Before I get into how to eat healthy on the road, I want to lay a couple of ground rules. First, there is a difference between a vacation and a business trip. We vacation so we can relax, and enjoy life. We go on a business trip to work. So you are going to have different mindsets depending on the reason for the trip. What that means to me is that if your on a business trip then there is no cheating. You need to try to eat as well as possible, without sacrificing your diet. If your a vacationer, trying to enjoy some time off with the family then you are allowed to have a few cheat meals here and there. That doesn’t mean you can go and eat whatever you want because that might completely derail you but depending on how active you are (see my last post) you can have cheat meals here and there. In my opinion, I eat a super healthy and clean diet 95%, and I workout 6 days per week. This allows me to go on a vacation and enjoy life a bit. I can enjoy the activities and splurge a little on my diet without having to worry.

If your going on a business trip you are not allowed to cheat. You need to try to eat as healthy as possible while your away. If your going on a vacation, you are allowed to have 1 cheat meal meal per day as long as your active, but you need to keep it to one in order to stay healthy on the road.

Eating on the Road Tips:

Eating healthy while traveling doesn’t have to be tough if you use these tips.  There are some common sense things you can do to stay as healthy as possible while away from your home.

1.  Plan ahead. One of the easiest ways to make sure your staying with your good nutrition is to do a little planning.  One of the things you can do is buy some protein bars, bring some Shakeology packets or protein powder with you.  I always try to bring these with me so if I am ever in dire need to eat something decent, or keep to my 5-6 meals/day then I have a quick, easy snack to eat that I know is healthy.  Another thing you can do is look up restaurants around the area your going to beforehand.  I am kinda a “foodie” so I enjoy looking for local restaurants that I can make reservations at while on my vacations.  I also look for healthy restaurants that I know I can go to get healthy choices.  You can even call the hotel, or go to tripadvisor.com and ask online.  You can then look up the restaurants menu online and make sure they are offering good choices.  Chain restaurants all show their calories now so take advantage. Taking a few mins to plan can make a huge difference!

2.  Stick to the basics.  When it comes to eating healthy it is easy to make the right choice anywhere are you if you stick to the basics.  Lean Protein, Complex Carbs, Heathly Fats, and as many veggies as you want.  You know what these are, and if you don’t then look on my P90X nutrition post to see what I’m talking about.  Chicken, Fish, Turkey are all great lean proteins.  Brown rice, whole wheat pasta, quinoa, black beans, yams are all good examples of complex carbs.  Olive oil, canola oil, avocoda, nuts, seeds, are all good healthy fats.  Stick to the basics.  Just because your out of town doesn’t mean you can’t find all the same foods you can find at home.  Stay away from the bread that comes to your table.  Stay away from white rice, mashed potatoes or heavy pasta dishes.  The next step is to make sure they are cooked in a healthy manner.

3.  Watch out for Fried Foods and Heavy Sauces. This is common sense.  Stick with grilled proteins.  You can even ask for it if it isn’t.  Watch out for things that fried.  Don’t eat thing that come with butter sauces or “white” creamy sauces.  The easiest way to make a meal unhealthy is to have it dipped in hot oil or covered in butter.  Again stay away from those empty calories that come in the form of white bread as well.

4.  No Soda.  Don’t waist your calories on soda.  It’s a complete waist.  Your drinking nothing but sugar water, it’s not worth it.

5.  Limit the Alcohol. I know that if your on vacation your going to drink some, but try to limit the amount.  It’s all about portion control.  And if your going to drink a lot then guess what?…that’s your cheat meal!  There are a ton of calories packed in those drinks and you will quickly turn a good eating day into a very poor one with too much alcohol.

6.  Enjoy your cheat meals. For you vacationers only (if your on a business trip  you don’t get cheat meals) you need to enjoy your vacation.  So make sure really enjoy your cheat meals.  One thing that contributes to our American cultures obesity problem is the fact we don’t take our time while we eat.  We get “fast food” and we eat very very quickly.  Enjoy your food, each bite.  Take your time.  Other countries take 2 hours in the middle of the day for lunch for peet sake…we can take an extra 20 mins to enjoy.  By taking your time you will also allow you stomach to fill up so you can get a much better idea when your full.

Staying healthy on the road doesn’t have to be a tough experience.  You can do it by planning and educating yourself a bit.  Follow these tips and make sure you stay active in order to stick with your P90X, Insanity or TurboFire programs.

Have any other tips?  Do you think this seems doable for you on your trip?  Give me some feedback!

Exercise on the Road

I like to exercise, so I like to find the time during my travels to exercise when I can.  Getting a good, quick workout in also allows me to mentally relax when I want to have a cheat meal while on vacation.  Besides, it wouldn’t be a vacation without some indulgences.  Luckily for me, my fiance feels the same way so we are able to workout together.  There are several things you can do to get a quick workout in.

1.  Hit the hotel fitness center.  Most hotels have a fitness center in the hotel.  If your not sure you can always plan ahead and see if the hotel has one before you book it.  This is one of the things I look for when I book a hotel.  They are typically very small but usually will have some dumbbells and a couple machines, and a pull up bar.  My fellow P90Xers will know that this is plenty to get a solid workout in.  You can easily make a quick intense workout up on the fly or bring your workout sheet from P90X and do a full routine from a gym.

2.  Bring your workout DVDs and workout in the room. My fiance brought her portable DVD player with us on the trip and brought TurboFire.  She also brought a resistance band.  She took it down to the hotel gym with me but she could have easily worked out in the hotel room.  Don’t have a portable DVD player?  Bring your laptop or buy the P90X app when it comes out later this summer.  The easiest way to travel with P90X, Insanity, or TurboFire is to bring them with you and pop them into a DVD Player.  For P90X, bring a resistance band.  Even if you normally don’t use bands you will be surprised how well they will work.  The new P90X2 will have a modifier using only bands for each workout.  That means you will be able to take P90X2 on the road with you and do every workout with the resistance bands…how cool is that?

3.  Be Creative with your Cardio. If you only have 20-30 mins because you’re with your family or you have a meeting you have to be at, then that’s all you need.  Bring your running shoes and get creative.  Go outside and run, jump, crawl, sprint, what ever!  A great way to get a quick workout in is to do a HIIT workout, or High Intensity Interval Training.  Warm up for 2-3 mins, then go all out for 30 secs, rest for 1 min and repeat 8-10 times.  Do a quick cool down and you have a great 20-30 min workout.  For example, my fiance and I were looking out of the hotel window and noticed a very long/high stairs across the street at the convention center (see picture).  I suggested that it might be fun to do a workout on those things.  So that next morning we went out and created a workout on the fly.  We did a quick 2 min jog to warm up. We then did a “Suicide Drills” type of workout by going up 1 fight of stairs then back down, going up 2 flights then back down, then 3 and so on.  When we got to top we just reversed it.  25 mins later we were done.

4.  Plan activities that are based around being active. Ok I know, you want to relax and hang by the pool.  That is fine but what about planning an activity that involves being active with you and your family?  Rent some bikes and go on a bike ride around the area, learn to surf if your around a beach, paddle board or kyack if your around a bay or lake.  Tennis courts near by?  Rent some rackets and go play tennis.  There are many activities you can do that involve being active around hotels.  Even just taking a long walk around the area is plenty.  The more active you are the more fit you will be on your trip.  Besides, this is why we workout isn’t it?  So we can be active in our everyday lives!  Go swim, snorkel, bike, play!  For example:  My finance and I went and rented bikes and rode for about an hour checking out the area and seeing the sites.  The next day we rented paddle boards and paddled around mission bay.

We all want to relax on vacation but being active can be just as fun.  I was able to workout, lay by the pool, go for a bike ride, walk around town, paddle board all within a couple of days.  Because I was so active I didn’t care if I ate some cheat meals.  I came back from the weekend weighting less than when I left.  Funny how that works.  You can be active on the road, just take the time and plan ahead a little.  Go have fun!

I will be posting about nutrition while on vacation in the coming weeks.

Do you like to be active while on your trips or do you like to do as little as possible?  Do you think these ideas above would work for you?