Staying Fit – Without Staying Put
Staying Fit – Without Staying Put
by Lisa Hickey

Anyone who is spending the summer in planes, trains or automobiles to reach either that dream vacation destination or just that next arduous out-of-town business meeting doesn’t have to sacrifice their hard-earned fitness routine in trade for sloth and overindulgence. And once you’ve become hooked on active traveling, the benefits add up so quickly, you’ll never look back. You can lose weight; improve your flexibility and even train for your next triathlon while you get from points A to Z. As gearing up to change your inactive travel habits can be difficult, we’ve provided six ways to ignite your enthusiasm and keep you in shape while you travel.

Stay Flexible
Computer applications trainer, Wayne Baker, is on the road about 15 days a month.
One could assume this makes it hard for this certified Bikram yoga instructor to satisfy his addiction to yoga. But when it comes to combining travel and fitness, necessity is the mother of invention. And Baker’s quest to find suitable workouts in some of the most unlikely places shows his commitment to his exercise of choice. On a recent business trip to Dayton, Ohio, he chose the hotel’s dry sauna as the venue for his solo session of strenuous yoga postures. On another trip, he tried a Pilates class offered at the local ballet studio. His well-thought-through plans don’t always prove positive, like when he joined the yoga class in San Angelo only to have the instructor never show up.
“I’ve been traveling for work for about four years,” says Baker. “I gained weight because I was so sedentary. Then I made a decision to become active and to commit to working out on every trip. I’ve gone to yoga classes all over Texas, including one where I was the only male in a class of pregnant women. (That was interesting, to say the least.) Despite my grueling travel schedule, I’m more fit now than I’ve been in eight years. The bottom line is that I just don’t sacrifice exercise.”

Adjust Your Airport Attitude
If just the thought of airports makes your hips expand, try an attitude adjustment. Consider leaving your car in the airport long-term parking and briskly walking to the terminal, adding about 20 minutes of exercise to your trip. After you make it through security, it’s tempting to plop down in the gate area and watch television. Instead, keep active before you board your flight. At a cost of $700 million, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport’s 26-gate facility features an open-air atrium and one of the more unique airport architecture designs, making it a great place to explore.
But this doesn’t give you free rein to eat everything in sight. Airports and airplanes should not be all about pretzels, peanuts, cinnamon rolls and beer. More than ever, airport restaurants now offer a large selection of healthy to-go options for travelers to eat in flight. McDonald’s has new low-fat salad options. Starbucks has expanded its wares to include premade salads and sandwiches in addition to their traditional lattés and muffins. Beginning July 1, U.S. Airways will be the first airline to sell food in-flight on most domestic flights of more than 700 miles. Some of the healthier choices will include fruit salad with yogurt and the chicken Caesar sandwich.

Plan Ahead
Triathlete Ainsley Williams knows where she will exercise before she even gets to her hotel. As a liaison with higher education institutions in Texas for Marsh USA, Williams spends much of her time on planes traveling to business meetings. But that doesn’t stop her from intensely training for the Vineman Half Ironman Triathlon coming in August in Sonoma County, California. What’s her secret? Williams researches everything to do with her road-based workouts before she even chooses her hotel or schedules her flight. For example, when she stays in Dallas or Houston, she selects hotels near YMCAs so she can take advantage of their large indoor pools for lap swimming. She also reviews each hotel Web site to determine what workout facilities they provide. That way, she can pack more efficiently if she knows she’ll only have a water workout or a run on the treadmill.
Williams says she often calls the hotel in advance to speak with the concierge about nearby fitness options. Unlike most business travelers, she says she exercises more on the road than at home because there are fewer social distractions. “When I’m in Austin, my friends call me to go out for drinks or dinner. But when I’m traveling, I’m more focused and I simply get in more workouts. Also, I don’t have to commute to get to work or to the gym. From my hotel, I just go downstairs or across the street to exercise.”

Choose Hotels That Cater To Exercisers
If you can’t be an Austinite, then at least be a business traveler coming to Austin who stays at the Four Seasons Hotel (or recommend their accommodations to your business associates, friends or family coming in town). They have a dedication that goes above and beyond the norm when it comes to providing exercise options to their guests, says Laura Stemac, a Four Seasons concierge. Hotel guests have access to an impressive in-house gym, a large outdoor pool that overlooks Town Lake and bike rentals for local trail riding. The hotel also offers water aerobics and yoga classes on weekends. Stemac says most of today’s travelers have a strong level of commitment to exercising during
their stay at the hotel. In fact, many of their guests need more than just the dream-like pool or high-tech gym. Stemac has arranged personal trainers, private Pilates classes, individual yoga instruction, private chefs and even canoe rentals for some of her clientele. “I had one guest interested in sculling so we set them up with the Austin Rowing Club,” she says. And if you forget to bring your workout clothes, the Four Seasons lends shorts, T-shirts, shoes and socks to their guests at no cost. Wow! Talk about service!

Keep Your Workout Simple
Personal trainer Burton Turner encourages his clients to skip the glory and keep their expectations simple when working out away from home. He says his clients want to run in the most beautiful places or bike in the scenic areas. This is fine, says Turner, just remember that working out is the point, not where you do it. As an eight-time Ironman Hawaii participant, Turner remembers his days of hardcore training when he lived and worked in Tokyo.
“I was on a business trip to Australia and there was a typhoon. All I could do for three weeks was ride the stationary bike in the hotel and windsurf. Here I was training for the Hawaii Ironman and every day I’d go to the hotel workout room and ride that Schwinn Aerodyne for 45 minutes. It was a brutally hard workout. But it was definitely no-frills. My point is that too many people want a glorious place to work out or the most sophisticated piece of exercise equipment. But most of my Ironman training has been on stationary bikes and Stairmasters. Why? Because you can find them pretty much anywhere.”
Turner discovered a unique trick for lap swimming in small hotel Jacuzzis. He tried tethered swimming by clipping a bungee cord to a belt around his waist and tying the other end to a pole near the Jacuzzi. With the heat from the Jacuzzi it makes it quite a hot and strenuous workout.

Avoid the Food Sand Trap
Both Williams and Baker admit that finding healthy food on the road is the most difficult task in their stay-fit travel plans. Baker says he tries to find local healthy restaurants on the Internet before he travels to each business meeting. Also, he suggests the B.Y.O.F. rule of bringing your own food with you while you travel. He says the one thing he always carries is water.
For Williams, who often entertains clients at nice restaurants for lunch and dinner, it is more difficult to control her meals. “It’s hard to maintain reasonable nutrition when I’m on the road,” explains Williams. “As a balance, I try to eat a light breakfast, like a piece of fruit or a canned protein shake, since I know I’ll be eating out later in the day.”
Turner tells his clients to remember that you can find chicken or tuna salad anywhere. While indulging at a nice restaurant can be a well-deserved treat after a long travel or work day, Turner suggests eating in moderation. “You don’t have to drink more than anyone else at the table. And you certainly don’t need to eat more than anyone else. Just use good judgment.” he says. Turner suggests saving half of the meal and bringing it back to the hotel room for a snack later. This is healthier, he explains, than raiding the mini-bar at midnight.
So next time you make those travel reservations, be sure to plan your fitness breaks as well. Challenge yourself to skip the hotel remote control, forgo the ‘expense account’ dessert and try to be active when you’re waiting at the airport. Try to use your time away from home to get some exercise brownie points, not demerits. Most importantly, know that you can feel as good about yourself when you’re away from home as you do when you’re there.

Photo Captions:
Austin’s Four Seasons Hotel is equipped for the traveler who wants to stay fit.