Fitness on the GO!

Nothing can distance you from your health like travelling away from home. Absence of a gym, perceived lack of time, sleep deprivation, mental stress, and inadequate nutrition are just some of the obstacles faced on business trips.

There are times during your travels when you will need to put your fitness on hold in order to build relationships and get ahead. Just face it, critical relationships are built at the dinners and parties that take place when you are off of the clock. These are relationships that may be leveraged later during times of crisis. You need to invest the time into making your trip as successful as possible. Fortunately, failing at fitness is not necessary to winning at work.

There are three critical elements to monitor while you are away from regular training:

Nutrition:
It’s ok to have a cigarette break… why can’t you have a nutrition break? Company lunches and corporate flights malnourish you. Inadequate nutrition during the day leads to overindulging at night. The only way to be sure you will stay nourished is if you bring healthy food with you. Bring 2 apples per day and ½ pound of almonds with you on your trip. Then, during breaks you can always go get some balanced nutrition.

Rest:
Be fully rested before you leave on the trip. Cumulative lack of sleep is called “sleep lag.” Always leave home on a full tank of sleep.
Be moderately social. Less (alcohol) drinking time means more resting time. Don’t lock yourself away from the world, but enough is enough. When you are serious, one glass is usually enough.
Drink water. Too much caffeine during the day makes it tough to go to sleep. Drink your water.

· Exercise:
o No more than ten minutes at a time of exercise are necessary.
o A study showed that college aged females who exercised three times per day for just 10 minutes at a time burned more calories than those who exercised just one time for 30 minutes straight. This is good news!
o Look to elevate your heart rate right inside your hotel room (email jonathan for a free 10 minute workout you can do while in the comfort of your own home or hotel room).

When it’s time for you to leave your home base take your food, your positive mental attitude, and your workout along for the ride. Getting your rest, staying hydrated and not overindulging at night can make your trip more effective. Being effective on the job can open up more opportunities when you come full circle and arrive back at home.

Fitnss Hibernation

Winter is approaching, but that doesn’t mean that your desire to live a healthy lifestyle needs to go into hibernation.

If you’re looking to gain weight this winter, stop reading right now. Otherwise; it’s time to get prepared, because you're about to be tempted.

Your first challenge will come with the trick or treat temptations. Next; a holiday that revolves around eating. Then winter hits and, statistically speaking, clothing layers pile on while visits to the gym dwindle. By the time that the Christmas party season is in full swing you’ve been bombarded with more reasons than any other time of year to avoid your health. “Just put it off” you hear, “New Years is around the corner and your resolutions can start then.” The problem is that with this mindset, you could spend until tax day struggling to get back to where you are right now.

Have fun and enjoy the season. Take advantage of all the extra fun and networking opportunities that this time of year can bring. Just don’t forget that success is a choice you make. A choice you make continuously throughout each and every day.

Remember that your choices:
-In a day will shape how you feel.
-In a week will shape how committed you are to your goal.
-In a month will shape how close you get to that goal (or blow right past it!!!).
-In a year will shape your business associations, your personal convictions, and your relationship with your family.
-In a lifetime will shape the legacy you leave behind you… your longevity, your risk factor of stroke, osteoporosis, heart attack, and cancer; and of course your impact on future generations.

Oh, and by the way… let your New Year’s resolutions fantasies go, everyone knows that they're more likely to fail than to succeed. If you are to resolve to anything then resolve now to start the New Year in better shape than last year.

Everyone's Got One

Of course you know that being healthy is important don’t you! You’ve read articles about staying healthy, pondered different exercises, taken fitness classes, maybe even looked at someone who’s really fit and copied what they were doing! I’m guessing that you’ve already done quite a bit of studying fitness yourself. So odds are you have developed some sort of an opinion about how be healthy.

Over the last few years of being involved in the fitness industry I have heard many fitness “opinions”. Some opinions are just crazy, others have value. The funny thing is that a person can be just as passionate about a fad as they can a fact! To make things more difficult to understand; what was once fact can be revealed as fad, and vice versa. It’s my intention to help you stay up to date and clear the ambiguity that comes with the many different methods of getting in shape by delivering my opinion to you weekly via email (that is; unless you spam me!).

This weekly email is also designed to address some of the fitness questions I’ve heard along the way. Questions like: “If I lift super heavy will my arms get bigger”, “what’s the best protein powder”, or my favorite: “what’s the best ab exercise to do to get rid of this” (grabs belly).

Of all the complex theories, people I’ve approached and programs out there that I have studied; two things have really rang true to me. The first is that the truth is always simple; the other is that if the person you’re talking to has an answer for everything… they are probably not listening. With that said there’s not always a “right” answer for every question, only right answers for you.

We'll get to more questions in due time. As far as a general answer to most fitness questions... when in doubt choose enjoyable, do-able alternatives to hyped up fitness fads and take advantage of healthy options that you know are good for you. Start small; with the apple a day and a walk around the block at lunch. Small habits repeated over time can have lasting benefits!

(Hint: fitness truths are simple to understand and can be difficult to do… fitness fads are tough to understand and usually very easy to do!)

Until next time!
Jonathan