How to Stay Fit While Traveling

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If you’re going out of town for a vacation, a business trip, or personal reasons, you may be worried about sticking to your exercise routine. While not being able to stick to your regular schedule might feel stressful, it can be a hidden opportunity to get creative and try some new exercises. With the right mindset and a little planning, you can stay fit even as you travel.

Road Trip Fitness

For some, road trips provide time to yourself to listen to music and focus on nothing but the road and your company for a few hours. For others, road trips are simply an unavoidable, stressful endeavor to get from point A to point B. Regardless, the long amounts of sitting accompanied by junk food snacks from the gas station can seriously get in the way of your healthy routines. 

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to provide your body with some relief from the plights of driving for hours. According to experts, the best way to stay fit on a long drive is to drink a lot of water, stretch your legs as much as possible, and plan your meals in advance. 

Staying healthy while traveling is really as simple as trading soda, energy drinks, or other sugary beverages for water — which can give you enough energy to stay awake during the trip. However, the challenge here will be to balance your consumption of water with the rest stops available on your route, which you can plan by looking at rest stops in advance. 

While you are looking for available bathrooms, you can also plan stops every hour or couple of hours depending on the length of your trip to get out of the car. Even if you don’t have to go to the bathroom, it is good to get your blood flowing as you make your way to your destination.

Lastly, you can plan your meals in advance to avoid gas station snacks. If your ride is only a few hours long, then you can pack a healthy meal or plan to eat when you get there. If you have a longer trip, you can either pack food in a cooler or track the cities on the way to your destination for places to eat with healthy options. 

Working Out Without a Gym

You may be relieved to be done with the driving once you get to your destination, but your journey is far from over. Visiting another city means you are without your gym, but with some research, you can still maximize your workout effectiveness. 

If strength training is part of your routine, you might find it hard to work out without access to your gym. You can try looking for gyms near the place where you’ll be staying. If you’re going to be with family or friends, you might find a gym nearby that does a free trial for a week or two to buy you some time. If not, you can try a day pass. Also, if you have a gym membership to a national fitness franchise, you might be able to locate one in cities on the way to your destination

If you are staying at a hotel, you might be lucky enough to have a gym located in the facility for your use. While it likely won’t have the same equipment you’re used to, you can still have a great workout using the equipment there. 

If none of these options work for you, then you can get creative. The great thing about exercise is that you can exercise anywhere. Try finding substitute objects to use for strength training, doing more sets and reps to get your muscles sore, or use your body weight to do core exercises. 

While your workout will be different while you’re away, there are always plenty of easy ways to stay active and keep your body in good health while you celebrate away from home. You can even get your family or friends to get active with you by completing an exercise routine, doing morning yoga, or going on a walk together. 

Healthy Eating Tips While on Vacation

Going on vacation generally means lots of eating, food tasting, and drinking — which can make you feel uneasy about sticking to your healthy eating goals. There is no need to worry. Keeping in mind a few principles and swapping out a few tempting items for healthy ones will get you through your vacation guilt-free.

The key to eating on vacation is healthy portions, just like any other time of the year. You can certainly have your share of fancy dinners and temptatious plates, just stick to healthy portions of them. Part of this means that if you do go back for seconds, stick to vegetable sides to fill you up. Also, eat plenty during your meals and drink lots of water so you don’t give in to tempting snacks throughout the day. 

If you’re visiting your family, you can stay healthy by having a hand in the making of some healthy dishes that meet your nutritional needs. While you don’t need to push your standards of healthy eating on your whole family, you can bring a side dish or two to the table. This way, you can make sure that there will be options for you to enjoy. 

You can also apply this to your drinks. In order to stay away from sugar-filled concoctions, you can bring tea with you or order it when you go out. This way, you don’t always have to drink water, you can control how much sugar is added, and you can enjoy a tasty, healthy drink. Plus, there are so many types and flavors of tea, you can try a different one with each meal and not get tired of them. 

Just because you’re on a trip to celebrate and splurge a little doesn’t mean you have to abandon your healthy habits. By planning ahead and preparing to sustain your lifestyle while you’re away from home, you can stay fit and healthy while you’re away.