I travel a lot on business, often spending the whole of the working week hopping from one airport to another, sleeping in airport hotels and eating a lot of airline food. It soon became apparent that my busy lifestyle was contributing toward my expanding waist line.
Travelling alone on business brings with it a whole load of obligations. You need to have dinner with clients and often share a few drinks after meetings in order to be sociable. Also, being away from home inevitably makes it more difficult to resist the temptation of room service and more difficult to take the exercise needed to stay in shape.
The same is true for holiday travelling. When you are in a holiday mood you are far less likely to be able to resist temptation. When visiting a part of the world where the food and restaurants are too good to resist inevitably you don’t. If you combine this with some holiday drinks and relaxing time by the pool by the time you get home your waistline may have expanded so much that your clothes don’t fit any more.
Unfortunately there is no quick and easy fix to the problem of weight-gain while travelling. But I shall share with you a few of the techniques I am using to keep my weight stable even though I spend much of my working life on the road or in the air.
Firstly, I make a point of getting some exercise wherever I go these days. This isn’t always an option, particularly if I’ve been travelling until late in the day. But, whenever possible, I book myself into hotels that have some fitness facilities, maybe a gym or, better still, a swimming pool. I always try to make good use of these facilities when they’re available.
I keep a few good keep fit routines on my laptop hard disk and I use these in my hotel room whenever I can. Each day that I’m away I will always try to go for a brisk walk around the hotel area. I find that this is not only great physical exercise but also a really good way to get my thoughts straight before an important meeting.
I try to take every opportunity to stretch my legs and shake off a few excess calories. For example, when I fly home I will always take ten minutes to walk around the perimeter of the Cardiff airport parking lot before retrieving my car. This wakes me up ready for my 30 minute drive home and burns off a few of the calories I’ve picked up while away.
I’ve started to go for much smaller portions and fewer courses when eating in restaurants. These days I will always choose the healthiest option available. Many restaurants are sensitive to the demand for healthy options so the salads and fruit are my primary selections these days. And another technique that I have adopted is eating more slowly.
When it comes to drinking I have all but stopped consuming alcohol which has brought a number of benefits. Wherever possible I will choose to drink water rather than alcohol.
I doubt that my techniques will be appealing to everybody but hopefully they will help a few people to keep in trim when on the move.
Top Tip: When travelling, for business or pleasure, alway make certain that you have adequate and appropriate travel insurance. Nobody plans for the worst to happen, but if an accident does take place you don’t want the expense of a flight home in an air ambulance.
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