How-to align your nutrition plan with your travel plans
Do your travel plans align or conflict with your nutrition plan?
This is a conversation we have frequently with clients - whether for business or for pleasure, travel has the capacity to cause a little uncertainty when following a nutrition plan, but it doesn’t need to.
To travel abroad and not experience the rich cultural aspects offered by food would be, in our opinion, a waste of a trip and a failure on our behalf as your coach to properly prepare you.
Just like every aspect of our programming, the specific approach will vary based on the individual - but here are a few things to consider when contemplating your next trip, as it all comes back to evaluating your current and specific goals.
Short-term focus
If your prioritized goals are short-term (you’re preparing for a physique contest, preparing for a meet or working to change a weight-class), then yes, your ability to indulge is going to be hampered while traveling. When deciding to set these goals, this is something that should have been considered and feeds back into our previous post about fully understanding the goals you are setting. To decide that you want to be 6% body fat is to decide you’ll be taking your kitchen scales in your carry on, saying no to the local wine tasting, passing on the charcuterie boards and declining the home made tiramisu.
Long-term focus
If your goals are more long-term focused, around improving your overall health, relationship and understanding of food, there’s plenty of room to work in the local delicacies into your day, without needing to completely drop the ball. You could decide to have one meal each day where you let yourself indulge, guilt-free. Or, focus on keeping your protein intake at a certain minimum and staying within a caloric range. Setting activity goals could be another way to help you feel more like yourself while travelling, without taking away from the experiences at hand. Make use of the hotel gym and walk around the city you’re in rather than taxi.
Theres also a large element of acceptance required when travelling - things aren’t going to be perfect! If you’re eating more than usual off-plan, you’re not going to feel as energetic, motivated or athletic as you normally would - and that’s fine! It comes with the territory, and unlike that trip to Korea you have planned, the memories of feeling a little sub par are not going to be as cumbersome as the feeling that you didn’t really get to enjoy the full experience.
Ultimately, whatever you decide - what’s most important is the support system you have in place for when you return. Even if your trip gets a little out of hand and you indulge more than you wanted - the best thing you can do to get back to normal is to get back to plan as quickly as possible.
Our advice is simply this - enjoy your travelling where you can. Make smart choices when you can, but not at the cost of an amazing experience - and don’t stress. When you come back, we’re right here to help you get straight back to program.
Click here to inquire about creating your own personalized program with MTMM today!