fitnessprincess’s BodyBlog

Trip was a mixed bag - did well at the beginning but crashed at the end. I was very nervous leaving in terms of how to make things work using the approach Noel uses. I am not sure that she works with folks who travel regularly for business. To be perfectly fair she asked me at the outset what I needed but that’s like the tail wagging the horse - backwards from my perspective as a client. If I knew what I needed well I wouldn’t be paying for a nutrition coach, right? Anyway so I asked her for macros so I could at least have some sort of target to hit. I decided I would try to emulate her approach and craft a nutrition plan that I would follow based on what I could get locally from the grocery store and store in my room. I had already inquired about getting a refrigerator for my room but at $15/day that was simply not in the cards. Too rich for my blood! When I arrived I went to Whole Foods, which was a couple blocks from my hotel (I had researched this on the internet before leaving home), and went shopping for foods I could keep in my room. There was a CVS next door so in the end I ended up getting canned chicken at CVS, red plums ($179/lb; delicious but sloppy got ripe and messy to eat), almonds, ezekiel bread and seedlander crackers. Not much variety I know and I think this killed me in the end. I also located a Subway a couple of blocks from the hotel where I figured I could get salad. I did manage to get to the Subway a couple of times during the meeting but not as often as I would have liked. That was probably for the best as it was pretty expensive in DC - salad and water was about $8 - yikes! I also brought some Parillo high protein bars (1/day) with me - these traveled well, were tasty, and filling. Eating wise, I did well Friday- Tuesday but ended up crashing Tuesday evening and basically ate badly all Wed and Thursday (most of Thursday was spent at the airport). Combination of things I think did me in: by Tuesday evening I couldn’t look at a can of chicken without wanting to heave.

I stayed at the Madison a Loews Hotel in DC. Very nice hotel and for a hotel a pretty decent gym. Two bikes, two ellipticals, and two treadmills. Two med balls and mats. A set of dumbells ranging from 5 to 50 lb in 5 lb increments and a flat bench. Three machines - a leg extension, a combo (leg curl, lat pulldown), and a chest press. Overall enough stuff to make a decent go of things. Downside: hotel charges $15/day if you want a frig. Too rich for me. Hotel has a restaurant that serves breakfast and dinner but the fare is not healthy and ridiculously expensive. I tried room service once - they didn’t get my order correct, still messed it up the second time and the waiter who came to my room didn’t tell me they added an 18% gratuity to my bill automatically and I gave him 20% on top of that so I was not at all pleased with the room service at this hotel. Location was good in terms of my conference - some activities at the Washington Convention Center and a number of hotels around downtown DC. Location was also good in terms of access to food. A Subway a couple blocks over and a Whole Foods and several CVS’s within a couple blocks.

Sorry I haven’t posted in the last few days but I am away at a professional conference until the end of the week.  I will post more on my experiences later but I will say it has been an interesting experience this time as I have been following a diet program for the last few weeks in which all my foods have been specified by my coach.  I have endeavored to try to keep to the spirit of this approach while traveling but I have based my diet on the foods I have been able to get where I am.  Overall so far so good.  I haven’t overeaten but I am a bit worried that I haven’t eaten enough.  I have been working out at the hotel gym and considering it is what it is that has gone reasonably well too.  I think the watch word for traveling is "flexibility" - flexibility in what I eat and flexibility in what I do in terms of my workouts.  I have been doing a bit of walking so I have the cardio covered - LOL!  I am definitely tired.  Today’s probably going to be my longest day.  Started at 5 am - got up and worked out - and the day will probably end around 10:30 PM (my poster session goes from 8 PM - 10 PM this evening.).  Hoping I last that long.  I have two of my students with me and I am curious to see how they fare today too.  LOL!  After all they have youth on their side. 

I hope that you are having a terrific vacation - one that is healthful and happy. If you are like me you are visiting with friends or family. This means you may be far from your local gym. So, what are you doing? Are you working out or have you decided to forego your workouts until you get back home? I hope your answer is that you are working out but if you aren’t and if the reason is you don’t have access to a gym then I want to let you know that if you want to, you can indeed go to a local gym and workout while you are on vacation.

If you are staying at a hotel, most hotels either have a gym or have made arrangements with neighboring hotels or gyms in the area so that their guests can workout and usually at no added cost either. Simply ask at the front desk. If it turns out your hotel doesn’t have a gym or such an arrangement, that’s not the end of the world. Most local gyms offer trials of anywhere from one week to a month for little or no cash. These trials usually provide you with all the amenities - towels, lockers, classes, etc. Simply ask. Another option is your local YMCA. Actually that’s where I am working out this vacation while I visit with my mom. The ymca will usually give visitors one or two free passes. They also run specials. I am working out this week for free at the ymca using a coupon from my mom’s Town Planner calendar.

If you can’t find a gym or ymca near you, that’s not the end of the world either. You still have plenty of options: outdoor walking or running for cardio, weather permitting, in door stair climbing (if you are staying in a high rise hotel, stair climbing is a phenomenal workout!), and last but not least body weight exercises performed in a circuit (squats, lunges, pushups, crunches, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, burpees, dips, etc.). Whatever you choose to do, I hope you choose to do something. Have a great holiday and here’s to a terrific New Year

Sigh!  Back from yet another business trip.  Thank goodness this is the last one for a while.  I am truly beat.  Good trip.  I don’t want this to be an infinitely long post so I am not going to list all the foods I ate and the exercise I did over the past week.  Instead I think I will summarize what I think are the most helpful key points to relate.

First, if you are ever traveling to Philadelphia on business I strongly encourage you to check out the Club Quarters Hotel. It is centrally located on corner of Chestnut Street and 17th Street.  There is a Rite Aid, a Vitamin Shoppe, and GNC all right there.  The hotel is home to Davio’s, a world-class Italian restaurant where you will find top-quality beef (if you are a meat eater) and the freshest fish.  The service is first-rate.  The rooms in the hotel are somewhat small but very quiet.  Each room has the obligatory coffee pot, blow dryer, etc. and thirsty Martex towels (sigh!).  In the hall the hotel provides refillable water bottles and a water source so you will be well hydrated during your stay.  The fitness center located on the 12th floor is the weakest element of the hotel.  They have several bikes, an elliptical, and several treadmills.  While I was there only one of the three bikes and one of the two treadmills actually worked.  That wasn’t a problem as I only encountered two other people actually using the room during the week I was there.   The fitness room has a set of dumbells that max out at 15 lb - yep! you read it right!  Pretty useless although this one guy tried to impress me while I was on a bike by grunting and doing chest presses, bicep curls, and military presses with the 15 lb dumbells.  I tried so hard not to laugh because it was clear that he really thought I should be impressed.

Davio’s Rocks!!

In terms of food, I ate dinner several evenings at Davio’s simply because the restaurant was that good.  Everything was fresh and simply prepared - not overdressed.  I had crab cake with no breading as an appetizer, scallops and shrimp for entrees and asparagus - really great asparagus and lots of it, too.  Sigh!

Little Pete’s Diner

Another great find was Little Pete’s diner which is located at the corner of 17th and Chancellor.  They are open 24-h a day 7 days a week and make a darn good eggwhite veggie omelet and oatmeal.
A Visit to the Ripoffhouse Hotel for Tea - a Miserable Experience

The low point of my visit was a trip to the Rittenhouse Hotel henceforth referred to as the Ripoffhouse hotel for tea.  Everywhere I travel I always make a point of having afternoon tea at a nice place. I first went to the Ripoffhouse Hotel in August 2004 and had a wonderful afternoon tea.   As I always do I made a special request for a low-fat tea in advance of my visit.  When I went in 2004, the hotel ended up having a special event with famous chefs from around the world the afternoon of my tea so I ended up being displaced.  Nonetheless the chef and waitstaff went out of their way to accomodate me - the chef even prepared a parting gift of two truffles in a box which I brought home to mom.  Well, apparently they have a new chef and I guess the folks who cared about quality service have also since departed.  This time around I was treating my student to tea in celebration of a successful first meeting presentation and as a way of teaching him about fine dining and culture.  Boy did this backfire on me.  The staff had no record of my special request (this time around I had asked for a low carb, low fat tea) and when tea was served, I received a salad plate with 5 pieces on it:
a small hand-cut piece of plain toast, a cucumber with a tiny piece of salmon topped with a few pieces of caviar, a piece of green pepper wrapped around spinach and topped with red pepper (supposed to look like an olive with a pimento), a piece of toast with red pepper sauce and a small piece of prosciutto, and something else that was clearly tiny and not memorable.  When I complained (I was told that tea consisted of five pieces - um, yeah, right- a thin slice of cucumber equals a scone, very filling) which I was loathe to do because I didn’t want to ruin the experience for my student, the waitress brought a plate with 4 chocolate-dipped strawberries- hmmm… someone clearly didn’t understand the concept of a low fat tea.  When she saw I still wasn’t happy she returned with a plate with 6 small pieces of chocolate on it - can you believe this?  At this point I gave up for the moment.  Couldn’t do anything more as my student had already noticed my discomfort and this was most regrettable as all I had done up to this point was talk about how much fun tea would be - LOL!  As soon as I could get away I called Ripoffhouse and spoke to the Tea Manager who promised she would look into everything and get back to me - yeah, right!  What is today?  Oh, Friday…hmm…maybe she meant next year? OK why share this with you?  I think the important point is I didn’t eat the crap that they served and I didn’t let the miserable service sidetrack or sabotage my diet.   Instead, I mentally decided to focus on the fact that I would be enjoying a first-class meal at Davio’s later that evening and I did

Exercise

As I mentioned above, as soon as I saw the fitness room I realized there would be no weight training.  So, I decided to do cardio only.  I alternated between the elliptical and the stationary bikes.  The meeting I participated in was huge - some elements of it took place at the convention center and others took place in hotels at disparate locations in the downtown area so I supplemented my cardio with walking everywhere.  The convention did offer buses so attendees could move quickly between the different hotels and the convention center but I decided to walk.  The only thing I wish I had done differently was wear my pedometer as I would love to know how many miles I walked but sad to say that’s (pedometer) the one I didn’t bring with me.

All in all it was a great meeting and I am really happy with how things went.  Now it is time to get back to work.  I am about 9 weeks out at this point from my next competition!  Monster Mash in Marlborough, MA.

Research the restaurant you will be visiting in advance using the internet.  If they are a major chain restaurant, the calories and macros for their entrees are more than likely published.   I like Subway, they are in most major cities, and have fairly healthy fare as far as fast food places go.  I usually do an internet search before I travel to find out where they are and then get veggie salads which I supplement with the bags of salmon or tuna I carry with me.

At the restaurant, order first.  This will prevent you from being influenced/pressured by anyone else into ordering or eating anything.

I love bread but it really is a no-no for me.  I simply have no control over myself when it comes to bread.  So, when I eat out I encourage everyone to pass  the bread basket and then ask for it to be removed.  This way everyone gets a piece but I am not tempted.  LOL!  And yes, I am very assertive!  You need to be if you want to be successful in dieting or anything in life!

I usually begin my meal with a veggie salad.  At most restaurants today unfortunately salads are deadly.  They are topped with cheese, grease-soaked croutons, seeds, nuts, fruits, and of course, fat-filled dressing.   So, always ask the waiter to describe exactly what is in the house salad and then tell them exactly what you want and don’t want on yours.  I always ask for dressing on the side and I always ask for balsamic vinegar.  Believe me you can’t trust them when it comes to salad dressing or anything else.  Once I got a balsamic vinaigrette not vinegar.  On my most recent trip, I was given literally a full cup! of a gross looking salad dressing “on the side.”   (see photo:  This was at a “restaurant” – I use that word very loosely in this establishment’s case -  in Bloomington that was supposed to be a Greek restaurant but was really a bar).

I already said it but it bears repeating be explicit when you order.  Tell the waiter or waitress exactly how you want your entrée prepared and served.  I usually end up eating fish when I eat out – hard to find genuine vegetarian fare – so I ask that it be steamed, no oil, butter, sauce, or bread crumbs be used in its preparation or presentation and I ask that my sides be prepared and served the same way.

Most of the time your entrée will come with a starch and a veggie and most times the veggie is grease or butter-soaked.  Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want.  I always turn down the starch (usually potato or white rice) and ask for double the serving of veggie and request that my veggie choice be steamed and that no oil, butter, or bread crumbs be used in its preparation.  Yeah! You read that correctly no bread crumbs.  I have had people put crumbs on asparagus, broccoli, and green beans – gross!

If your entrée comes to the table and it wasn’t prepared the way you requested, have the waiter/waitress take it back.  This is perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give you.  It is the one that I have stumbled on the most and it has the power to make or break me.   It never pays to sulk and eat something you don’t really want because you are only going to get upset.  It sure gets me bent out of shape.  I huff and puff and usually in the end end up eating something else later I shouldn’t have eaten all because I feel I have already blown it.  So much easier to smile and get what you want and enjoy it.  Last point related to this if the wait-staff won’t give you what you want even after you have asked don’t eat crap!  Pay for what you did eat and leave and then find food  elsewhere that fits your dietary needs.

Don’t feel obligated to eat the whole thing.  Today some restaurants seem to pride themselves on serving you a pound of lasagna, a whole chicken, or fish.  The servings sizes are simply gross.  Ask what the serving size is (likely your waiter/waitress will have to go back to the kitchen to ask).  I have found that the serving size is often double what I need/want so I simply tell the waiter to serve me half and to box up the other half.  Depending on my circumstances I will take it with me (reheat later in a microwave for another meal) or I will give it to the first homeless person I meet on the street.  Either way:  dietary success!

On this same theme, never be afraid to order an appetizer as your entrée.  When in doubt, ask!!

At the end of the meal order a cup or coffee or tea if your companions are having dessert.

Specific Suggestions for Different Meals

Breakfast:  Eggwhite omelet with veggies and a cup of oatmeal or a half a grapefruit.  This is a meal with staying power!  That will see you through a grueling morning of meetings.

Lunch and dinner:  If meals are provided lunch and dinner are often buffets.  Salad may be available but, in my experience, salad is often tossed with cheese, croutons, and other unmentionables.  Don’t be afraid to speak to the wait-staff and ask them to bring you a plain salad.  Greens are cheap!  I carry with me a pouch of tuna or pink salmon that I can add to it for a protein-packed lunch.   If the meal is sit-down/served, same rules apply.  Don’t be afraid to ask the wait staff for a salad.  When dessert is served, don’t be afraid to ask for fresh fruit or a fruit salad instead of the proffered diet disaster.
If I can in terms of my schedule when traveling, I often eat another eggwhite veggie omelet for lunch.  This just happens to be my favorite meal and it is a high protein, low calorie meal that is quite filling and tasty.   Sometimes, I will even repeat this at dinner.  LOL!  As I said this is a favorite for me.

Snacks:  Pack your favorite protein bars.  I know different folks have different opinions about the nutritional value of protein bars.  My personal opinion is that they are only a tad better than candy bars.  That said they are sweet.  Some are tasty.  Some contain chocolate and peanuts or peanut butter.  From that standpoint I consider them a preferable alternative to snacking on candy, fatty muffins, donuts, cake, etc.  I carry some with me and include them in my travel plan as “desserts” that I schedule for the end of the day.  I brew coffee or tea in my hotel room and relax and enjoy one of these bars at the end of the day.  This helps me say no to the many temptations I encounter when traveling and eating out at restaurants.  I know that I have a nice tasty bar waiting for me if I am a good girl back in my room.

The airport is not the healthiest environment for a figure competitor.   McDonalds, Burger King, Cinnabon – need I say more?  That said, you can generally find coffee, water, salad, fresh fruit, nuts, jerky, and energy bars…for a price.  If your diet is carb friendly well carbs abound.  If you are on restricte carbs like me, better to do some prep work and pack what you need.   Staples for me include Snackmaster’s salmon or tuna jerky (they also make turkey jerky if you are carnivorous), baggies filled with 52-g servings of Kashi Go Lean (satisfying but not tempting combined protein, fat, carb source), 1-oz of walnuts or almonds (I like tamari almonds), and bags of pink salmon or tuna.  I also pack a few energy bars though I am not a big fan of these – I prefer whole foods (more bang for the nutritional buck and more satiety).

Personally, I don’t believe in cooking foods for my trip.  However another approach some use is to book a hotel room furnished with a refrigerator (note:  if not provided, ask if they hotel can provide you with a small one) and bring their food with them.  This means you need to prepare.  Seriously.  You will need to cook up a batch of chicken or fish and asparagus in bulk, put your foods in single serving baggies, and store them in a small cooler and which you will have to carry around with you – sorry but just friggin’ insane from my perspective.  However, that’s another option.  Totally up to you.

While traveling, drink water.  Drink lots of water.  If you are a woman you should be drinking a gallon of water each day (note I didn’t say coffee, soft drinks, etc.  I said water!).  This will help keep you full and help prevent you from making any dietary mistakes.   I carry several packets of Celestial Season’s zingers-to-go, a stevia-based green tea powder you can add to flavor your water.  If you are into splenda then you may want to bring some Xtal Lite or a similar product.  Do not try to eat light during the day because that is a sure-fire way of stoking your hunger and causing an unwanted break from your diet.  Been there and done that.   Also be careful not to overdo the coffee.   I probably love coffee more than you do but it can really dehydrate you and that’s the last thing you need when you travel.

I don’t do splenda but I do do stevia. So, I carry packets with me in my pocket book and my backpack so I am not caught without when eating out.

I also carry single serving bags of my favorite green teas.  If you have your own tea bag, you can go to Au Bon Pain or Starbuck’s at most airports and simply ask for hot water in a cup at no charge.  Works for me.  Also, most hotels provide a coffee maker in the rooms these days.

A word about airport security.  You cannot bring water or other liquids through the security checkpoint so leave it at home.  Water is just about the only thing you can safely purchase at every airport though it will cost you $$.  You might want to think long and hard about semi-solid foods like yoghurt.  You can only carry these in containers holding 3 fluid ounces or less.

This post is the first in a series of posts on working out and dieting while traveling.  The key point of this post is that you are more likely to be successful if you have what you need where and when you need it.  In terms of competition dieting and working out this translates into ensuring that you have food and exercise covered.  And this means:  Do your homework before booking your travel. 

Research the hotels, gyms, and restaurants in the city/town where you will be visiting in advance using the internet.   If you know where you are staying so make sure that the hotel has a gym and restaurant.   If you don’t then don’t book your hotel before checking to see if the hotel has a satisfactory gym (or there’s a gym in the area) and in house restaurant (or a restaurant in the immediate vicinity -= walking distance).  Find out what the hours are at the gym and what specific  facilities are available.   Don’t assume anything!  Some “gyms” will have basically cardio equipment while others may have machines and dumbbells.

Some hotels will have no gym but may have  a “relationship” with a neighboring hotel or a gym in their neighborhood.   ASK!  If they do not have a gym in house nor a relationship with any gyms in the area, find out what gyms are in the immediate vicinity of the hotel and then to inquire whether they have a week trial for new customers  and what the  daily or weekly fee is to use the facility.  Most gyms will offer a one week trial to new customers at no cost or for a very small fee.

In terms of the in house restaurant to a certain extent what I am looking for depends on where the actual meeting takes place and whether or not food that meets my needs will be available there on site.  In general, I don’t like to be caught short so I usually book a hotel that has a full service restaurant – full breakfast, lunch, and dinner.   I will discuss more about dieting in another blog entry.

For those of you who don’t want to go this route there are many other ways to get your workouts in:

• ·         Pack a jump rope and/or exercise (resistance) bands;
• ·         Go for a power walk or a run;
• ·         If you are bringing a laptop, throw in a workout DVD.  There are many good ones and workout in your hotel room.  As many of you know I love Leslie Sansone and her Walk Away the Pounds series.  You can do her workouts anywhere.  They are solid and you will burn a ton of calories while having fun!

Bottom-line here is:  “where there’s a will there’s a way” to get your workouts in.

Once you have booked your hotel, do research on the restaurants in the neighborhood.   You know what foods you can eat on your competition diet so if you are eating fish why not eat it at a nice seafood restaurant?   Look up and peruse the menus for the restaurants you want or are most likely to visit and plan your visits in advance.