Making time for fitness when you are traveling
As it is it can be incredibly hard to stick to a fitness routine when you are at home, but when you traveling and want a deviation from your regular routine, it can feel almost impossible. But you also don’t want to not work out and risk putting on, as they say, “holiday weight”. However, with a little bit of foresight and research, you can make sure you fit in some exercise into your daily routine even when you are traveling so that you can come home feeling more healthy and energized than when you left.
Staying fit at home
Get involved in various activities
When you’re vacationing in a different country, there’s going to be different activities for you to get involved in. Instead of going for a run every morning like you would in your own country, why not try a local activity that you cannot take part in when at home? Water sports are quite popular everywhere. Being in water is a great cardio exercise, and it burns double the calories you would compared to when you are on land because of increased resistance. Try using the hotel pool and going for swim early in the morning if beach activities aren’t your thing. There might also be different adventure sports you can participate in. Do you research and get moving.
Explore the city
There is no excuse for not finding places to exercise when every city has so many places of interest, stadiums and towering buildings and malls. If stairs aren’t your thing, cities have lots of places good for walking, running or even hiking. Ask your hotel concierge if there are parks or trails nearby, or if you have ventured to the mountains, ask for a map of local hiking trails. It is also a good idea to ask the concierge for a map of the city to find out how many of your destinations are reachable by foot. Walking will increase your fitness and decrease your taxi fares. It’s a win-win situation.
Make use of the hotel gym
These days most hotels around the world have a gym or some sort of fitness center within their premises. And the best thing is that the use of this facility is more often than not free of cost. Schedule a time during the day when you can use their stationary bike or the treadmill and stick to the routine. Work out with your partner or the friend you are traveling with. This makes it more likely for you to stick to your gym time. If you are not staying at a hotel, then try to find a local gym that lets you sign up for individual zumba or aerobics classes or charges you on an hourly basis. You can use Google Maps to find one. You can get information about the gyms – phone
number, website, photos – directly from the maps app.
Do a quick workout in your room
If your hotel doesn’t offer fitness accommodations (you can check for it beforehand while booking), make sure you pack a jump rope and a resistance band. They are both lightweight and thus super easy to carry. Jumping rope is one of the best forms of cardiovascular exercise, and you can do it anywhere. You can use the resistance band to do some quick stretches in your
room while watching YouTube tutorials. Then, you can do body-weight exercises such as
push-ups, crunches, and plank that require no equipment at all. The point is to
figure out a workout routine that suits your needs and follow it. Make sure to plan a specific time each day or every other day for your workout so that your other plans don’t foil your fitness effort.
Pay attention to your diet
A lot of times even when you exercise and never skip a workout, you come back after a holiday a few kilos heavier. Chances are that you didn’t pay attention to what you ate and even if you didn’t eat a lot, you consumed a lot of empty calories (think juices and colas in those awesome cocktails you had). Also alcohol dehydrates you and you could end up confusing thirst with hunger. So make sure you drink enough water. Other than that, make it a point to consume lots of fruits for breakfast and, though you might want to sample every street food you see, stick to one new thing a day instead of gorging on food because it looks oh-so-good even when you are full (we are all guilty of this one).
