Fitness While Traveling, By: Hugo Rivera
This past week has been very challenging for me. I had to travel to New Mexico for a job interview with Intel (the company that makes the Pentium Processors) in Albuquerque. In order for me to maintain my bodybuilding lifestyle, there were preparations that I had to make in order to avoid missing meals and workouts. Therefore, I decided to write this small article with tips on what you can do when you have to travel out of town.
People always use traveling as an excuse to not get in shape. While getting in shape while traveling is more challenging, if getting in shape is your goal, then it is certainly possible. The key to getting in shape while traveling, provided the determination is there, is Planning and Preparation.
Before you go on the next trip, find out if the hotel that you are going to stay in has a small fitness facility or at least a set of dumbbells. If not, then find out where the closest fitness facility is at and plan to work out there. If by some twist of fate there are no fitness facilities in the area (hard to believe), then try to do a training routine which consists of dips, pushups, pull-ups, chin-ups, squats with no weights, lunges with no weights, calf raises with no weight, crunches and leg raises performed 3 times a week for 4-5 sets of as many reps as possible with 30 seconds of rest in between sets. Run for 20-30 minutes first thing in the morning on rest days. All you need for this routine is a park with a chin-up bar and parallel bars. If no park is within the area, then you can still do pushups, squats with no weights, lunges with no weights, calf raises with no weight, crunches and leg raises. If you carry on a portable chin-up bar that you can place in the hotel room, then you can also do pull-ups & chin-ups.
With diet, you will need to get creative. Still follow the rules that we have discussed on previous articles about dieting. Also, carry with you protein bars so that you can have all of the required meals for the day (thank God for protein bars-I used the Biochem protein bars for my trip; however any kind that contain roughly the same amount of protein and carbs or perhaps a bit more protein than carbs is OK). Missing meals would guarantee failure in this program.
The rules for eating in fast food restaurants (or any other type of restaurant) are the following:
1) If it is not your cheat day, refrain from fatty choices such as french fries.
2) Drink between 8-16 ounces of water before you get there and then drink an additional 8-16 ounces more while you are eating. This will prevent you from feeling hungry and falling to temptation. If temptation is strong remember two things:
a) There is nothing better than being in shape.
b) You control everything that goes into your mouth. Food does not and should not
control you!
3) Always combine a serving of low fat protein (in the case of fast food restaurants, this is either skinless chicken or turkey) with a small serving of carbs. Remember that if you are eating a chicken or turkey sandwich the bread will count as the carbs.
4) Salads in addition to a serving of protein and a serving of starchy carbs are always good since they provide fiber and they fill you up. However, avoid using high fat/high sugar dressings.
5) Refrain from using high carbohydrate sauces or mayo.
Basically, if you stick to the five rules I discussed above, no matter where you find yourself at, you won't have a problem finding something to eat.
As you can see, even though it will take more effort to get in shape if you travel, it is not impossible. If you are determined enough to make things happen, then everything is possible!
