Maintaining a balance and keeping fit while away from home is difficult: without access to your usual facilities, having your evening dinners (and often lunches) out and meeting commitments, plus long working days and a fear of being seen as anti-social by colleagues can mean that it’s easy to avoid exercise, eat and drink a lot – and therefore end up putting on weight and generally feel rubbish when you’ve been working away.
Advice for keeping fit when working away from home
There is no easy solution, but here are some tips for keeping some form of active balance:
- always pack some running kit, don’t leave the trainers at home. Even if you don’t think you’ll have time to use them, you never know if a meeting will be cancelled or you get an evening to yourself
- skip hotel breakfast and use the gym or run around the local area. I often do this, as lets face it, the fry-ups are tempting, and breakfast takes at least half-an-hour which you could be using for a workout. Just pick up a spoon, yoghurt and some fruit when you get back, and have a coffee/tea in your room
- arrange to have dinner later, and squeeze in a cheeky workout between work and dinner. This way you won’t be seen as anti-social by skipping dinner, and your colleagues will probably either think it’s a great idea and do the same, or be secretly impressed!
- staying somewhere dodgy or with nowhere safe to run? Forgot your trainers? try an in-room workout! I take an elastic physio resistance band, and work on core, glutes and leg strength exercises on the floor or using the desk-chair (tricep-dips anyone?).