Making healthy choices on yet another work trip
Today I'm going to Boston for the first time since we moved to San Francisco two month ago. It is a very strange feeling to go to a place where you lived for 11 years as a visitor and stay in the hotel. Moreover, I'll be going for a 3-day work training / conference, so will have a very packed agenda and not a lot of time to catch up with all my dear friends. But I'll do my best to do it all. And despite a very full agenda, work breakfasts and lunches, dinners with friends, a lot of sitting and not a lot of physical activity, I always make it a priority to stay healthy and feel good about myself by making healthy choices and planning ahead.
My work trip healthy strategies
Packing for the trip. My # 1 travel rule - always leave space for workout outfits! Therefore, I'm packing a pair of running shoes and a set or two of workout clothes in my carry-on!
Workouts
- Daily exercises. I have lined up a series of exercises from my 31-day full body challenge (finishing up this week!), 8fit app and my favorite Youtube channel (I have provided an example of a more detailed travel exercise schedule in one of my earlier posts). This makes a total of about 30-40 minutes total body workout which includes a high intensity training, tabata and a few targeted exercises. Also, I always exercise in the morning when I travel for work as it is extremely difficult to find any other time in the day to do that.
- Other physical activity. Just like most other trainings or conferences, this one will involve long hours of sitting. And if you are staying in the hotel right next to the conference space, all activity you get during the day are those few steps from the hotel to the conference room and back. Instead, this time I asked for a hotel that is about 15-20 minute walking distance from the conference. It is going to be a beautiful week in Boston and I'm sure I'll be happy to have those walks. My other suggestion for the events like this is to always take advantage of the coffee breaks and actually get our of the table and walk a little bit. And take stairs whenever possible!
Food
- Breakfast. Breakfast will be provided by the hotel and will include a buffet or an a la cart option. My go-to breakfast food when traveling is eggs as it is the easiest way to avoid gluten or dairy in my breakfast meal. But if there is a gluten-free oatmeal option, I'll alternate eggs with a bowl of oatmeal topped with dried or fresh fruit, nuts or seeds, and honey.
- Lunch. Luckily this time our lunch won't be pre-ordered. Instead, we will be able to chose our meal from the Conference center cafeteria. Fortunately, that cafeteria is huge and has a pretty good selection of cooked meals, meals made to order, like stir fries, fresh meats or fish, and an enormous salad bar. So most likely my go-to option would be a salad bar, some warm grains and a piece of freshly cooked chicken or fish.
- Dinner. My goal here will be to squeeze as much time as I can out of my work schedule to meet up with friends, enjoy myself and not forget about healthy food choices while eating out for 3.5 days.
- Snacks. I'll stock up on some green apples and raw nuts, to avoid all the cookies and other sugary snacks that are so popular during conferences' coffee breaks. However, I started noticing a wonderful trend lately - more and more often there are bowls of whole fruit or little packs of nuts along side with the cookies, or sometimes even instead of them! It makes me happy that people at least get an option of making healthier snack choices.
Why planning in advance?
If you are really trying to stay active and eat healthy when traveling, especially for work, I highly recommend thinking about it in advance. Planning your workouts, having a daily lineup of exercises, packing some healthy snacks and pre-committing to making conscious healthy lifestyle choices really takes a lot of headache away during the trip and helps you to stay motivated.
It is the same idea as when you try to make yourself wake up really early in the morning to go to the gym. If you have your gym bag and everything you need for the day fully packed the night before, you are much more likely to jump out of the bed the next morning, ready to hit the gym. But when you don't have anything ready, don't know which class you would take or which workout routine you would do, that's when you hit that snooze button instead. So make it easier for yourself to commit to your plan. You will thank yourself later for doing that!
And off I go to a place I called home for so long, ready to learn new things, meet new people, see my wonderful friends and take good care of myself!