Answer at the bottom of the post. 🤓

This is the 1st in a 2-part series on why establishing guardrails matters when setting goals. This matters when you don’t have as much control over your routine as you’d like.

Today, I’ll cover how I managed working out and getting sleep while traveling for work.

Later in the week, I’ll discuss how I handled eating out while traveling for work. Plus I’ll get into how these strategies can help you at home if you have an unpredictable schedule.

Life as a “Road Warrior”

At two different points in my life, I was a “road warrior” for work:

Mid 20s to early 30s when I was on Wall Street
Mid to late 40s when I worked in tech

In the 1st stretch, I traveled internationally. The employees at the British Airways check-in counter knew me by name. At that point, I was not in a phase where my health was a priority. I was burning my candle at both ends, as they say.

In the 2nd stretch, I traveled domestically. At one point, I had elite status on multiple airlines from all of my work travel. Some of the flight attendants recognized me. The hubs LOVED the artisanal chocolate from one airline. It would have continued had COVID not struck.

In between those chapters, I rarely traveled for work. More importantly, I also started to take care of myself. When I was younger, I didn’t mind the dinners out which included copious amounts of wine. When I resumed traveling during my time in tech, the dinners became somewhat mandatory due to my different roles.

It was tough focusing on my health on the road. Why?

Fitness
Sleep
Food

Developing New Habits

I had to figure out new habits outside of the controlled environment I had at home. Trial and error ensued.

Making Time To Work-Out

When I started traveling for work in that 2nd phase, I set a goal of working out ~70% of the days I was on the road. Setting the goal was easy. Carving out the time to make that happen was more challenging.

Early morning wake-up times to work-out were BRUTAL. No snooze button allowed. It generally felt as though I was hit over the head with a baseball bat.

Which habits were the most effective in ensuring I completed my work-out?

Packing workout clothes and shoes
Ensuring those clothes are out the night before (including headphones)
Knowing the workout I was going to do

How long were the workouts? That depended on what was up for the day. Here is how I approached things:

15-20 minutes: If I had minimal time because of an early meeting, I did a bodyweight workout in my hotel room. Plenty of websites have free bodyweight workouts you can do in your room. I did plenty of burpees and push-ups off of different pieces of furniture.
30-45 minutes: I would mix in some cardio and weights in a hotel gym, not unlike what you see these days at Orangetheory or someplace similar. Again, plenty of websites have these kinds of workouts you can do in a hotel gym.
1 hour: If I had time for an hour workout plus getting to and from CrossFit, I would drop-in and pay a fee. After I stopped CrossFit, my coach would give me something to do in the hotel gym. No thinking required for what I was going to do. I just had to show up and do my best.

Was every workout great? No. I did hit a large percentage of my workouts. Any day I completed my workout was a good day no matter what chaos I was dealing with at work.

If you need help finding the right online program that translates seamlessly between home and being on the road, schedule a call.

Schedule a call

Getting Your ZZZs

Sleep was impacted due to jet lag and flight times. Almost every flight I caught was at zero dark thirty. This meant waking up at 4am on many mornings. If I was doing a day trip to the Bay Area, hello 330am wake-up call! I don’t miss those days.

Depending on where I was flying, I would have meetings when I landed. Then I would be meeting someone from work for dinner. I’d still be wired because I was on west coast time. I’d video chat with the hubs to help me relax.

It’s been shown through multiple studies how alcohol consumption negatively impacts sleep. In the next post, I’ll get into why I eschewed alcohol on these trips.

The goal was to fall asleep before midnight local time. As with working out, it was easier to set the goal. Creating the structure to help me hit the goal was more challenging. Tools such as Headspace and Calm were helpful.

Call Your Shot

Setting goals is great. Why?

Able to track your progress so you can stay on track
Helps you stay motivated, especially when you encounter challenges along the way
Aids with decision making so you’re making choices aligned with what you want to achieve

Want to know what will help you reach your goals and stick with those habits after?

Creating a sustainable approach that helps you move towards your goal is a bigger determinant of success than the creation of the goal itself.

What are you doing each day or each week to inch closer to your goal?

If you focus on your approach and mindset, then the outcomes will happen.