Running your own business is hard. You may have to travel a lot with your work, and traveling can lead to a disrupted routine. You don’t work 9-5, you work whenever-whenever.
You live off convenience foods and living in the moment, making it hard to plan and prepare your food and exercise routine.
The truth is, keeping yourself well and healthy will only benefit your business. If you are eating, sleeping and exercising well, then you will have a healthy working immune system. This can help to make sure you don’t get ill, as this could take away precious working time.
On top of this, if you are keeping well then your brain will be functioning fully, and you will be getting the hormones and endorphins you need to be working optimally.
Here are our top 5 tips to staying fit whilst traveling.
Take a Power Walk
If you are working 15 hour days in different time zones/places, you need to give your brain a break to ensure that you are focused when you are working. The best thing you can do when you are taking this break is something active. A great thing to do is to go for a power walk or jog. This gives you the chance to conjure up some new ideas, whilst burning some extra calories and exploring the area.
Top Tip: Use this time to listen to a podcast, this way you can be using your time productively whilst giving your brain time to switch off.
Don’t Snack on Unhealthy Foods
If you are working and traveling it is easy to want to snack on convenience foods. You may not have access to a kitchen which will make it hard to incorporate healthy foods into your day, however, find the local supermarket and buy yourself some fruit and veg to snack on. This will give you a boost of energy and stop your blood sugar from dropping too low.
Top tip: Cut up some carrot sticks/cucumber at the start of the day and carry these around with you for when you need them. Sugar snaps or peas are also a good snack to satisfy you.
HIIT workouts
High-intensity interval training is a great way of getting your exercise in a short period of time with no equipment needed. You can do these absolutely anywhere. Make sure you are working between 80-100% of your max effort to ensure you are getting the full benefits of this type of exercise. Pick 4 exercises and do 45 seconds working time, 15 seconds rest. Do four rounds of these.
Workout idea: Press ups, squats/squat jumps, burpees, and crunches. 45s working time, 15s rest. Repeat this 4 times through. It will only take 16 minutes and will really get your heart rate up and make you sweat.
Avoid Public Transport
Sometimes, you may be in a rush to get from one place to another, and in this case, obviously, you may need to resort to a bus or taxi. But whenever possible, try to walk, jog or cycle places. This will allow you to explore the area you are in, and burn some extra calories.
Top tip: This is where planning comes in handy. If you know you have a meeting at 8 AM, find out how long it would take to walk there and wake up 30 minutes earlier to ensure you have plenty of time to get there.
Find an Outdoor Gym
Outdoor gyms are very popular nowadays, and they are usually dotted around cities. They are good to allow you to save money and get in a quick workout. Jog to the outdoor gym and depending on their equipment, do 4 sets of 12-15 of each exercise.
You can also use a bench and do elevated press ups or dips on it. Again do 4 sets of 12-15. Then jog home. This is a great way to explore the city and get some exercise into your day.
Top tip: You can make the outdoors your complete gym.
Summing it Up
The number one thing to remember is that planning is key. Try to plan out when you are going to fit your exercise in the day before so that you can work around that.
Planning your healthy snacks is equally as important. This will stop you from allowing your blood sugars to drop, as when this happens you will immediately resort to unhealthy foods. Prioritizing exercise and healthy foods will ensure that you actually do it.
