Being Fit & Adaptable: Five steps to winning the healthy travel game

Being Fit & Adaptable: Five steps to winning the healthy travel game.

Adapted from Precision Nutrition, All about eating on the go

Being a fit healthy person on a pro-level means being adaptable to changing environments, time constraints, work and social responsibilities. Traveling for either work or leisure is a time to test that adaptability.

Especially if traveling means more stress, you’ll be most productive the more you can keep the game and the practices fun. Below are 5 simple steps to consider to keep health a priority during stress-tests of traveling.

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1) Prioritize: How important is maintaining current nutrition / movement rules?

For example, do you want to stay on a nutrition plan that gets you continued weight loss? Or are you willing to ease restrictions and deal with weight gain when you’re back at home in a settled routine?

There’s not a right answer. As long as it’s a deliberate choice, you’ll be less confused of the health effects of that choice post-travel. Deciding ahead of time will reduce anxiety later.

Also, a tried-and-true: Aim for better instead of perfect.

 

2) Define your “on-track”: What are the minimums you need of movement and nutrition to maintain a sense of “on-track”.

Movement: Some travel is easy to be very active; some travel is very movement-restricted. For whichever travel type, decide how much movement is the least amount that will keep you happy and energized.

For example, at least 45 minutes of cardio, 3 days / week; or something like this time-crunched sprint routine can be the most efficient way to get meaningful movement.

Nutrition: Set one daily nutrition habit that can serve as a stabilizing anchor every day. If you do this one thing, you’re on-track.

For example, take control of eating a similar breakfast everyday of Greek yogurt and granola; or stay grounded by knowing that you’ll have at least 2 generous servings of vegetables every day.

What small nutrition choices can you maintain control of everyday?

 

3) Plan ahead: What are the logistical sources of wholesome food?

In new places, research ahead of time to find the best markets and fresh cafés for wholesome options.

 

4) Mental Prep: Are you mentally prepared for less food control and more dining-out?

Having less food control:

Hunger isn’t an emergency: it’s ok to be hungry for a couple of hours if you don’t have acceptable food options right now. Traveling may mean longer hungry intervals to find those better options, rather than settling for mediocre.

No matter what the available options are, you always have the basics of how to eat: eat slowly, to 80% full.

Dining-out healthy:

Ask to modify the menus: Pile on clean proteins and vegetables with fewer sauces.

Be creative with side dishes and appetizers: Those can be enough for a full meal.

 

5) Prioritize joy, definitely: Above all, be in the moment and enjoy.

A major perk of travel, especially vacation, is being in a special place and getting renewed appreciation for your surroundings and experience. Take that in. Make it a part of the strategy to prioritize joy and appreciation in food, too.

If rigid rules are getting in your way of joy, the rules can wait until you’re back at home.

Travel is a test of the resilience of your lifestyle routines. Most importantly, home is where the rules are needed more for establishing the back-bone of long-term consistent routines.

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