Healthy Bite 012 - How to be Healthy on the Road

Super Simple Healthy Podcast

Whether you’re traveling for business or just on vacation, eating and being healthy while on the road can be tough. That’s what I’ll be talking about today. On the road again…How to be healthy while traveling Eating healthy and exercising whether traveling for business or pleasure can be challenging. And it can be especially frustrating when you’re actively trying to upgrade your health. Why does this seem to be so hard and what can you do? I used to travel a lot for work. Before becoming a Health Coach, I was a Multimedia Designer and would travel all over the country anywhere from 4-10 days at a time as often as 8 times in 10 months. I worked with a great group of people from a Production company in NY called Legend Productions and we always sought out the best sushi places wherever we went. Other than that though, my overall health objective was to get through the project in one piece so that I might reward myself with a massage at a spa somewhere on location. Food and exercise were not my highest priority. Nowadays though, it’s a different story. Being gluten and dairy free and knowing what I know, a bagel and schmear or a low-fat, blueberry muffin doesn’t cut it anymore let alone going through the “golden arches” for breakfast. In order to ensure your best health, you really need to know what is going into your food and the source of the food. And you really don’t have control over what’s in your food once you step outside your own kitchen. There are choices though. So here are my top 3 tips for staying healthy while traveling: First, recognize that you DON’T have much control. If you don’t have a choice over which restaurant you go to, you can look at any menu and do the best with what is available. Even fast food joints have salads. Skip the dressing or use just ½ the monster packet they give you. If it’s nicer than fast food, look for baked or broiled fish or meats instead of breaded or fried. And instead of the baked potato, see if you can substitute steamed vegetables or a sweet potato. Second, if you’re lucky enough to have a kitchenette in your hotel or even just a mini-fridge, stock up on some apples from the local grocery store. Bring a travel blender and a few packets of protein shakes. You can easily blend a packet with water for a quick, filling breakfast or snack on the go. For a list of my favorite brands and top 25 healthy snacks on the go, visit my website www.supersimplehealthy.com/downloads . And finally, if you’re pressed for time and the thought of trying to squeeze in exercise just adds to your stress, skip it. I know. Sounds bad. But if you have to choose, it’s more important for your health to take a break every 50 minutes when you’re working to stretch and breathe. This will help your digestive system by bringing it into a state of “rest and digest” and will also increase your work productivity. Try this simple breathing exercise I call “5,5,7”: breathe in through your nose for a count of 5, making sure not to tense up any other part of your body, hold the breath for a count of 5, and then exhale through the mouth for 7 seconds. Repeat this for one minute or at least 5 times in a row. You can do this any time of day while sitting at a desk, driving in a car, or at the table before you begin any meal. Hope that was helpful. Remember to leave your comments on iTunes and feel free to share this or any episode with friends and family. Until next time: Keep it simple. Be Healthy.