Staying lean and making healthy choices can be a challenge when you’re traveling. However, if you know what to do then you can definitely stay on track.
Jon and I love our home in South Florida. It’s warm year round, it’s close to the beach, we can swim in the pool and eat dinner outside every evening. Everything in our environment is conducive to staying lean and healthy. We chose to live here because it allowed us to have the lifestyle that is important to us.
However, we often travel (whether for business or pleasure) and try to continue our healthy habits wherever in the world that we are. I’ve shopped at fresh markets, joined gyms in different languages, and ran around so many beautiful neighborhoods around the world I could have a blog just dedicated to that subject!
So on a recent trip to New York we decided to make a quick video to show you guys some of the things we do to stay healthy even when traveling. Check it out:
Here are the main tips:
- Bring all of the gear that you need to stay lean. That means clothes, shoes, and any accessories that go along with your workouts.
- … Or if it’s a destination you visit frequently (like your parent’s house) then store the gear there so you don’t have to pack it with you each and every time. In the video, I show you what I do with sneakers and sweatpants so they don’t take up extra space in my suitcase!
- Have healthy food available. That means going to get the healthy food to have in your hotel room, your purse, wherever you are going. If you have a healthy snack available then you’re way less likely to succumb to a craving.
- Always start with a healthy breakfast! That’s the one meal that’s almost always within your control whether you are at a conference, away game, or event. In the video, I show you the treats that we get to make breakfast.
- Empty the hotel fridge and put your own food in there. Hotel fridges never have anything healthy – it’s usually candy, soda and alcohol. Get rid of that! Replace it with apples, bananas, turkey, toast, or whatever other easy items are to consume. In the video I show you exactly what I get to keep in my fridge to make quick healthy sandwiches on the go.
- Use downtime to be active. If you have a moment, go for a walk or a run. Or try to wake up an hour early to get your workout in and be energized for the rest of the day. I do the Mission Lean workouts, which can be done anywhere since they don’t need any equipment.
Jon Pearlman is a former standout tennis player at Harvard, ATP-ranked touring pro, and author of The Lean Body Manual. He founded Mission Lean to share his unique formula for lean body fitness and nutrition, an approach that took over a decade to develop and perfect. He is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Specialist.