Diet & Fitness 

Advertisement

Eating inn: staying healthy away from home

If your job takes you all around the world, and you spend most of your time in airports or hotels, you'll know how hard it is to maintain a healthy diet. It's not just a case of avoiding the minibar and airplane catering. Constantly eating out, being plied with drink by clients and hotel breakfasts can take their toll on your health.

Here's some advice from iVillage members on staying healthy in hotels. Advice by cl-malice69 and kizzy44.

Q: Due to my work I stay in hotels most the time and find it impossible to diet. Have you managed to lose weight with this lifestyle? If so, how did you do it?silvia2003

A: It's undoubtedly harder to lose weight if you are not preparing your own meals. However the principles of healthy eating are the same wherever you are and most can be put into practise even in hotels.

1. When you're at dinner avoid the bread basket, it's a shame to load up on calories you hardly notice you're eating.

2. Don't drink too much alcohol. It's very high in calories and probably not too good for your work, either!

3. When you order your meal ask for extra veggies - boiled or steamed - or a salad with the dressing on the side. If you're ordering a meal that comes with chips, ask for vegetables instead.

4. If you're eating a lot of your meals in restaurants, stick to 3 meals a day because they're almost inevitably larger and more calorie-laden. Always carry an apple and/or bag of ready to eat carrots/cherry tomatoes for a between-meal snack with negligible calories and loads of vitamins.

5. Don't eat when you're not hungry, and stop eating when you're full. Sounds obvious but ...

6. Remember that even though you are in a hotel this is your way of life, not a treat , so avoid the "I'm in a hotel, I might as well have a full English breakfast" syndrome ...

7. Just because you have a daily food allowance doesn't mean you have to spend it all! If you are bored of hotel food buy pre-packed salads at the local supermarket. You can spruce them up with beetroot, sweetcorn or a tin of tuna.

8. If you regularly stay at the same hotel, strike up a relationship with the kitchen staff and get them to make you 'normal' food. iVillager kizzy44 says "I lived in a 4 star hotel for two months once and persuaded them to feed me tinned spaghetti on toast at regular intervals!"

9. Take full advantage of the hotel gym/swimming pool. If there are no facilities in the hotel, find out about local community facilities and use those instead. This will also give you something to do in the evenings.

10. If you feel safe enough, take up running. If you are too scared to venture out alone, print out a copy of our At home workout, which you can do in your hotel room.

Delicious     Digg     reddit     Facebook     StumbleUpon

  Get the latest iVillage news on your desktop    Sign up for more iVillage RSS feeds

© iVillage Limited 2000-2008. All rights reserved. | © iVillage inc. 1995-2008. All rights reserved.
iVillage Ltd is a UK company registered in England & Wales (3837269) at 80-110 New Oxford Street, London WC1 1HB