home

about

wellness / lifestyle coaching

corporate/employee health

faq

programs

decisions

fit over 40

articles more articles

food 101

muscle up?

travel fitness

merritt athletic club

testimonials

contact

Subscribe for FREE wellness
and coaching newsletters!

Lauren Muney at age 40:
Wellness coach and featured in
"Fit Over 40: Role Models for Excellence"

TRAVEL FITNESS
The Bully of Travel Stress
by Lauren Muney

[Skip down if necessary: Your_own_travel_needs]

We've all traveled as adults. Whether we went by car, airplane, train, or bus, it is very hard to stay on our normal healthy routines. The most difficult parts have been both staying on proper eating habits and also remaining physically active, energized, and alert. Let's face it - travel beats us up like a bad bully. The "bully" is trying to take our real lunch and substitute bad food, and keep us from playing our proper recess.

It's time for us to fight back against the bully of travel.

I myself had been challenged recently by an 11,000 mile van tour across the country.

Already within my fitness regimen, I was at the top of my physique and eating properly - while still at home. I had my 5-6 meals per day doing well. I had all my supplements, easy access to food stores, and my gym schedule prioritized. My refrigerator was stocked with my own needs, and my oven, blender, microwave were at my beck and call. Once again, I was at home, where I could control all the factors.

When I went on the road, everything changed. Besides flying to my starting-tour destination, suddenly, I was faced with the fact that I couldn't carry all my needs easily: my supplements, protein bars, training bands, speed rope, training log, lifting gloves, workout clothes, and sneakers. That doesn't include daily bottled water, 5-6 healthy meals per day, and the resources to train. Within one day, I was thinking fast.

Before I tell you about how to SOLVE these dilemmas, let me tell you how I FAILED. Yes, I, who is trying to get you to trust me, I failed at eating, and sometimes exercising. Not only did the travel become a battle for my soul (anyone who has traveled extensively can tell you), but it became a battle for my body. Before everything ended, I was in physical agony from my food choices. I was crawling painfully through health-food stores, crying on the phone in pain to my nutritionist friend, trying every supplemental cure possible, de-toxing daily, and had to have TWO (not just one) colon hydrotherapy treatments in 10 days.

How did this possibly happen, you might ask?

Simple. I gave in. I didn't know my choices, and didn't realize what 3 months of non-fresh, processed foods would do to me. I thought I was staying away from sugars, fried foods, and other 'normal' travel pitfalls. What I didn't realize was that all the 'healthy' bagels, cereals, salads, fruit was doing to my body. I was feeding my body PURE SUGAR sometimes, in the form of grains and simple carbohydrates, and my body rebelled. More on this in a minute.

Was I exercising? Yes...mostly. I would locate gyms in the hotels, near hotels, do calisthenics in my room, or take walks - at 6am if need be. If you think I was being extremist, just remember: I was sitting 12-15 hrs per day sometimes, either in a van seat or while working.

Back to the food: my mistaken choices of 'healthy breads' for breakfast, for example, turned my intestines into glue. Seriously. Want to know how? Grab a bagel. Put it in your sink - and run water over it. What happens? It turns into a mushy mess, somewhat solid, somewhat liquid-y. But it is truly GLUE. That's right. Daily breads, sometimes several times a day, even with salads (salads are good for us, right?) but glue (flour and water) into my system, and the sugars inside the mixture were not fueling my body correctly. My insulin, the hormone which keeps the body from being too over-sugared was working overtime. I was a low-fat fanatic, without fresh meals, eating 'glue', and hoping to be a model of fitness. After the Midwest, I ran out of steam. By the time I got to Denver, I felt awful, I was dizzy, and I wasn't seeing well. I was toxic. I had no idea what was going on . . . until my nutritionist friend, the wise Jon Benson, wrote me two words: "Colonic irrigation". The best words I ever saw.

I'm not going to review everything about colonic irrigation. It's a simple idea: what is stuck in the body needs to be removed . . . kind of like a leaf being washed down a mountain stream. Some doctors don't think it's needed, yet many natural-practitioners swear by it. For me, I was 'relieved' of my trouble. I had one done in Seattle and then again in San Francisco (one week apart), as at least two sessions are required for best - ah - health. I felt better, and by the time I arrived back to my starting point, I had learned what NOT to eat and how to keep myself exercised between meals.

Your own travel needs:

Eating:

Stay away from breads, breaded foods, fried foods, fast food restaurants, and all food which are on the bad list in my nutritional page.

Processed, prepared food is LOADED with sodium and preservatives. As an industry, food-preparation 'has to' have these additives to create a longer shelf-life for their products and to make the food "taste better" (ha). However, these ingredients cause BLOAT and toxicity in the body! What does toxicity feel like? Sluggishness, crabbiness, lethargy. Stick with the freshest food possible, opting for whole foods as much as possible. (Apples, bananas, salads, etc). These have the least chance of being salted and/or chemical'd.

Do not use the travel experience to overeat. Your body is already stressed out from the travel, so adding difficult, frustrating digestion is not wise!

Yes, this is all VERY challenging. I'm with you on this . . . but your body will thank you later.

Eat SMALL PORTIONS from all 3 essential nutrients in every meal: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Keep your carbohydrates low if you are not active. Eat frequently, 5-6 times per day.

Yes, fats! Fats are very healthy for your body . . . and your body runs on GOOD fats, and runs well. Let's talk more about that later . . .

Keep taking your vitamins, minerals, and supplements if you take them. Your body needs to feel that it is 'as normal' as possible.

Carry unsalted nuts or protein bars with you as extra meals. Do not use fruit - the sugars will imbalance your blood-sugars.

Try carrying pemmican with you. . . it is easy to carry and nutritionally complete.

Shop in a health-food store before departing home or after arriving at your destination, for bulk nuts, protein bars, and supplements. These can get you farther through your day than unhealthy snacks, but nothing is as good as real food with your supplements.

Drink WATER all day long. Always have a cup or bottle of water handy - even in a car, plane, or hotel. You need to counteract the drying, processed air, as well as keep all the foods moving through your body using water.

Working Out:

It is very difficult to keep the blood circulating and your muscles humming on the road, but even more imperative.

If you have control of where you stay, make sure that you have a hotel with a gym available with both cardio and weights of some kind.

If the hotel has no exercise room, consider doing some calisthenics in your room. The goal here is to stay energized and keep the blood flowing, not always increasing hypertrophy (large muscle size).

Purchase a set of travel resistance bands, available in most sport stores. There is almost always a manual which comes with these bands - while I can give you more ideas which would work better, this manual will be helpful enough for a small while, as long as you are safe and follow the information.

Omni Hotels supplies these if requested:
 

Arrange a workout time into your day. I suggest first thing in the morning, and training on an empty (fasting) stomach. It is actually easier to work out early than fit it in later, although setting an alarm to get up might be hard on the psyche. You will thank yourself later.

WALK: Plan ahead and bring a walkman or mp3 player and a watch for doing walks. Go outside to a long straight road and time 30 minutes (15 minutes one direction - then just turn around), and just take a brisk walk. It helps your body to unwind and also energize you.

If you are staying in a private home, you might consider taking long walks or runs alone. This will help your host(s) rest, relax, or prepare for the next activity, which is very necessary for a household stasis.

Calisthenics:

Pushups - arms shoulder-width apart, wide-apart, or diamond

Squats - knee stance wide or narrow . . . squat until thighs are parallel to the floor, knees don't knock together

Lunges - one knee down, one knee squats

Supermans - lie on stomach, lift legs up, and arms up until you look like Superman just barely soaring. This works your back, shoulders, and glutes

Crunches - lie on back, knees bent. Hands across chest or, with fingers interlaced behind head, flare elbows out. Pull your abs tight to create a strong core, 'Crunch' to try to make your ribs touch your hips (you won't, but that's the action)

Dips - (for triceps) - using a sturdy chair or bench, place your hands on the forward edge of your chair, with your heel on the floor in front of you. Bend your elbow, making sure that your rear end clears the chair and you are just using your triceps to lower and raise yourself. For more challenge, put your feet on another chair when you lower yourself.

The most important factor is that you continue taking care of yourself even when you are not at home . . . don't allow the comforts (or discomforts) of traveling to affect your training, energy, lifestyle, and life. Keep breathing. Keep sleeping. Don't party too hard. And, while you are out there in the world, greet a few people you've never met before. They might have an interesting story to tell.

I may update this page with new ideas, so if you have some of your own, please 5 11 write me.

Traveling is a very tempting time. Above: New York City bagel shop.

Before [the trip] ended, I was in physical agony from my food choices.