DON'T MISS A THING

For business travelers, frequent trips can disrupt their daily routines. The long travel hours, irregular schedules, and unfamiliar environments can make it challenging to stay healthy, even for health-conscious individuals.

These disturbances may result in increased stress, unhealthy eating habits, sleep deprivation, and a lack of mobility.

Despite these obstacles, maintaining wellness during your business trips is possible. A wellness-focused mindset can transform each trip, allowing you to prepare for the challenges ahead, remain balanced and energized, and create a fulfilling travel experience.

Here are tips to stay healthy on the move:

Avoid Skipping Breakfast

Business travel schedules are often hectic. You may sometimes skip breakfast to attend meetings or catch early morning flights.

However, skipping breakfast is a time-restricted eating. While it may help you reduce calorie intake, it may also disrupt your circadian rhythm, negatively affecting your sleep cycle and insulin uptake. 

It can also increase your hunger, leading to excessive food consumption.

For these reasons, eating breakfast daily is crucial in staying healthy while traveling. A healthy one helps give you the energy to accomplish your business tasks efficiently. Examples include oatmeal, vegetable sandwiches, and wholegrain cereals. You can combine them with fresh fruit juice or smoothies.

Reserve Lodging With Access to a Fitness Center

Unlike regular days, daily workouts are typically challenging to maintain during business trips because of limited time. Sometimes, you may not have time at all.

Fortunately, booking accommodations with fitness centers helps you stay on track with your workout routine.

Most accommodations provide gym facilities with treadmills, stationary bikes, rowing machines, elliptical trainers, and weights. You can also opt for hotels with swimming pools. Whatever you choose, the goal is to make your workout routine as convenient as possible.

Stock Up on Healthy Snacks

The likelihood of eating unhealthy foods while traveling for business is usually high. Long hours, delayed flights, and hectic schedules may force you to eat junk and fast foods to curb hunger. 

However, these unhealthy snacks and meals can make you feel sluggish. While short-term, this can significantly affect your focus and work productivity.

Packing healthy snacks helps you avoid turning to junk and fast foods. You can carry nuts, seeds, protein bars, and cereals.

You can also bring some People’s Choice Beef Jerky low-carb beef jerky. This diet-friendly and sugar-free snack has various flavors that can elevate your snacking experience and keep you healthy while working on the move.

Drink Plenty of Fluids

You might forget to drink water because of tight schedules. Without enough fluids, you could experience dehydration, making you feel fatigued. 

At the same time, if you travel via air, you may experience dry skin, nose, and throat due to low humidity levels in airplane cabins.

To stay hydrated, carrying a refillable water bottle when traveling is best. You should drink around eight ounces of water every hour during long flights. Alternatives like coconut water and fresh fruit juices are good if you prefer some flavor.

Remember to avoid carbonated drinks as much as possible because their sugar content can cause blood sugar spikes.

Make Time for Minor Workouts

Booking accommodations without gym amenities is sometimes inevitable. Because of this, you may skip your regular workout or stay in your room for long hours.

Making time for minor workouts helps you avoid this lack of mobility. You can do the following:

• Planks, crunches, sit-ups, lunges, jumping jacks, yoga, or other low-impact exercises you can easily do in your room
• Walking or jogging around the hotel for an hour
• Using the staircase instead of the elevator whenever possible

Move While Working

Prolonged sitting and screen time can cause eye strain and physical inactivity when working continuously. To avoid such risks, you should move while working.

Some ways to keep your mobility while working include:

• Take short breaks at least every hour. You can go for coffee breaks or walk around your room.
• Change positions. You can stand up or move around during meetings.
• Stretch your neck, hands, and legs from time to time.

Install Wellness Apps

Installing wellness apps is another way to stay fit in the comfort of your hotel room.

These apps provide health resources that can help you monitor your workouts, food intake, and overall health. Examples include:

• Fitness Apps – Learn quick workouts with step-by-step instructions or video demonstrations
• Nutrition Apps – Provide healthier food choices to maintain a balanced diet
• Mindfulness Apps – Listen to guided breathing exercises and meditation sessions to enhance focus
• Sleep Tracking Apps – Monitor sleeping patterns and provides insights into improving sleep quality
• Health Monitoring Apps – Monitor your blood pressure and heart rate

Talk To Loved Ones

Another challenging part of frequent business travels is homesickness. You may be unable to communicate with your loved ones properly because of different time zones. Some days, you may even miss homemade foods.

These factors may make you feel stressed, isolated, and frustrated, affecting your business trip wellness.

To curb homesickness, try making time to talk to your loved ones. Spending time with them briefly can help lift your mood and lessen feelings of loneliness. Your friends and family can also provide emotional support when you are feeling low.

Get Enough Sleep

Sometimes your schedules are packed the whole day during business travels. You may not get enough sleep because you must attend meetings and conferences and go to lunches or dinners with clients at different hours.

As such, sleep deprivation may affect your ability to focus and productivity. 

Sleeping at least seven hours is crucial to stay active and avoid sleep deprivation. Here are ways to get enough sleep while traveling:

• Create a sleep schedule
• Maintain a quiet environment
• Listen to calming music
• Avoid caffeine and alcohol in the late hours
• Avoid going to bed with a full stomach

Practice “Clean As You Go”

Maintaining hygiene and cleanliness when traveling is essential. Adopting the “Clean As You Go” approach helps minimize your germ exposure. 

For business travels, CLAYGO means regularly sanitizing your hands and cleaning the surfaces you use. It’s best to bring disinfectants to disinfect door knobs, handles, and areas that would touch your skin.

These habits help reduce the risk of acquiring illnesses so you can stay focused and productive.

Bring Your Vitamins, Supplements, and Medicines

Bringing your vitamins, supplements, and medicines helps you stay on track with your daily health regimen. It also ensures you have access to medicines when you get sick.

You should set reminders to avoid missing doses. This way, you can keep your immunity strong despite busy schedules and time zone changes.

Enjoy Some Leisure Activities

Lastly, leisure activities during business trips can significantly enhance the travel experience. Whether exploring an attraction, dining at a local restaurant, or unwinding on your room’s balcony, these activities can rejuvenate the mind and spirit.

Incorporating these endeavors also helps break the monotonous working cycle, allowing you to create travel memories for pleasure and enjoyment.

This blend of relaxation and productivity ensures a more holistic approach that accomplishes tasks while indulging in experiences, making every business trip an opportunity for personal and professional growth.

Don’t Sacrifice Your Health for Work

The stress and pace of business travel demand that you take extra care of your health. Fortunately, you can remain productive and efficient even with simple practices like mindful eating, minor workouts, and taking breaks.

Remember, your well-being is the foundation of your professional success. You shouldn’t sacrifice it for short-term gains that may result in long-term health issues.

Feature Image by Gustavo Fring | Pexels

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