L.E.A.N. Guide for the Business Traveler: (Living Educated About Nutrition on the Go)

By Veronica Tomor

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9781453597019

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Copyright © 2011 by Veronica Tomor.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2011904758

ISBN:         Hardcover                           978-1-4535-9700-2

                   Softcover                            978-1-4535-9699-9

                   Ebook                                 978-1-4535-9701-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1

The Woes of the Business Traveler

Chapter 2

Reasons to Live L.E.A.N.

Chapter 3

L.E.A.N. on the GO—

The Basics of Nutrition

Chapter 4

A unique way of life with unique challenges—Challenges and Solutions

Chapter 5

Changing Industries—

Healthier Hotels and Airports

Chapter 6

Incorporating the SMART Strategy to Exercise and Living L.E.A.N.

Chapter 7

Healthier Food and Drink Choices

Chapter 8

The Bottom Line of L.E.A.N. on the Go—Dos and Don’ts

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Endnotes

Disclaimer

The information in this book is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Nothing in this book is intended to be used for medical diagnosis or treatment. This book, and the information within, is presented for the sole purpose of sharing my personal experience and the best practices that I have learned through my travels, education, profession or research. There is no intent to disseminate health information. We recommend that you always request the advice of your physician or other qualified health-care provider before starting any new diet, exercise program, treatment, or about any questions you may have regarding any and all aspects of your health, medical condition, and your business travel.

Foreword

The L.E.A.N. Guide for the Business Traveler is intended to be a practical, real-world guide for business travelers, with tips and strategies for eating smart (making the right choices) on the go, and maintaining or incorporating an exercise routine while traveling. I am a business traveler and have spent much of my life in airports and hotels, accruing over half a million frequent flier miles over the past five years. I have gained a deep understanding of how healthy eating and exercise can become compromised while living on the go. The life of the business traveler can be draining, lonely, and very unhealthy, if you allow it to be.

One of the most challenging aspects of this way of life is avoiding the almost inevitable weight gain that comes with poor eating. Ironically, as time goes on, you learn to make your travel luggage lean, but if left unchecked, your waistline seems to expand faster than your frequent flier miles! In fact, think of the movie Up in the Air and picture George Clooney’s or Vera Farmiga’s (female lead) characters living life as portrayed in the movie, but with thirty or forty pounds of extra weight. That’s the reality for too many road warriors.

For the past few years, I have belonged to the Corporate America that enjoys the privileges of advanced technology that allows you to work remotely via cell phone, laptop, conference calls, and meeting software, such as WebEx. It’s pretty amazing that with the modern marvels of transportation, we are now able to do so much, see so many people, fly in the morning to the opposite end of the country and come back the same day.

Instead of commuting to work in a car and coming home at the end of the day, you commute in a plane several times a week and by far spend less time at home. During the course of a month, and then a year, that time spent in trains, planes, airports, and hotels, quickly adds up. If you live this way, over time, you become a seasoned traveler. You know exactly where to park your car at the airport, how to get from point A to point B quicker than most people, how to book your trips to avoid connecting flights and, in short, get to your destination as quickly and painlessly as possible. Then you commute to your hotel room and spend the night… before doing it all over again.

Over the years, this process becomes just another routine, not dissimilar to getting up in the morning, dressing, and driving the usual route to the same office every day. However, the nature of the business traveler’s lifestyle requires a lot more planning and packing, and contributes far more to wear and tear on the body. The business traveler is faced with so many challenges: if it is hard to keep the weight down for the person who commutes to a typical work location every day, it’s ten times harder for the person on the road, who spends many nights per month away from home.

Just as you plan for a trip with a GPS to keep you on track to your destination, the business traveler must develop personal strategies for staying fit and healthy while on the road. Incorporating portability to what you learn, and making it an integral part of your life are key.

Introduction

Most business travelers have strategies for business and solid work plans. Unfortunately, most have no strategies for their health. A plan seems to develop only when something goes wrong and they are prescribed medication. As a clinical pharmacist (PharmD), I have had extensive training on how medicines and your body work, in addition to understanding metabolism. I also understand the consequences of neglecting your body and then attempting to remedy your health by way of medical treatment, which does not necessarily produce the optimum result. The bottom line is that throughout your life, if you don’t take care of your body the way it deserves and needs, you will have to make time for the illnesses that will come as you age. We all need to be proactive, not reactive with our health. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Over the years, I have attended countless meetings and symposia on topics related to the primary and silent killers in our country. These meetings include the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, and Heart Failure Society of America, to name a few. At each event, I find myself wondering why so little (if any at all) is discussed about exercise and healthy living. With alarming regularity, the focus of these conferences is mainly on treatment rather than on prevention and maintaining health by conscious eating and exercising.

Even the national guidelines for the most prevalent diseases and conditions in the United States (i.e., hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc.) say little about diet and exercise. Occasionally, there may be a sentence or two mentioning lifestyle changes (meaning diet and exercise), but it’s left open to interpretation by the physician or healthcare provider to translate it to the patient. Thus, it is not surprising that within the medical community, healthy living is preached, but not practiced, making it difficult to transmit the information effectively to those who need to take action and incorporate it into their lives.

Diabetes is the best example of a devastating disease that is directly connected to weight and lifestyle. Type 2 diabetes is now considered an epidemic in America, yet it is preventable in most cases. With a proper diet and exercise, sufferers can avoid costly and lifelong treatments, but instead, they, too, often neglect their health and end up using lifelong drug therapies, often still suffering the terrible complications that come with diabetes. People can do so much to prevent this disease, but in the majority of cases they don’t.

In my research, I have talked to hundreds of business travelers and found that a common denominator for the vast majority, is to create excuses while justifying the weight gain and lack of exercise. Of course, the business traveler has even more time constraints than the person who doesn’t travel for a living, including having less time to exercise.

As opposed to the person who has gained and lost one hundred pounds, the process of preventing that from happening in the first place is not something that is often reported. It takes a conscious decision to feed your body well and keep it working properly, just like a car or a plane will not function well if it is not fed the right gas or had its oil changed. It is very hard to maintain an optimal weight, but it is something that becomes a learned behavior and something we can make a habit of, if we have the right tools to do so. I believe these tools are founded on knowledge and the ability to discern what you should put into your mouth, as opposed to what you should not.

Thus, this is not a book about a diet—this is a four-letter word I have lived without for my entire life, but not without the struggles of keeping my weight down. As soon as my guard