Traveling and the Phit Lifestyle

Part 4 - How do I Exercise on the Road?

You might think that with traveling comes the halt of all healthy eating and exercise. During our series we have discussed how we can go about eating healthy through proper planning, grocery shopping and wise restaurant choices.

Today I want to discuss exercise. Just because you are on vacation doesn’t mean that we get a “get out of jail free card” from exercise. This is something that can be incorporated into your day with little or no effort, again with just a bit of planning. Here are a few tips:

• Take the stairs and ask for a room that is not on the ground floor. Why? I took the elevator up when I first arrived. I’m on the second floor and other than my trip arriving and my trip departing I have taken the stairs daily. This is at a minimum twice daily and on a few occasions four times. It doesn’t seem like much but it all adds up.
• Since we planned our hotel we should know whether a gym or not exists. If it does, use it! Plan to wake up 30 minutes earlier or make a date with it at the end of the day. The hotel I stayed in was open until 11 p.m. No excuses there.
• No gym available? Gotcha covered. Resistance bands; purchase them for about $10.00 and bring them with you. The box contains a great little workout and you can do them in your hotel room. They don’t take up much room and fit nicely in your luggage.
• Don’t have resistance bands or forgot them? Sorry, but I can fix that too. Regular, wide and narrow pushups bang out a fantastic upper body. Now toss in some lunges and squats and you have a great lower body workout. What about your core, throw in some planks and planks with knee raises, run the stairs a few times, jog in place, do jumping jacks or high knee raises and your cardio routine is done.

The point here is that you don’t need to forgo a workout just because you are traveling and return home being set back in your fitness level. Put some creativity into it and you can be active anywhere and at any time.

Being phit for life means that you will have periods during your life where you are not in control 100% of your food and exercise. However, incorporating just a few of the tips above, research, planning and execution and you have no need to worry about traveling for business or pleasure.