REST

We tend to travel a lot for work, business, and vacations.  On those traveling days you are prone to not workout, get out of your normal routine, eat unhealthy food options, and most likely sleep pretty terrible.

What if I told you it doesn’t have to be that way?  What if I told you that you can do 5 quick and easy tips and you will feel better when traveling.  Here are those tips:

Tip 1:

Sleep for 7.5 or 9 hours – your body sleeps in 90-minute intervals, so if you set your alarm to wake you up at 6 hours, 7.5 or 9 hours of sleep… then you are waking up at your lightest moment in sleep and wake up feeling refreshed and not have to slam that SNOOZE button 16 times. 

When you plan out your sleep, get to bed at a decent hour and can wake-up feeling refreshed; you are literally setting yourself up for success.  You will have more clarity and energy in the morning, you will be more productive and smarter with your decisions, and you will look forward to your to-do list!

Tip 2:

10-15 min of exercise in the morning – yes you read that right. 10-15 min is all you need to elevate your heart rate, stimulate your muscles, and jumpstart your metabolism to get your body burning fat right away!  Morning routines are very crucial for everyone to start out their day in the right direction. 

From then on, everything else should be downhill and you can handle anything!  Calisthenics is the easiest form of exercise to do on the road, but also if you purchase resistance band [with handles] then you can add more variety to your typical pushups/squats/crunches routine. 

The key is to get your heart rate up in the 120-160 beats per minute range so make sure you do the exercises in a circuit or superset format to be more active than you are resting.

Tip 3:

Fuel your body – in the morning you want to fuel your body properly.  Drink water first thing when you wake up.  8-12 ounces is a good place to start and if you add lemon in your water that will help detoxify your body and boost your liver’s function.

I personally follow up my water with Bulletproof Coffee or Mushroom coffee for this exact purpose.  It fills you up with the butter and brain octane oil in it, and the coffee will have polyphenols in it to help fight cancer, and fuel your mitochondria to give you better brain clarity and thought processes. 

If you are not a coffee person, then I would recommend some healthy fats and proteins in the morning.  A whole egg with half an avocado or bacon and avocado toast is another great option for breakfast as well.

Tip 4: 

Avoid Carbs, Sugars, and Processed foods.  Yes, these 3 things are delicious, yes they are hard to avoid when on the road all the time, but it isn’t impossible to do.  You can go to a Whole Foods or a grocery store and get foods to eat at your hotel versus eating at restaurants or fast food places. 

Carbs turn into sugar, sugar turns into fat when not used for immediate energy, and processed foods increase your cholesterol and fat stores in your body.  So when you eat all 3 of these in your normal diet, you are literally shortening your life and weakening your heart so you have a shorter lifespan [aka not see your grandkids grow up]. 

Instead, have proteins, fats, fiber, and vegetables in your daily dietary habits and you will burn more fat in your body, trim down, and build muscle so you have energy and strength! 

Tip 5: 

Mind Tricks – if you want to lose weight, wear tighter clothes throughout the day.  Your body’s #1 mechanism is to avoid pain.  So when you wear tighter clothes it will trick your brain into eating healthier choices because you will realize that the brownie isn’t going to make your stomach smaller for those tight pants, but a salad will.  Or you will be more active to burn more calories so you can lose weight quicker. 

Another mind trick is to think to yourself “am I a good role model for my kids?”  “Do I want them to look like me when they are older?”  “Is my spouse still attracted to me?”  These 3 questions will spur motivation from within [the best kind of motivation] to take a 10,000 foot view of yourself and realize what changes need to happen in your life to better yourself for your family and yourself.  Mind tricks will help with your discipline, and your discipline will help give you freedom!     

Closing Thought…

The ultimate goal is finding what works for you with the ultimate goal of controlling your health on the road. If you want to be an elite road warrior, you need to do things differently and this means experimenting with these and other tips to ultimately serve you. As Bryan Paul Buckley always says, “Do something, anything, just not nothing to master the business travel life.”      

This article was written by Jeff McMahon of Total Body Construction, team writer for Elite Road Warrior Group.