Sticking to Your Diet While Traveling for Work
dieting, weight loss, travel
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Traveling for work - or any other reason - can take you out of your daily routine, which tends to destroy healthy dieting streaks.
I speak from experience, because I'm sitting in a hotel room after going out for a 4 course meal with some co-workers. Obviously that 4 course meal was accompanied by many alcoholic beverages, which hurts the diet even more.
Reasons you should avoid killing your diet while traveling:
1. It's Twice as Hard to Start Back Up
Once you've gone off the deep end, it's always so much harder to bring yourself back to a healthy diet and fitness level. You're going to think about how good it was eating whatever you wanted, and you'll gradually forget how much better it felt looking in the mirror.
2. The Regret will Drive your Crazy
Finally you started seeing the results you've been working hard to achieve and then you blew it. The next week or two you will want to kick yourself for not holding strong and resisting the urge to eat everything in site. I'm not even home yet and I'm already beating myself up about it.
3. Pigging out Makes a Healthy Stomach Sick
If you're one of those people who only eats fast food about once every year, you will know exactly what I'm talking about. Your stomach feels terrible after chomping down that Big Mac - it's just not used to it. If you've been going strong with your diet, pigging out is going to make you feel pretty sick - which is never fun when traveling.
Advice for Sticking to your Diet While Traveling:
1. Use Mental Toughness
Remember the three reasons listed above. Use them as motivation and demonstrate some mental toughness when you're tempted to eat everything in sight.
2. Get Drunk After Dinner, Not Before
As we all know, alcohol causes us to let our guard down and make poor decisions. Getting boozed up before eating will let your stomach control your actions (since your brain will be out of commission). Eat your meal first, then leave the dinner table and camp out at the bar for drinks.
3. Find a Grocery Store Near your Hotel
Most likely there will be a grocery store near your hotel. Most people rely solely on eating out while traveling, but any dieter knows it's harder to eat healthy at a restaurant than it is to fix up your own meals. You might not have a cooking area in your hotel, but you can at least stock up on some fruits and vegetables to snack on in between meals. This will calm your hunger so that you're not tempted to order everything on the menu at dinner time.
4. No Junk Food in the Hotel Room
Just like there's no sex in the champagne room, there should not be any snacks (other than fruits and veggies) in your hotel room. Down time in your hotel room can be boring, which can lead to snacking. If a bag of Doritos enters your room, consider it already eaten.
It's too late for me, it's Thursday night and I think I've been on a week long eating binge. But for anyone else, definitely stick to the previous advice. Losing your diet on the road makes returning home a rough ride.
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on 8/1/2008
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