Traveling can be one of the toughest challenges when you are in the midst of a body transformation. Traveling takes you out of your comfort zone and away from your regular routines that have play a huge part in making your transformation. From the airport to hotel room service to the buffets at your work convention the temptation is endless. After you've sold a kidney to afford plane tickets for your vacation, it is understandable that you would want to take advantage of anything free the flight attendant will give you. I've seen hard men crumble when they start handing out complimentary drink tickets on Southwest flights. Before your next trip away from home read my Top 6 Travel Tips to keep your body transformation going.
- Pre-trip nutrition - What I'm about to write may shock some of you. My recommendation leading up to a trip that is any longer than a couple days is to relax how strict you are on your diet. Most people do the exact opposite of my advice leading up to a trip in anticipation of the poor food choices they think they will be forced to make or because they want to look their best for the trip. What ends up happening is that you exhaust your will power in the days leading up to your trip and have none left during your travels. Now instead of making "C" food choices during your travels you are making "F" food choices. Stop the madness! You would be better served by making "B" and "C" grade food choices for the week leading up to your trip and then doing your best to maintain that level throughout your trip than to make nutrition choices at the extreme end of the spectrum. Avoid extremes in your diet because there tends to be an equal and opposite swing to the other extreme (aka binge eating).
- Mindset -Your mindset about training and nutrition when you travel is critical. Prepare for certain eventualities. Come to terms with the fact that you probably won't be able to control everything the same way you would at home. My advice is to embrace the adventure and look at these kinds of challenges as unique tests that give you a chance to shine in less than optimal situations. I am more proud of myself for pulling together a "C" meal in a terrible situation while traveling than getting in an "A" meal in a great travel situation. I also enjoy being more creative with my exercise programming when I can't train in my own gym. Some of my best workouts have been bodyweight workouts in hotel rooms.
- Advanced Reconnaissance -Resources like Yelp can be very helpful for advanced recon going into a trip. Before I travel, which I have done quite a bit over the last two years, I always do a Yelp search to pick out the places I'm going to eat at during my trip. In almost every city I travel to I can find restaurants that serve fresh produce and quality grass-fed meat or wild caught fish. When I can't, I choose the lesser of evils.
- Make a Schedule...Then stick to it -Once I have done my advanced recon I sit down with my calendar and my travel itinerary. Most of my traveling these days is to teach seminars. That means I have certain blocks of time already scheduled out. My goal when I sit down to make a schedule is to fill in the rest of my travel time so that I don't have too much idle time on my hands. Idle time is the devil's playground, right? The first thing I fill into my travel schedule are workouts, meals (with a specific restaurant in mind), and time for administrative work or writing. The last thing I put in to that schedule is site-seeing. If I were on vacation I would switch the order of admin work/writing with site-seeing and goofing off.
- Drink tons of water -It is so easy to forget to drink enough water when you travel, especially when you are flying. This guest blog by my friend and beauty expert, Marion Simms explains why dehydration is a bigger factor when you fly.
- Pack snacks -Pack as much quality nutrition as you can when preparing to travel. I'm a huge fan of Steve's Paleo Kits. They have saved me from starving or making some really bad food choices on numerous occasions.
Check out the guest blog by Marion Simms for her advice on protecting your skin when you travel. Great read!
Healthy Travels!