Keeping Lean While Traveling

One of the more difficult things to do with physique transformations is to keep yourself on a relatively clean diet while traveling.

You can’t help it on occasion, you’ll have to leave the comforts of your routine to head off to somewhere else that is NOT convenient for your program.

You may be doing some driving, which in that case is a BIT easier, but a number of you reading this will eventually have to fly out, and THAT is when things can get hectic on the body.

We really can’t rely on airline food (you’ve seen their processed nuts that have more volume of preservatives than the actual tree nut) and don’t even get me started on eating food in the terminal, although that may be a bit easier to do, it’s marginal at best.

Over the past several months, I’ve been doing quite a bit of airline travel and I have picked up a few things to help make the process easier on your body so you won’t walk out looking like the bloated puffball we are all fearful of when we get back into our routine.

Bring your OWN food.

If you are really serious about maintaining the results that you have earned, you will mostly likely want to bring you own food for long commutes or plane rides.

  • 1-2 days of travel:  If you are just taking a short overnight business trip then these are the easiest to work with because you can pack some basic necessities.
fighterdiet travle pack
Photo courtesy of Fighter Diet

Some good travel suggestions that I would recommend are: (include fighter diet travel):

  • 2 servings of protein
  • 2-8 packs of tuna/chicken/mackerel
  • Shaker cup
  • Greens powder <= face it you won’t eat your veggies
  • 1 Bar DARK Chocolate (don’t eat the whole damn thing)
  • 1-3 Individual packets of almond butter or nuts
  • Travel utensil
  • Gum <= You’ll need to get the tuna taste out of your mouth
  • Caveman Bar (one of the few bars I like)
  • Don’t forget a travel pill case for your supplements as well.

*you may notice that I didn’t include things like jerky, bars, RTDs, because the MAJORITY are VERY processed and do not pack in the nutrients promised and only you know if your body handles these things well. A,lso I did NOT include carb laced foods because most likely you’ll be fine going low carb for a few days OR you will get your carbs at other times of the day (say, client dinners)*

3+ Days

When you start traveling for anything over three days, then you will have cravings for more real food and you will want to continue to stay on track of your program.

If that is the case, then you will want to make sure that you are staying in a hotel that has a small kitchen so that you can do some shopping and prepare some basics to help you stay on your diet.

If you do have access to a kitchen where you are staying, you can keep the same plan as above but make sure to include:

  • Fresh veggies that need VERY little prep (carrots, leafy greens, etc…)
  • SOME fruit
  • Tupperware to store your food (I would just get a $5 ziploc brand, nothing fancy)
  • Hard boiled eggs

What IF you do NOT have access to a kitchen or you don’t have time to prepare?

Hell, I’ve been there multiple times and when I know that I’ll just be slammed, then I’ll have my food prepared and delivered to the hotel (NOT roomservice).

Personally, I use Lean Eats <===

I’ll order a weeks worth of food (anywhere from 3-4 meals a day) and this will easily tide me over for the duration of my trip.  I had a chance to talk to the owner Jeff Philips, a cool dude that just “get’s it,” when it comes to eating and his stuff taste better than any other meal service I’ve worked with.

Before you scoff at the price I can assure you that if you are traveling, you will spend a LOT more on crappy food than this place (which is VERY modest in cost compared to other meal delivery companies).  Save your money and get some food that is better for you than hotel food; You’ll thank me later.

Don’t eat airline food.

Seriously, you’ll speed a few days just having your body try to process it out and if you are meticulous about the way you look and feel, you’ll notice a difference within a few hours after you eat some of this food.

For MOST people, its better to fast BEFORE and DURING the flight, unless of course, you brought your own.

If this happens and its a short trip, then I’ll bring the above food with me and fast BEFORE AND DURING the flight. Here is an excellent blog from PN about how fasting can help with jet lag as well.

Drink copious amounts of water

Nothing sucks worse than getting sick while traveling and one of the big reasons why that happens is that you are dehydrated and may not even know it.

You won’t even realize how thirsty your body is while you’re busy concentrating on getting to your plane on time or if you driving trying to get around that slow idiot who always seems to be in the left hand lane <= Plenty of them.

So always make sure that you keep water on you at all times. This will help flush out all the nastiness of stress and toxins that you will encounter while traveling.

When I started doing the above in my travels it made maintaining my physique A LOT easier but I had to learn the hard way a few go-arounds.

 

I hope this helps and if you have any ideas that you have found helps you, please comment below!

 

In Health and Awesomeness,

Travis Merritt, BS, CPT, (and other letters behind the name) is the Owner of Rowlett Transformation Center in Rowlett, TX.

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