Meal Prep Monday - Travel Edition

Happy Monday! I'm off today on a 3 week international work trip. I'll try to update if I can, and I have some short fun posts scheduled to up while I'm gone so I won't completely disappear :)

Because I'm leaving town, I didn't do my normal weekly meal prep. But I thought it would be fun to give you a look at how I prepped to stay on track with my health and fitness goals during my upcoming travel. 

Fit Packing List

One of the reasons I've never had success working out during business travel was laziness and lack of motivation a crazy travel workload not bringing the right gear. I stick to a carry on suitcase plus a backpack for all my trips. Fitting in a pair of sneakers is hard, and forget about any other equipment. Here's what I managed to squeeze in this time to hopefully keep fit while still traveling light.

Wet Bags

One of the hardest parts about working out on the road is ending up with a bunch of sweaty clothes in your suitcase afterwards. Because my suitcase is so small, I usually do laundry about twice a trip, but that can be a long time to keep stinky clothes from contaminating the clean ones. To solve this issue, I bought this Planet Wise Diaper Wet Bag (I figure here is no way my workout clothes are smellier than dirty diapers!) and these Eagle Creek Pack-It Compression Sacs. The compression sacs also helped me fit squeeze more in to my tiny suitcase.

Fitbit Flex

(Image Source)

I debated whether or not to bring my Fitbit Flex. I was worried that it would look weird and suspicious in the airport x-ray machine, and that it might get lost or stolen. But, I also tend to walk a lot during my trips and walking is one of the easiest exercises for me to do on the road. So being able to quantify how much I am actually walking seems like it could be a really good way to increase my activity level. While the pros outweighed the cons, the same arguments didn't hold up for bringing my Polar FT4 which I am sadly leaving behind. I fully expect to have extreme separation anxiety.

Printable Workouts

I printed out my favorite no-equipment-needed Blogilates Printables, and a couple other printable workouts from FitSugar.

Cellphone 

Besides my favorite Nike Training Club, I downloaded two new fitness apps with me. Skimble Workout Trainer, a free app with a huge library of free workouts that vary in and are searchable by length, intensity, equipment needed, and body parts worked. You Are Your Own Gym is a paid app including over 200 body weight exercises which you can do as part of set programs or use to make your own customizable workouts. Along with the apps, my arm band and headphones are also key to turning my phone into a fitness tool. I've heard good things about Yurbuds and picked up a pair to replace my mysteriously missing old pair of earbuds.

Healthy Snacks

When I go to the airport, I usually treat myself to a bunch of food I don't normally get to eat (like a bagel breakfast sandwich. mmmm), but this time I'm packing a bunch of healthy snacks. I also get really dehydrated on long flights, so I'm going to try to drink a lot of fluids before getting on the plane, including some coconut water before I have to go through security.

So that's the low-down on my business trip fitness preparations. I'll definitely let you know how it works out and any lessons learned when I get back. Wish me luck!