On The Road To Health

Oatmeal For Breakfast

Learning how to eat a healthy diet when you’re on the road can be challenging. The prevalence of familiar fast-food restaurants throughout the world makes for convenient choices. But you can find healthier options to lower your caloric and fat intake. Those healthier choices help you feel better and give you more sustaining energy. Martin recommends dining where you can get a salad or where can you order oatmeal for breakfast instead of bacon and eggs.

However, there are other challenges that come with eating on the road. If your meals are the center point of business meetings or client social events, this can pose problems as well. Many of Johnson’s trips include meetings with clients. “I have many rules about eating,” she says. One rule is, if I’m the host, I can’t be high-maintenance. You don’t want to walk in and say, ‘I want no sauce,’ and ‘I want this on the side.’ So my rule is I order fish and I eat half. Whatever they serve me I try to eat half. I avoid cheeses. I avoid processed carbs.”

Make Fitness Routine

An exercise routine while traveling is almost as important as food and water, and it can go a long way toward making you feel more energetic and alert. Martin recommends creating a portable version of your home fitness routine for travel, whether you work out in a hotel’s gym or pool, or put an exercise mat on the floor of your hotel room to do yoga.

Johnson makes fitness a priority in her day-to-day life, which makes it easier to maintain it during her travels. “I work out every morning that I can,” says Johnson. “When I’m on the road, I’ll go to the hotel’s gym or go running before my meeting.” She’s successful in maintaining her fitness more often than not because she plans it into her day and she sees fitness opportunities in ordinary situations. “Our airport is huge,” says Johnson of the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport. “If you walk through the airport instead of taking the people-movers or the trains—that’s like free fitness time.”

Although exercising in an airplane seat may sound impossible, the simple exercises on Northwest Airlines’ Web site (scroll down to “Health & Exercise Advice”) will help keep your circulation moving. Stretching and walking on a long flight feels good and can help pass the time.

Jet Lag

Caffeine and alcohol are two things that can really work against you if you’re jet lagged or sleep deprived. Some people like to have a drink to “help them sleep.” But this actually has the opposite effect. “Alcohol interferes with REM sleep, so you’re going to feel less rested even if you do get a few hours of sleep,” says Martin. Frequent travelers have a pretty good idea of what promotes sleep and what doesn’t. “Some of the newer prescription sleeping aids can be very useful, because they are not as sedating as some of the older ones,” says Martin. “These can help travelers adjust pretty quickly to being on a new schedule.”

Dr. Steven Sonnesyn is an infectious disease specialist with Abbott Northwestern Hospital’s Travel Clinic. “Being fatigued precipitates viral infections, decreases job performance, and creates sleep problems,” says Sonnesyn. “Being habitual about your sleep habits and eating habits is important. Our bodies are designed that way. But it’s a difficult problem. Even if you try to do everything just right, it can run your system down.”