In mid-July 2016, I started focusing on my health and fitness like never before. As a kid, I participated in sports, but past high school, I largely relied on my metabolism and genetics for making me look somehow different than how I should, considering the food I was eating and my lack of exercise.
My day job is as a freelance attorney, and, while working remotely in Medellin, Colombia, I met a client who was forming a private personal training gym right next to my apartment in San Francisco. When I got back to California, I decided to stop in, and I was convinced to sign up for 3 free sessions; since then, I’ve been hooked.
Whenever I’m in San Francisco, I work out with my trainer 2-3 times per week. But when I’m traveling, which can be over 2 weeks per month, my workout schedule suffers. Unfortunately, I am not very self-motivated when it comes to working out. That said, to help stay on my game, I take my measurements once per month, looking at my muscle growth, body fat percentage loss, and other metrics. This gives me motivation to make sure that when I travel, I , at the very least, will not lose the progress I have made.
Another fitness issue I’m finding when traveling is food. At home, I can guarantee that I will eat 150 grams of protein and 2,800 calories, and still stay under my carbohydrates goals. I can also make protein shakes every day if it looks like I might not make my protein goal. It’s much harder to do this abroad, especially when you aren’t sure what’s in the food, when you don’t have protein powder or a blender, when you’re in a rush, or when you’re drinking because you’re stressed (it happens).
I am still trying to find how I can fit my fitness journey in with my travel obsession, and to maximize my results. If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments!
You may or may not be into the functional fitness thing, but I find a good resource when I’m traveling is to google “Travel WOD”. Again I realize that not everyone is jazzed about the CF, but most travel WODs are body weight movements performed in a modality that encourages you to finish, and then try your best to beat them (I.e: improve). As an example here’s a pretty simple one:
10 rounds for time:
10 push-ups
10 sit-ups
10 air squats
100x each of those movements may not seem like a lot, but assuming you’re sticking to good form (full depth on the squats/chest to deck on push-ups) you’ll feel it in the am…
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