home.
If you’re on a particularly strict nutrition plan, such as a competition diet, I recommend picking up a portable food cooler and some Tupperware and then, provided that you have a kitchen, you can cook and pack anything and keep it fresh during the day. This is what most top bodybuilders and physique athletes do.
By the way, it IS possible to eat 100% healthy between restaurants and good hotels. I stayed at a small boutique hotel in Toronto earlier this year, and there was no kitchen in my room, but their continental breakfast had steel cut oatmeal, fruit and hard boiled eggs – pretty much the same as usual for me. Then, it was not difficult to make healthy choices for lunch and dinner in restaurants and I brought protein shakes and snacks for in between breakfast, lunch and dinner.
4. Use snacks, portable foods and mini-meals and pack them with you on busy days
If you’re traveling on business or with a very tight schedule, you’ll need to think ahead and plan for where you’re going to be and what you’re going to eat and when you’re going to eat it. Sometimes, a formal sit down meal is not possible or convenient, but you do have options.
I’ve learned how to make a variety of portable meals, including several different types of “oatmeal pancakes,” tuna burgers and healthy sandwiches. Any one of those I can eat in a car, on a plane or even while sitting in a seminar room. Fruit and nuts are available almost everywhere, even in airports and if you pack protein shakes or meal replacements, eating on the go is EASY!
Snack and mini-meal ideas: hard boiled eggs, healthy beef jerkies, foil packs of tuna, salmon or chicken, yogurt, cottage cheese, raw vegetables (baby carrots, cauliflower, celery, broccoli, cherry tomatoes), fruit, nuts /seeds, protein shakes or meal replacement shakes. Also, if you scrutinize the ingredient lists carefully, you CAN find decent protein bars made from protein powder and ingredients such as nuts, peanut butter, oats, various fibers or other whole food ingredients and stevia or natural sweeteners.
(Important note: don’t forget to cook before you leave for the airport and pack a meal and snacks in your carry-on bag. I’ve NEVER eaten airline food before – I always have my own.)
Busy all day? Make an appointment with the gym at the crack of dawn or late at night! No excuses! Just Get it done!
5. Scope out local gyms and hotel fitness facilities in advance
You don’t have to skip a beat in your training when traveling – all it takes is some planning.
Where are you going to train when you arrive at your destination? Naturally, this depends on your personality and training style. I know quite a few people who are willing and able to train anywhere – even in their hotel room – even with no equipment at all.
Bodyweight training is not my style, (I neet to, want to and love to pump iron), but body weight exercises could be just the ticket to help many other people stay fit when traveling (especially if you’re one of those middle-of-nowhere world-traveler types)…
Either way, I think everyone should learn how to do at least a handful of challenging body weight resistance exercises including pull ups, inverted rows (you can do them with a suspension trainer or even under a table), push ups, dips, one legged squats, Bulgarian split squats and of course, an assortment of abdominal and core exercise.
Almost all hotels at least have cardio machines in their gyms (if not, stairwells = good cardio). Cardio is also easy to do outdoors, weather permitting.
A little mini-rant: About those hotel “gyms”… I sometimes want to go back to the concierge, smack him upside the head and say, “You said you had a gym! That’s not a gym, that’s a workout room!” (more like a closet, actually!)
What’s most bizarre to me is those workout rooms with one weight training machine… and it’s something like a deltoid lateral raise??? If you only had room for one machine, wouldn’t you get a multi-purpose machine like a cable station that lets you do multiple exercises?
Sometimes you get lucky, like I did at the Hilton in San Francisco this year (they had free weights – including plenty of 45 pound plates… Score!) That was a rare treat, but if you’re counting on the hotel gym, I’d suggest calling and asking what equipment they have, so you know in advance.
My style? GOLD’S GYM! Why? Because it’s the original body-builder’s gym… and I will be a bodybuilder (aka “meathead!”) until the day I die!
My last trip: I chose my hotel based on: Kitchen, proximity to supermarket, proximity to Gold’s Gym. The gym was a 5 minute drive from the hotel – so close it was even walkable. It took just minutes to scope this out on the internet, and a quick phone call to confirm details.
Of course, I can’t always find a Gold’s, but if not, all I do is look for a gym with a complete free weight area, so my training is always business as usual.
A “proper” gym
6. Make every problem a non-recurring event
Even well laid plans can have a wrench thrown in the works due to unexpected events, ranging from flight delays to seminars or meetings running late. Don’t beat yourself up – it’s not your fault if that happens… once. If it happens twice… then you can look in the mirror at who is to blame for the recurring problem.
Years ago, I learned from Thomas Leonard, who was often credited as founder of the life-coaching movement, that you should “turn every problem into a non-recurring event.”
Unexpected problems WILL happen. When they do, you should not only create a contingency plan in case that happens again, but do what Leonard recommended: “Overreact” by taking up to 10 steps to make sure nothing even remotely like that ever happens again. Brilliant! And it works!
My original inspiration for the travel challenge…
Several years ago, I was talking with my training partner – who is a HUGE fan of pro bodybuilding – about how the pros not only “stay in shape” with so much international travel, but actually travel from contest to contest on the professional bodybuilding circuits. That got me thinking….
I used to be one of those guys who dreaded training and eating right while on the road and thought it was too hard to bother…
But if those bodybuilders could peak for international competition while literally hopping from one airplane and hotel to the next, I said to myself, then what’s stopping me? Indeed! That’s what inspired me to stop complaining and start training and eating like a champion, no matter where in the world I found myself.
And, assuming that no goal in fitness is loftier than world championship professional bodybuilding, what’s stopping you from getting in just a little bit better condition each time you travel?
The Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle “Travel Challenge” And a holiday giveaway!
Got travel for business or just for pleasure for the holidays between now and January 1st? Accept the challenge!
Use some of the tips from this article on your next trip, and when you’re done, return back here and post a comment that says, “I took the travel challenge!” and explain a bit about how you stayed on your plan or got in better shape when you traveled.
I like to come back from my business trips, vacations and holiday breaks in better shape than when I left: More muscle, less fat, better condition, feeling great. You may be thinking, “Impossible! You can’t even maintain, let alone improve, when you have to deal with airports, airline food, business meetings, all-day seminars, hotels, mini-bars, room service food on speed-dial, restaurants and all that travel stress.” Good news: Yes you can! In fact, while most people slip back or maintain at best, I’ve discovered a way to accelerate my progress when I travel… I got the idea from pro bodybuilders, and it’s actually quite exhilarating to take this challenge and achieve it…
6 Tips To Help You Stick With Your Nutrition and Training Plan When You Travel…
For most people, there’s more travel and temptation over the holidays, so these tips come in very handy at this food-filled, festive time of year… but as you read this, remember that you can use this advice all year round.
If you travel a lot, and you care about health and fitness, these strategies are not only body savers – they’re game changers!
1. Set a goal to come home in better shape than when you left
This is the key to it all:
The next time you travel – a time when most people surrender to stress, fast food and busy schedules – set a goal to come back in better shape than when you left… THAT is the Burn the Fat Travel Challenge.
Naturally, you’re not going to make huge shifts in body composition over a short trip that lasts just days, but you might burn a pound or two of fat. You might look visibly better in the mirror when you get back. You might get stronger. You might break a personal record in the gym. Maybe you simply have a string of better-than-usual workouts, so you know you made progress.
Whatever you do, and however you do it, simply improve yourself in some way. If you set the goal and accept the challenge, you CAN do it. It may not be easy, but that’s the whole idea…
A challenge is a goal that’s not easy to achieve – it makes you stretch! That’s good, because those are the goals that make you grow the most, and because simply accepting a challenge generates energy and enthusiasm that makes you rally.
I love setting and achieving goals, because with each goal achieved comes satisfaction. Even more than a goal, I love a challenge, because with each challenge completed comes exhilaration!
2. Have a plan and schedule your time tightly.
Biggest mistake ever: “I’ll just wing it when I get there.” No matter where you are, you must have a meal (food) plan and a training plan – in writing (not just in your head) – and schedule it into your calendar. You schedule every other meeting or appointment in your date book – and you have to make a travel itinerary anyway – so why not include appointments with the gym and the kitchen?
When you travel, or any time your usual environment or routine changes, make sure you create a new plan or modify your usual plan to accommodate for the changes:
Flying? What will you do for meals at the airports and on the plane? Road trip? What will you bring with you to eat or where will you stop to eat? Out of town? Where will you train? Staying in a hotel? What’s for breakfast? Attending a 12-hour seminar or workshop? What and when will you eat all day long? Business dinner at night? Did you check the restaurant menu online beforehand and commit to your healthy choices, no matter what the rest of the group does?
My hotel kitchen, within 30 minutes after checking in (and food shopping)
3. Book a hotel with a kitchen and go food shopping.
For me, this is the king of nutrition strategies on all extended trips: I book a hotel with a kitchen. I continue to be stunned at how many people complain about how hard it is to eat when traveling. But if you have a kitchen and go food shopping the day you check in, your meal planning and prep is NO DIFFERENT than it is when you’re home, right?
(Tip: REMEMBER your shopping list to avoid multiple trips to the store!)
The availability of these hotels keeps expanding and the best part is, they’re often less expensive. Last month, I stayed at a Hyatt House and previously I’ve checked in at Extended Stay America or Marriott’s Residence Inn.
On my last trip, I went a step further; I scoped out one of these hotels located near a supermarket. I found one – with the food market literally across the parking lot. It was actually MORE convenient and took less time to shop for food than when I was at home.
If you’re on a particularly strict nutrition plan, such as a competition diet, I recommend picking up a portable food cooler and some Tupperware and then, provided that you have a kitchen, you can cook and pack anything and keep it fresh during the day. This is what most top bodybuilders and physique athletes do.
By the way, it IS possible to eat 100% healthy between restaurants and good hotels. I stayed at a small boutique hotel in Toronto earlier this year, and there was no kitchen in my room, but their continental breakfast had steel cut oatmeal, fruit and hard boiled eggs – pretty much the same as usual for me. Then, it was not difficult to make healthy choices for lunch and dinner in restaurants and I brought protein shakes and snacks for in between breakfast, lunch and dinner.
4. Use snacks, portable foods and mini-meals and pack them with you on busy days
If you’re traveling on business or with a very tight schedule, you’ll need to think ahead and plan for where you’re going to be and what you’re going to eat and when you’re going to eat it. Sometimes, a formal sit down meal is not possible or convenient, but you do have options.
I’ve learned how to make a variety of portable meals, including several different types of “oatmeal pancakes,” tuna burgers and healthy sandwiches. Any one of those I can eat in a car, on a plane or even while sitting in a seminar room. Fruit and nuts are available almost everywhere, even in airports and if you pack protein shakes or meal replacements, eating on the go is EASY!
Snack and mini-meal ideas: hard boiled eggs, healthy beef jerkies, foil packs of tuna, salmon or chicken, yogurt, cottage cheese, raw vegetables (baby carrots, cauliflower, celery, broccoli, cherry tomatoes), fruit, nuts /seeds, protein shakes or meal replacement shakes. Also, if you scrutinize the ingredient lists carefully, you CAN find decent protein bars made from protein powder and ingredients such as nuts, peanut butter, oats, various fibers or other whole food ingredients and stevia or natural sweeteners.
(Important note: don’t forget to cook before you leave for the airport and pack a meal and snacks in your carry-on bag. I’ve NEVER eaten airline food before – I always have my own.)
Busy all day? Make an appointment with the gym at the crack of dawn or late at night! No excuses! Just Get it done!
5. Scope out local gyms and hotel fitness facilities in advance
You don’t have to skip a beat in your training when traveling – all it takes is some planning.
Where are you going to train when you arrive at your destination? Naturally, this depends on your personality and training style. I know quite a few people who are willing and able to train anywhere – even in their hotel room – even with no equipment at all.
Bodyweight training is not my style, (I neet to, want to and love to pump iron), but body weight exercises could be just the ticket to help many other people stay fit when traveling (especially if you’re one of those middle-of-nowhere world-traveler types)…
Either way, I think everyone should learn how to do at least a handful of challenging body weight resistance exercises including pull ups, inverted rows (you can do them with a suspension trainer or even under a table), push ups, dips, one legged squats, Bulgarian split squats and of course, an assortment of abdominal and core exercise.
Almost all hotels at least have cardio machines in their gyms (if not, stairwells = good cardio). Cardio is also easy to do outdoors, weather permitting.
A little mini-rant: About those hotel “gyms”… I sometimes want to go back to the concierge, smack him upside the head and say, “You said you had a gym! That’s not a gym, that’s a workout room!” (more like a closet, actually!)
What’s most bizarre to me is those workout rooms with one weight training machine… and it’s something like a deltoid lateral raise??? If you only had room for one machine, wouldn’t you get a multi-purpose machine like a cable station that lets you do multiple exercises?
Sometimes you get lucky, like I did at the Hilton in San Francisco this year (they had free weights – including plenty of 45 pound plates… Score!) That was a rare treat, but if you’re counting on the hotel gym, I’d suggest calling and asking what equipment they have, so you know in advance.
My style? GOLD’S GYM! Why? Because it’s the original body-builder’s gym… and I will be a bodybuilder (aka “meathead!”) until the day I die!
My last trip: I chose my hotel based on: Kitchen, proximity to supermarket, proximity to Gold’s Gym. The gym was a 5 minute drive from the hotel – so close it was even walkable. It took just minutes to scope this out on the internet, and a quick phone call to confirm details.
Of course, I can’t always find a Gold’s, but if not, all I do is look for a gym with a complete free weight area, so my training is always business as usual.
A “proper” gym
6. Make every problem a non-recurring event
Even well laid plans can have a wrench thrown in the works due to unexpected events, ranging from flight delays to seminars or meetings running late. Don’t beat yourself up – it’s not your fault if that happens… once. If it happens twice… then you can look in the mirror at who is to blame for the recurring problem.
Years ago, I learned from Thomas Leonard, who was often credited as founder of the life-coaching movement, that you should “turn every problem into a non-recurring event.”
Unexpected problems WILL happen. When they do, you should not only create a contingency plan in case that happens again, but do what Leonard recommended: “Overreact” by taking up to 10 steps to make sure nothing even remotely like that ever happens again. Brilliant! And it works!
My original inspiration for the travel challenge…
Several years ago, I was talking with my training partner – who is a HUGE fan of pro bodybuilding – about how the pros not only “stay in shape” with so much international travel, but actually travel from contest to contest on the professional bodybuilding circuits. That got me thinking….
I used to be one of those guys who dreaded training and eating right while on the road and thought it was too hard to bother…
But if those bodybuilders could peak for international competition while literally hopping from one airplane and hotel to the next, I said to myself, then what’s stopping me? Indeed! That’s what inspired me to stop complaining and start training and eating like a champion, no matter where in the world I found myself.
And, assuming that no goal in fitness is loftier than world championship professional bodybuilding, what’s stopping you from getting in just a little bit better condition each time you travel?
The Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle “Travel Challenge” And a holiday giveaway!
Got travel for business or just for pleasure for the holidays between now and January 1st? Accept the challenge!
Use some of the tips from this article on your next trip, and when you’re done, return back here and post a comment that says, “I took the travel challenge!” and explain a bit about how you stayed on your plan or got in better shape when you traveled.