With business prospects across different continents, frequent business travel has become an integral part of a professional’s working life. Along with work travel comes back-to-back business meetings, hectic work schedules, and late-night client entertainment – all of which typically affects our meal timings and patterns.

Skipping breakfast, over-dependency on fried, processed and packaged food, consumption of sugary and caffeinated drinks, indulging in excessive alcohol consumption, decreased intake of green vegetables, fruits, essential oils and other healthy whole foods, along with lack of proper sleep takes a huge toll on our physical and mental health. It is, therefore, important to keep a check on the type of food we consume, so as to keep the body well nourished, healthy, and strong.

Frequent business fliers often don’t enjoy work travel. Regular business trips can leave you physically and mentally fatigued, which can take away the exciting elements associated with visiting a new place, such as meeting new people and embracing new business challenges. However, concentrating on your diet and health during travel can help you stay energized.

Four Food Tips To Help You Enjoy Your Travel For Work

1. Pack Your Own Food

Typical airline food is high in oil and fat to add bulk and flavor. Therefore, whenever possible, pack your own snacks for long flights. These can comprise of whole grain cereals, dried fruits, a wholegrain salad sandwich, nuts, raw veggies, and/or nut butter on whole wheat crackers.

Alternatively, most airlines now provide low-fat, low-sodium meals upon customer request, allowing you to pre-order your meal when you book your flight. Just ensure you stick to the vegetable options.

If you have to opt for the regular airlines meals, here are a few tips:

• Grilled skinless chicken or fish is better than the deep-fried option

• Settle for a side salad or baked potato as a side item

• Choose water over soda, iced tea or alcohol

2. Keep Yourself Hydrated

Changing time zones, long stopovers and waiting times, and abruptly changing weather patterns can cause dehydration. Make sure you drink a lot of water, and then more! If you want to drink alcohol, remember that too much alcohol at conference happy hours or while networking with a business associate at the hotel bar could be damaging. Alcohol calories can add up quickly, and coupled with the lack of timely exercise, will only help to increase body fat, and cause you to feel fatigued.

Tip: start with one drink at the start and sip it slowly, making sure you drink water in between sips. You can also opt for a club soda with lime, which looks like vodka!

3. Pay Attention To Mindless Eating

Long business meetings could trigger a pattern of mindless eating. Pretzels, chips, candy from colleagues, nuts at cocktail hours, high-sugar artificially sweetened drinks or even “fruit” drinks are easy to consume if you are not paying attention to what you intake. Try these tips to save yourself some calories:

• Carry some fresh fruit and a protein bar or a handful of nuts to curb your appetite

• Swap sides of pasta salads or chips for a fruit salad

• Eat whole grain or gluten-free bread with nut butter

• Consider lean chicken, fish or legumes (beans and lentils) as your meal choices without heavy cream sauces

• Choose broth-based soups and salads with olive oil

4. Don’t Skip Breakfast

A well-balanced morning breakfast is a great way to start your day. A breakfast high in fiber and lean protein, and low in processed carbohydrates (such as white bread, muffins, energy drinks) makes you feel more energetic, and manages your appetite throughout the day. At the breakfast buffet, skip the pastry or noodle sections and instead opt for eggs, oatmeal, yogurt and fruit to help maintain steady blood sugar levels throughout the day and also aid in optimal cognitive function.

Frequent travelers and business owners usually have a hectic schedule lined up. A good breakfast prepares your body, physically and mentally, to cope with the day ahead, while at the same time helping to manage a healthy weight.

Here are two more articles with easy-to-apply tips on great nutrition:

• 5 Amazingly Simple Steps For Better Nutrition
• 5 DON’TS When It Comes To Your Nutrition

Conclusion

Adequate rest, exercise and a nutritious diet are important factors, which help keep our body and mind feeling energized during long travels and frequent business trips. All these factors also help you feel motivated and focused to pursue your business objectives.

If you have been struggling to lose weight, find it hard to make time to formulate a daily routine for health and fitness, or traveling is keeping you away from routine, an online nutrition program such as ExecFuel™ provides you with invaluable information, such as videos, downloadables and infographics on how to maintain a healthy routine, by eating right and performing quick and effective exercises. You can learn how to stay healthy while entertaining clients and attending corporate events. The ExecFuel™ program is the non-diet approach from the comfort of your laptop or mobile 24/7.