10 Tips for Staying Compliant with Training and Nutrition While Traveling

For anyone who has ever had a goal of losing fat (or gaining muscle for that matter), the achilles heel tends to be things that throw you off the set schedule; like travel. Once you get a pretty good groove in your current training program and nutrition and you have to take a trip.Enter multiple days of traveling and hotels.Whether you travel every month, or as much as every week on short trips; you tell yourself you will be fine since you have will-power but as soon as you hit the road it turns into inconsistent meals, snacks that are not part of the plan and missed training sessions because you were tired from the day.Another obstacle is that when you do fall off track when traveling, it's hard to get back into the groove of things when you get home. So that's a double negative whammy!But you're not going to make excuses and let yourself fall into that trap. You're going to ninja kick your way out with preparation!

As with anything else unless you have developed really great habits while traveling (which takes some time), you have to create a strategy and put things in place to be successful.So how do you give yourself the best chance of being compliant while on the road, both with training and nutrition? Here are some tips that will make the next trip more productive and keep you on track to reach your goals.1. Pack high quality snacks that in a worst-case scenario you can snack on and you’ll be a lot better of than reaching for whatever is available. Think protein shakes, hard-boiled eggs, beef jerky, tuna salad, greens drink, nuts, kefir, green peppers and ground almond butter, etc.

2. Always have a lot of fluids with you to stay hydrated. It’s much better to skip some meals (more about that later in the intermittent fasting tip) than to get dehydrated. Water and tea is the way to go. I stop at the Starbucks at airports and get Chai or green tea to switch it up a little from constantly drinking water.3. Check your schedule for when you are away and actually plan on when you will be doing your training and eating. Have a plan B if plan A doesn’t work out. That means if you’re at a seminar and you have a lunch break from 1-2pm and the event gets done at 6pm every day, you should work on fitting a training session in one of those times. Be honest with yourself and if you know you’ll want to go to dinner with colleagues then you’ll have to fit the training in between lunch, even if its just 20 minutes.4. Google the closest gym to the hotel that has the equipment you need for your program. It is also more motivating to go to a gym with other people training around you than to stay at the hotel gym. It also makes you feel like you are in your regular schedule a little more (unless you’re in Vegas where there are some pretty serious gyms in hotels - been there once or twice). I always opt for this if at all possible.5. Stick to your training program if you can but always have a back up if knocking out your planned training session is impossible because of either time, space or equipment availability. If the issue is time then cut down your training session and include the most important things for you (the 80/20 rule). So for instance, keep the foam rolling and mobility, hit your strength superset and then if your goal is fat loss add in the energy system training and if your goal is muscle building then do density sets with your assistance exercises (if you would like examples then let me know in the comments section and I will do a post on the possibilities).6. If you just can’t stick to your training session in any way because of restrictions then have planned go-to training sessions. For instance, my conditioning go-to is hurricanes because I know I can do them in any gym no matter how little equipment it has. Here is hurricane I knocked out while at a seminar in Connecticut with only 30 minutes to train.

The circuit of hurricanes was:15-second sprint at 15% incline and 12 mph speed
20 DB Swings
20 Push Ups
40 MB Russian Twists (20/side)
10 Man Makers
10 Chin UpsLet your heart rate come back down below 125 beats/minute before starting again (or give yourself pre-determined time for rest). Repeat for 5 rounds (and you can repeat that 5-round sequence up to three times depending on goals, time and fitness level).For muscle building go to training I use Charles Staley’s EDT (Escalating Density Training). This means I’ll take a set amount of time and take 2 to 3 exercises and do as many sets of the prescribed repetitions as possible in that time. You can use different repetitions depending on the goal but make sure you are not going to failure on each set (for instance, you would do 8-reps with a 12RM, that way you can get a lot of volume in without giving out before the time is up).Here is a training session I did weeks ago while on the road and I had less than an hour to get it in. It was a replacement for my upper body day. And yes, I was able to get into a commercial gym with pretty decent equipment:EDT – Zone 1 (12 minutes)
Bench Press x 8
T-bar RowEDT – Zone 2 (12 minutes)
Incline Alternating Neutral DB Bench Press x 8/side
1 Arm DB Row x 8/side
Push Up Variation x 12
Barbell Bodyweight Row x 12EDT – Zone 3 (6 minutes)
Chin Ups x 8
Triceps Rope Pulldowns x 8
Barbell Curls x 8
Diamond Push Ups x 8Every training session has a dynamic warm up before it. Here is an upper body warm up sequence I did a while ago at the old gym (ahhh, the memories). It includes foam rolling, mobility and activation drills all in a little over 9 minutes.

7. The excuse is that it’s hard to eat healthy while eating out for dinner when on the road but it’s exactly that; an excuse. Every restaurant has salads, lean meat, veggies and a selection of good carbs (if you just trained); they can also bring your sauce on the side. You do have to do something pretty crazy to get it – ask!8. Every time you are tempted by “stuff” that is not on your plan to achieving your goals, step back and think about your goals for a minute. Think about the feeling you will get when you achieve them. It is proven that when you take a moment to think about why you are doing what you are doing and how you will feel when you get there, the temptation goes away because the end result outweighs instant gratification. I don’t want to just throw some fu-fu advice at you as this really does help; it has done so for me many times.

9. Wake up in the morning and go for a 30-45 minute fasted walk. This does a number of things:

• Wakes you up and clears your mind, get the blood flowing.
• Gives you an opportunity to walk around the city/town. I enjoy doing this while away on trips as I get to discover new areas.
• It burns calories and fat (especially when fasted).
• You’ll eat better throughout the day when you start your day with training or an activity.
• It’s a great time to get ideas, as your mind is clearer when walking and relaxing. Take a notepad with you for anything that pops into your head.
• You may meet a great guy/girl, which you can take to dinner rather than people that will bore you to death from the seminar.

10. Fast the majority of the day. This is what I do and something I’ve been recommending for many people to look into. It’s definitely a personal preference and has to fit your lifestyle. But even if it’s not something you would do on the regular, it works great for traveling. I’m not going to go into crazy detail here, but some basics are:

• 16 fasting phase (if you eat your last meal at 9pm, you would eat the first meal at 1pm the next day).
• 4 hour under-eating phase (here you break your fast with a greens drink then eat light, only proteins, veggies and good fats).
• 4 hour over-eating phase (in this phase your calorie count goes up and you can also eat fruits and starches depending on what you did for training that day. It is great as your biggest meal is the last meal before you go to bed).

I recommend you check out the Renegade Diet, which is what I follow and have been doing for the last 8 months. It has gotten me feeling better, leaner and more focused.Print these tips out and use them the next time you have to travel.What are some other strategies you use to stay compliant and stay on point for your goals while on the road?