Douglas Adams says...

Travel can wreak havoc on our fitness routines.  Well, unless we happen to travel with a gym and a personal trainer (and, while we’re at it, we’d like a pony…).  Here in Reality Land, I happen to take a personal trainer with me wherever I go, but even so, my routines get disrupted.  What to do?

First, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams, don’t panic.  Disruption is, occasionally, good for our routines.  When we are outside of our usual habitat, we discover new things and often new ways to get in those important fitness minutes.

If we’re on vacation, great!  Maybe we’re having a relaxing beach vacation?  No problem:  long walks on the beach happen to have fitness benefits, as does the ionized sea air, and we can run or swim or kayak or surf or paddleboard if we’re feeling like kicking it up a notch.  If we’re having the sight-seeing kind, I can pretty much guarantee that exploring the local cathedral/museum/national park/shopping district will get us enough steps to count as our exercise.  We’ll probably burn enough calories to justify sampling the region’s best cuisine while we’re at it.

Traveling for work can be a different story.  The good news is that most hotels have fitness centers.  A lot of them have pools.  We can squeeze in our weights and cardio around our jobs like we have to do at home.  The challenge with work travel is usually more about finding healthy food amid the airport fast food and Frankenbreakfasts.  Packing nutritious snacks can make a huge difference.

Back to the first point, though.  Worst case, we still don’t want to panic.  Even an entire week of missed workouts is not the end of the world.  We are more than our workouts.