How to exercise and eat healthily when travelling for business

Julian Munsey
Julian Munsey
Last Updated: 26 May 2021

Working from home has on the whole offered a better work-life balance for the majority of business travellers. Being able to go out for a run during a lunch break, or regaining the time from commuting to the office is time well spent. The lockdown has also reintroduced cooking more healthy foods at home, rather than sandwiches on the go, or service station selections.

To keep some of these good habits, to ensure continued wellness as the world reopens we’re here to give you some inspiration and motivation to stay on track whilst travelling. And for those determined to make use of the hotel gym facilities, your Travel Management Company can make sure your hotel has a gym! Here are our top six tips on maintaining fitness whilst travelling or getting back to fitness and wellbeing when you do need to travel for work. 

A guide to healthy eating and exercise when travelling for business

1. Choose a hotel with a gym

This one seems pretty obvious but if you have the choice, choose a hotel with a gym. Oh and take your gym clothes/trainers!

 A guide to healthy eating and exercise when travelling for business

2. Joe Wicks – Body Coach

If you can’t get a hotel with a gym or can’t face exercising in front of other people, go on to YouTube and search for ‘Joe Wicks Hotel’. There are at least three workouts you can follow which are suitable to do from your hotel room without any equipment, just suitable leisure wear.

A guide to healthy eating and exercise when travelling for business

3. Research what is available in the local area

Is there a running club, drop-in yoga, pay as you go gym or beach you can run on?

If you want to go running but aren’t sure of the area, FastZACH is an app that you programme with how many miles you want to run and the type of route you want (scenic/quiet/busy/downtown etc) and it will plot a route and give you turn by turn directions as you are running (it does require membership but you can cancel at any time and it has routes all over the world).

 A guide to healthy eating and exercise when travelling for business

4. Choose an apartment/aparthotel where you have a kitchen

If you have a choice where you stay, choose somewhere with a kitchen. You can make much healthier choices if you have a fridge, microwave and oven (a dishwasher helps too!). You can store milk to make your own porridge, make a sandwich for lunch or cook yourself a quick healthy stir fry for dinner (or even buy a low-calorie ready meal to heat up!). It takes a little planning so either research local supermarkets before you go or see if the food can be ordered and delivered for when you arrive. Alternatively, if you have cooking facilities you could even get a Gousto or HelloFresh box delivered to your apartment, as the box comes with all the ingredients for the meals. 

A guide to healthy eating and exercise when travelling for business

5. Research local healthy food restaurants.

If cooking isn’t an option, take a look on TripAdvisor and see if there are any restaurants locally that focus on healthy eating. Depending on where you are you could have a lot of choices… or none at all but it’s worth investigating and asking the hotel or colleagues who live locally where they would recommend. 

A guide to healthy eating and exercise when travelling for business

6. Ask for ‘off menu’ options.

You may come across as a celebrity having a diva moment but if you have an idea of what you want, ask for it – even if it’s not on the menu. Depending on the hotel and the flexibility of the chefs, they might just be able to whip it up for you! If not, choose something on the menu and ask for it to be adapted. A salad with the dressing on the side, steak and vegetables without the chips… you get the idea.

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