I travel a lot. I’m Elite on Air Canada and a Star Alliance Gold Platinum. What does this mean? It means I travel more than 50,000 miles a year. That’s a lot of Hotels and Airports. It also means a lot of dinners with clients, breakfast with the team members, and lunch with groups of people.
You think it’s hard to stay in shape at home? Try doing it while on the road.
Take Advantage of The Free Fitness Facilities
Most hotels of fitness facilities for free. Some are definitely better than others. Some have pools, every kind of machine you can think of, treadmill, elliptical cycles, speed bikes, fitness mat and more. Some just have a bench and some free weights. Some of them are placed on gorgeous oceanfront or river front properties overlooking historical buildings and skylines, and others are in the basement of the hotel.
Let me tell you something. It doesn’t matter what the fitness facilities looks like or has on hand. All you really need at it’s most basic is a bench and some weights.
Set Your Expectations Low
You probably think I’m crazy but this works. I know from experience. While on business I find it is easier for me to set my expectations low! What I do is a say to myself “ok bud all you need to do is 20 minutes of cardio, or 30 minutes of free weights.” This is totally doable, and doesn’t seem as crazy and ridiculous as planning for a one to two hour workout.
However that said, nearly every time, I start enjoying it, and almost always end up pushing out a 45 minute weight lifting session, and 30 minutes of cardio.
Pop In a Workout DVD
Sometimes you just don’t feel like going to the hotel gym or fitness facilities. That’s totally fine. If you are just getting started, you may feel more comfortable working out alone. I know I did for the first few months.
My secret weapon was Beachbody. I have a couple of the programs on DVD, so I simply brought along a few in my suite case. Not a big deal at all, and you don’t need anything other than your own body, and don’t even need to bring running shoes.
In the mornings I’d just wake up a little earlier, and pop in the DVD. My favorite was always the Turbofire HIIT workouts. The 15 minute or the 20 minute ones rock. They burn about 300 calories if you do them full of energy, and then burn another 800 or so calories all day long. Do the math people. You don’t think this is possible? That’s how I lost 45 pounds in 3 months folks. And I should be clear here, I didn’t just lose 45 pounds. I gained a significant amount of muscle, so the fat loss was more than 45 pounds.
Seriously, if you are reading this and overweight and think you can’t do it. I beg you, buy the Chalene Johnson TurboFire program right now. Don’t even think about it. You will lose weight and you will become a new person in less than 90 days.
Go For A Run
Want to know the best way to get to know a city? Go for a run. I was totally missing out when I was traveling going to all these different places. Since starting to run, I’ve seen the beauty of Central Park, the incredible views in Seattle, and some breathtaking views along the Chicago River and the harbor.
Going for a run is a complete workout. It get’s your arms moving, your abs working hard, back muscles, your legs rocking, and your ass gets tighter. What else do you want? This is basically available to anywhere you go, and all you need is some runners.
Eat Healthy While Travelling
This can be a challenge when travelling, so try and keep this one simple and don’t get discouraged if you cheat. Depending on how much you travel, your goal should be to sustain the weight you have, and not gain weight. The secondary goal should be to drop weight if you can be a little more diligent about what you eat. I was able to lose a significant portion of my weight while keeping up a busy travel schedule by eating healthy foods, and enjoying the occasional treats that some cities have to offer.
Your best friend when eating healthy is going to be MyFitnessPal. If you have an iPad or iPhone, download this free app right now. Try and make sure you eat healthy meals most of the day, and leave one meal for cheating if you have to. So for me, on a cheating day, I would eat a healthy breakfast that is low in calories and carbs, but higher in protein. I’d eat granola bars, almonds, bananas to keep me full until lunch.
At lunch I would either have a meal replacement shake, a protein shake, or maybe a salad. I might even add a slice of pizza to the salad if I’m in New York or Chicago where the pizza is incredible. It does you no good to crave something and “punish” yourself by not having it. It has been proven that his actually creates acid in your stomach and can actually cause you to gain more weight.
During dinner it’s a cheat day, I will eat whatever I want, but just watch the amount that I eat. That’s right, order whatever you want, just don’t eat all if it if you don’t need it all. Have a drink if you must as well.
If you follow a day like this, you should be in at around 1,500 calories, which for most people is less than they burn in a day. If you ate a little more than you should, you should still be at around 1,800 calories. Most people need about 2,000 calories a day to stay the same weight. If you add in the workout, you can subtract 300 to 1,000 calories if you did a TurboFire workout. Do the math folks. This formula works. You will lose weight.
Bring Vitamins and Shakes
The other massive secret to losing weight is to use the right supplements, shakes, and give your body a chance to naturally lose weight. See people don’t realize that weight loss is impossible and harder if you are eating like crap. Seriously. If you drink soda, coffee, beer, and eat white bread, a ton of carbs, and more, you are actually doing some incredible damage to your body. Forget calories, for a second. Imagine if you just ate bread and butter, and then drank coke, but kept your calories down to 1,500 calories. You think you would lose weight easily and gain any kind of muscle? Of course not! In fact you would likely get sick very often, sore from workouts, and your body would start to save up any fat it can store trying to save itself from the death you are trying to bring it.
Not only that, but after a great workout, you need to replenish your body with water, and the proper nutritional elements so that it can repair damaged tissues and purify your body.
In essence when you workout, you are actually eliminating garbage from your body, and also tearing up muscles so that they can rebuild stronger. You need to put in some good stuff to replace the bad stuff! There are many great products out there that can deliver the ultimate health benefits to your body, but the best one hands down is the Beachbody Shakeology drink. You don’t believe me? You think I could have lost 45 pounds without it? I looked forward to those shakes every day! They taste amazing, and they give your body some amazing combinations of natural vitamins that you need to succeed.
Final Thoughts on Weight Loss While Traveling
It’s not easy to lose weight. I know, I tried for years and failed. However, if you set yourself up for success, you can’t fail. Buy the TurboFire workout, It’s cheaper than a night out for dinner and wine, but it will change your life. Buy the Shakeology drinks to give your body some amazing capabilities to repair itself from the damage you have done to yourself.
When you invest in your body, and make it easy to workout, you can’t fail.
