There are huge challenges to leading a healthy lifestyle when you’re on the road (or in the sky) frequently on business travel. As a group, business travellers face serious health and psychological issues compared with their stay-at-home colleagues. Even as a veteran business traveller, Steve has to make a real effort to avoid falling into the various health pitfalls he regularly faces. As I tag along with him more frequently, I’m paying attention to them more too. If you’re new to the business travel life, take heed. It’s a quick trip to Unhealthy Town without a strategy.
Kristina Portillo knows what it’s like to try to stay healthy as a frequent business traveler. While logging 75,000 annual frequent flyer miles, she was determined to maintain her weight and reach her health and fitness goals. After figuring out a workable system, she turned her quest into an enterprise, Business Travel Life. Today, she helps business-travelling clients transform their health with customized fitness and wellness programs. The company’s website offers loads of tips, inspiration, and guidance to help road warriors on the path to better health.
Business Travel Health Advice
I asked Kristina to share her thoughts on health and travel:
Tag Along Deb: What are the wellness challenges frequent business travellers face?
Kristina: There are a number of them, mostly related to constant meals out at restaurants, increased stress, lack of exercise, and getting less sleep.
Tag Along Deb: What are some of the biggest mistakes new frequent business travellers make with respect to their health?
Kristina: One of the biggest mistakes is that they treat business trips like a vacation. They over indulge in food and alcohol, they stay out late at night, and skip routine exercise.
Tag Along Deb: The thing is, schedules are often really tight on business travel. How can you manage to work out?
Kristina: The key to fitting in exercise during travel is planning ahead. The safest bet is to work out first thing in the morning. During conferences, I will also squeeze in mini workouts throughout the day, meaning 10 minutes before breakfast, 10 minutes when I go back to the room between sessions, a 10-minute brisk walk during the lunch break and 10 minutes when I go back to the room to change for dinner. All these mini workouts add up to 40 minutes of exercise.
Tag Along Deb: What can business travellers do to eat healthy on the road?
Kristina: Portion control is the most important thing to keep in mind. Restaurant meals often serve extreme portion sizes and it is crucial to pay attention to how much you are eating at each meal.
It is also important to eat breakfast. There are many things you cannot control during travel, but eating a healthy breakfast provides a solid foundation for your day. So many people skip breakfast and it leads to overeating later in the day (and often sugar cravings). Another tip is to travel with some healthy snacks. Whether you pack them from home or pick them up during travel, having a healthy snack in your bag will reduce temptation to grab a candy bar or something else unhealthy.
Tag Along Deb: Do you think hotels are starting to focus more on the health of their guests? Are you seeing any positive developments in the travel industry?
Kristina: Yes, I think they are. I have seen some amazing offerings from Westin, for example, including rentals for workouts shoes and clothes and even the option to have a room with a treadmill. The Homewood Suites by Hilton offers grocery shopping services for free (what a great way to have healthy snacks available). Many hotels seem to be offering better breakfast options such as Greek yogurt, egg whites and fruit. Hotels are also improving their size and equipment in their workout rooms.
Tag Along Deb: Employers are asking a lot of employees required to travel frequently for work. What can they do to encourage employee wellbeing?
Kristina: Employers could encourage road warrior wellbeing by booking lodgings with more wellness offerings. They could also provide access to educational information for their travellers to learn how to eat healthier on the road. Many travellers want to be healthier but are unsure how to balance health and constant travel.
Business Travel Health And Tagging Along
In addition to Kristina’s solid tips, I believe having your spouse (or kids) tag along on business travel when possible also counters negative health effects. Feelings of loneliness and isolation take a psychological toll on both the spouse and travelling employee. Even if you have little time to spend with your significant other while on business, connecting with him or her at the end of the day or for an occasional meal together makes travelling for work more bearable. Having someone around to encourage healthy eating and to exercise with can also make you more likely to do those things.
I don’t get the sense that many corporate wellness programs promote spouses tagging along on business travel, but they should. Businesses could encourage their frequently travelling employees to have family members join them occasionally by paying for a portion of a flight or allowing an extra day off to spend time together at the travel destination. It’s not always easy to justify taking some time out to join your travelling spouse, but corporate support could tip the balance in deciding to do it.
I’d love to hear from road warriors and road warrior spouses alike. How does frequent business travel affect your health and what to you do for your own wellbeing?
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No matter if you re in economy or first class, everyone on a long-haul transatlantic flight is breathing the same recirculated air. Not only does this expose frequent business travelers to germs more often, the jet lag and general tiredness from running to and from airports can even switch off genes that are linked to the immune system, Cohen notes in his paper. This means frequent travelers are not as well equipped to fight off disease as people who travel less frequently.
These are good points. It’s impossible to eliminate all of the health hazards of frequent business travel. I think that’s why it’s so important to pay attention to the things you do have control over.
Great article and tips! Thanks for this!
Book your hotel a block from where you need to be and walk to where you need to go. I’m always amazed how often people take the cab when it’s really within walking distance.
That’s a great tip, Jesse. I’m big on walking when I’m travelling. You also just see so much more of the place you’re visiting.
[…] It's not easy to avoid business travel health hazards, but there are things you can do to reduce the risks. […]