Healthy Travel Tips to Avoid Weight Gain!

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I work with hundreds of clients each year and many travel for work or take lots of vacations. There is nothing more difficult than being on the road, in hotels and constantly off a schedule when you are trying to lose weight or simply stay healthy. However, if this is part of your life and you don’t plan on changing your career or leisure time anytime soon, then it is essential to figure out a way to make it work. At the end of the day, you want to be healthy & feel good! So, here are some tips to help you on those work trips & vacations, so that you can stay fit & healthy.

Planning Is The Key!

 Plan for the Airport/Road Trip:

1. Pack the Eagle Snack Bag: I never go on a trip (work or vacation) without this bag. It’s simply a large zip lock bag full of snacks. Try to make the snacks as healthy as possible and fruit might not be an option if travelling internationally. Get the full checklist with my snack ideas in the Eagle’s Healthy Travel Checklist (CLICK HERE). This bag is ideal for the airport, plane, road trip or even to have in the hotel when you might get hungry.
2. Pack Breakfast/Lunch or Dinner: If you know your flight or road trip will be in the morning, afternoon or even evening, PACK your meal from home. If you are not able to eat breakfast at home before the trip, make breakfast to eat at the airport or on the road. If you are going to be travelling during lunch, pack a sandwich. Going to be flying/driving during that dinner hour, bring your own dinner. I can promise you that there are really no healthy food options at the airport or on the road. So, don’t start the trip off on the wrong foot by eating anything during this travel time that did not come from home. My favorite breakfast/lunch options are in the Eagle’s Healthy Travel Checklist (CLICK HERE).
3. Water! It’s the only thing you buy at the airport or the road pit stops. Commit now to that firm rule. Since there are really no healthy options as you are waiting for that plane (or even at the stops you will make on a road trip), get your large bottle of water at the airport or gas station and that is it! Hopefully you brought your snacks and breakfast/lunch or dinner, so there is no temptation to buy food. When you have this plan and it’s a hard rule, you get the water and don’t even look at all those unhealthy goodies!

Plan For The Hotel:

1. Find a healthy market like Whole Foods near your hotel if possible. Get more healthy snacks that might not have been an option during travel. For example, things that need refrigeration.
2. Request a refrigerator for your hotel room (this can be done when you reserve a room).
3. Search for a gym, cycle studio, yoga studio or a place to run near your hotel. Most hotels do have their own gym as well. It’s sometimes fun to try new workouts at new studios when you travel. If that helps motivate you to workout, reserve a bike early and add it to your calendar with your other work or vacation commitments.
4. Pack the workout clothes! Even if you think you won’t have time, you need to make time. A 30-min workout is better than nothing. If you can only go out the door and walk for 30 minutes….do it! If you can do a workout in your hotel room…do it! Burning calories will help you feel better and always leads to healthier eating. Maybe even pack some exercise tubes if you think you will need to work out in your room. I have online workout programs that don’t require any equipment! Feel free to check them out for your next trip at CLICK HERE!

How to Handle the Conference Food/Lunches For Work Travel:

I understand that there will be meals provided for you with your work travel. If you have to attend these, try and follow the tips below.

1. If you can bring in your own food, do it. I don’t care if you have to say it’s due to allergies…whatever makes you feel better so you can eat the HEALTHIEST option.
2. If you can eat before the luncheon, do it! Then, just have water or tea and enjoy the company.
3. If you have to eat the food, you simply make the best of the worst choices. Stick to the salad & protein options if you can. Avoid the white rolls, chips and cookies. Bring in your Eagle Snack Bag so you can always eat healthy snacks if you are not going to eat much of their unhealthy options.
4. Maybe you have a few bites and then eat a better meal after.

Whatever it is…...it is. Keep a water bottle full at your side and try to have a healthier dinner later. And hopefully a sweaty workout. Whatever you do, don’t have an all or none mindset. Meaning, if you were not able to eat healthy at this meal, don’t throw in the towel for the day and eat a terrible dinner with too many cocktails. Just move on and eat healthy the very next meal or snack.

Eating at Restaurants with Clients/Coworkers or on Vacation:

 I understand that this might be part of your job. But I would guess that it does not say you have to have unlimited cocktails at these lunches/dinners just because others are. If you really feel like you must have a cocktail, limit it to one.  Yes, you can nurse that baby for a long time. And then, try and follow these tips for ordering your best options:

1. Skip the appetizer and get to the entrée. The entrees are usually way bigger than a normal portion size and will be plenty of food.
2. Revolve your meal around the protein. I like to choose fish when I eat out because I don’t like to cook fish at home. Salmon is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. So, maybe always order the salmon when you can. Feel free to order other protein options instead (chicken, turkey, lean red meat in moderation) or even a vegetarian dish that hopefully has protein like tofu.
3. Order vegetables! Ask if they can steam or roast them with very little salt. Do NOT get the creamed spinach or any veggie loaded in butter/sauce.
4. Avoid the bread at the table and pasta options.
5. Pass right over anything that has cream sauce! Not worth the fat/sodium/calories.
6. Pass right over SOUP! The sodium in all soup is off the charts and you will retain so much water from this choice.
7. Hydrate with water during the whole meal.
8. Skip the dessert.
9. And don’t forget to LIMIT the cocktails.

It might sound boring. But if you travel for a living, vacation a lot and are always eating out, this is the only way to stay on track. Perhaps you make this your standard when eating out during the weekday travel and splurge more if it’s a weekend.

Plan For The Trip Home:

Just like you had a snack bag full of healthy options and a pre-made meal for the airport/ride to your destination, you need that for the way home. If there is a Whole Foods type market near your hotel, replenish the snack bag and buy a pre-made sandwich the day before you go home. Don’t do great the whole trip and then blow it at the airport/road trip home because you were starving and didn’t plan ahead.

Now this might all seem like a lot of work, but if you download the Eagle’s Healthy Travel Checklist and save it on your phone, it will become second nature over time. And again, if travel is a part of your life, you have to make it work. The last thing you want to do is to put in 10 years of hard work with travel, gain a ton of weight, become super unhealthy and then retire. Often when people do this and finally get to retirement, their ailments and out of shape body are very hard to repair.

Travel and staying healthy can work! You just need to put in that extra effort and realize that the payoff is always going to be worth it.

Don't forget to download that Eagle's Healthy Travel Checklist! CLICK HERE!

And travel safe..and healthy!