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Summary
On episode 83 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan shares the strategies he personally relies on to stay healthy and fit on the road, prompted by a stretch of upcoming travel.
He covers packing and planning for food, fitting in workouts away from home, managing hydration and electrolytes on flights, handling travel stress, and protecting sleep in an unfamiliar hotel room.
The throughline is planning ahead: decide before the trip what you will eat, where you will train, and how you will sleep, instead of leaving it to chance once you are already on the road.
Links
- https://40plusfitness.com
Key Takeaways
- Pack your own food before you travel. Airports, gas stations, and convenience stores are stocked with processed food, so Allan travels with a cooler of fresh fruits, vegetables, canned fish, and protein so he is not stuck choosing from the shelf.
- Research food options at your destination ahead of time. Look for local markets with food that fits your eating plan, and use a hotel room's fridge or kitchenette to store and cook your own meals instead of eating out every meal.
- Know your stress-eating triggers before they hit. Allan names delayed flights and stressful moments as triggers that spike cortisol and push him toward bad food choices, and recommends having proper snacks ready and a plan, like getting up and walking, to interrupt the trigger.
- Pack workout clothes or you will not work out. Allan says leaving workout clothes out the night before makes you far more likely to actually put them on and get to the hotel gym in the morning.
- Research gyms before you arrive, and have a backup plan. Hotel gyms rarely support real strength training, so Allan calls ahead to local gyms or uses his Anytime Fitness membership, and falls back on bodyweight workouts, bands, or a walk through the city when nothing else is available.
- Balance hydration with electrolytes on flights. Allan shares a personal scare where over-hydrating on a flight while eating a very low-sodium diet led to water poisoning and an emergency room visit, and now carries sea salt to add a pinch to his water on planes.
- Get up and move during long flights. Sitting for extended periods raises the risk of deep vein thrombosis, so Allan recommends standing and walking roughly every 30 minutes when you are not asleep.
- Manage travel stress on purpose. Allan suggests meditation, massage, and getting outdoors into sunlight and green space to help burn off the cortisol that travel stress produces.
- Protect your sleep environment even in a hotel. Allan covers stray lights with towels, requests a room away from the elevator, uses a white noise app, keeps the room cool, avoids screens, and tries to mimic his normal bedtime routine as closely as possible.
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