Business Travel Guide To Wellness
6 Ways to Incorporate Nutrition & Fitness into Your Business Travel Schedule
It’s 5:00 AM and your alarm goes off. You have a flight leaving at 9:30 AM for a 2-day business trip. Perhaps you have children to get ready for school or just yourself, either way, you have 4 ½ hours of time until your flight leaves.
You check the notifications on your phone and browse through social media feeds for 20 minutes before finally emerging from your bed. It’s almost 5:30 AM and now you start to feel the “crunch of time” and your internal chat turns on: “I have to shower, get dressed, brush my teeth, get my carry-on ready, [insert some external factor here such as kids, dogs, etc.], get in my car by 7:00 AM to get to the airport. I’ll just eat at the airport”
Breakfast?
You skip breakfast at home or grab a breakfast bar “for the road” and head out on time.
At the airport, you find a cafe, purchase your coffee, a hearty breakfast sandwich, a bottle of water and a snack for the plane ride.
You’re ready to go. You board your plane.
BUT. Halfway through the flight, you’re sleepy and tired. Your energy level is low and you decide to open your laptop to work, to “stay awake”. A 2-hour flight, you didn’t eat your snack, barely drank your water and your eyes were deep into the screen of your laptop instead of closed, relaxed and taking advantage of the time to rest your mind and body.
Your flight is landing and you have 1-hour to make it to your meetings for the day. Maybe you’ll have lunch today, but most likely you’re too busy to eat lunch, so you’ll just plan to go out to dinner with colleagues. Next day, repeat.
Travel Guide to Wellness.
If this sounds like your typical business travel day - Did you eat well (nutrient-dense foods)?
Did you make time for some physical activity?
Did you really feel good and energized during the entire trip?
Did you sleep well?
In our culture we idolize being busy. Almost too busy to take care of our nutrition and fitness needs while wanting to be more productive in our professional life.
In the workplace, eating healthy and staying fit is sometimes a challenge when we have to travel, or race from one meeting to the next, take back-to-back phone calls and prepare for the next day.
In this post we share 6 ways to incorporate healthy eating and fitness into your work-life.
Don’t Skip Breakfast. Eat a Nutrient-Dense Breakfast.
Skipping breakfast became normal. Over the course of my career I’ve heard people say “I just have a coffee for breakfast”.
Breakfast is the most important meal of your day.
Eating a healthy and nutrient-dense breakfast is one of the BEST ways to get an energized head-start to your day.
Here are some easy and quick breakfast ideas::
Oatmeal with flaxseed, chia seeds, blackberries or blueberries, a dash of date syrup (if you have a preference for sweets, date syrup is your best option, we like D'Vash Date Syrup )or add natural peanut butter for extra protein (prep time 2-3 min)
Soy Based Yogurt. Add whole grain cereal on top and 1 sliced banana (prep time 1-2 min)
Whole Grain Cereal. With almond milk and blueberries (prep time 1 min)
Whole Grain Toast. With peanut butter or soy nut butter, 1 medium fruit on the side: apple, peach, plum. (prep time 1 min)
Plant-Based Protein Smoothie. Frozen fruit (mango, pineapple, blueberries). Add 1 banana, almond milk and 1 scoop of plant-based protein powder. Enjoy 1 slice of Whole Grain Toast on the side. (prep time 2-3 min).
Plan Ahead.
It may sound obvious, but planning ahead for nutrition and fitness is often forgotten due to the hectic schedule of many busy professionals. Eating healthy requires some planning. It is what you do today that will benefit you tomorrow.
A few ways you can plan include:
Create your own healthy snack mix the day before, to pack for your trip (whole grain granola, sliced almonds, dried no-sugar added fruits such as mangos, blueberries or cherries, you can add a few dark-chocolate morsels if you wish.
Choose the most nutrient-dense snack bar. (The Aloha Bar is a great choice)
If you will be dining out with a group at your destination, view the venue’s food options or restaurant’s menu ahead of time to make your choice.
If your destination is an office event where food will be ordered, request healthy choices to be purchased.
Hydrate.
Water is still your best choice to stay hydrated. Rethink what you drink during the day and avoid the high-calorie sugar-sweetened beverages.
Some ideas include:
Skip the 16 oz. medium latte with whole milk and try a 12 oz. latte made with a nut-milk such as almond, soy, or oat
Ditch the soda. Soft drinks are high in sodium, calories and sugar and ranks lowest in any nutritional value. Nutrition Facts about Soda
Instead of the 16 oz sweetened iced-tea in the vending machine, go for a sparkling water with natural flavors, unsweetened
Water with a slice of lemon or lime
Avoid or limit alcohol. Alcohol has a negative impact on your nutrition Nutrition Facts about Alcohol
Stay Active
I get it. The hotel gym is not always the ideal place for everyone. There are ways you can stay physically active without ever entering the hotel gym!
Here are some alternative options:
Travel with resistance bands that you can use in your hotel room
Use your own bodyweight. Leg squats, lunges, tricep dips, single-arm rows using your backpack or suitcase, push-ups and ab-exercises - all of which don’t require equipment and can be easily done in your hotel room
Take a morning walk or a run, or walk after dinner
Use the steps!
Dine with Intention
Dining out during business travel is very common. When you are trying to change your eating pattern and lifestyle, there are ways to choose wisely, even when you are in a group setting.
Here are some tips that have worked for us:
Know your nutrition facts to expertly make wise choices on the menu. Choose foods that are low in saturated fats and avoid high-saturated fat foods such as food items that contain au gratin, alfredo, batter-dipped options, fried foods, etc.
Scale down your order to ensure you receive the right portion size for your nutritional goals and your caloric intake
Add fresh or cooked vegetables as options to your meal
Try fresh fruit or sorbet for dessert
Mindful eating. Eat slowly and enjoy the conversation around you to give yourself time to digest
Are You Sleeping?
Early morning meetings, long days and late nights. Getting good sleep while on business travel or a busy work week is not only important, but can set the tone for your entire day/week and impacts how well you can handle the external stressors of life.
Sleep hygiene is often ignored. In fact, bad sleeping habits are sometimes celebrated, for example “I only had 4 hours of sleep last night and I’m still functioning!”.
Break the cycle of bad sleep habits.
Try this instead:
Know when to go. If you need 7-hours of sleep to fully function and feel energized, allow yourself time and mind-space to exit your evening social activities to get rest. Going to bed at midnight and waking up at 5:00 AM day after day will catch up to you eventually.
Give up the digital before bed. Check your last email 1-hour before bedtime and put the phone away. Allow yourself time to breathe deep and relax. Decompress.
When you wake up, don’t check your phone’s notifications first. Allow your body to reset itself and get ready for the day. Stretch and breath. Imagine and visualize your day going well. Be present.
Whether you are traveling for work, going into an office daily or working from home with a demanding virtual meeting schedule - incorporating these techniques may give yourself the boost that you need to stay energized during the day and feel great about your nutrition, fitness and well-being choices.
Stay fit and green!
References:
https://linkin.bio/dvashorganics
https://mrmnutrition.com/products/veggie-protein-with-superfoods
