Le Chic Geek
Related Articles
Traveling can feel glamorous sometimes–popping off to Napa for a wine tasting weekend, heading out to Paris for some macarons, or sampling the flavors of the Big Easy.
Traveling can be delicious, but it also limits us from our regular schedule. It isn’t as easy to workout, for example. And some areas (especially on business travel) are not very walkable.
I’ve found myself trying to get up extremely early before long-days of work. This sometimes works, and sometimes doesn’t, depending on how grueling my day was before. And to be completely honest, I would rather spend my time in Paris tasting champagne than burning off champagne.
So I tend to come back from my travels plumper than when I left. And when I have multiple trips in a row, I move from champagne to po-boys to dim sum to schnitzel. Which is delicious.
It also means I tend to oscillate between twelve pounds depending on whether or not I am traveling. I’m very good at burning the weight off pretty quickly post-trip, but it means I need two sets of clothing in my closet–pre-travel and post-travel. It makes jumping into formal events after a series of travel trickier. Sometimes I’ve packed a few different dresses for more formal events, so I can make sure it fits right when I go at the end of my travels.
I also have to be vigilant about how well my clothes fit at any given time. It’s easy to tell when a dress is getting tight, but it is harder to tell when a dress is getting too loose–which can start looking very unprofessional.
I also am not sure how healthy gaining and losing weight constantly is, so I’m trying to rethink the way I approach this to keep it some what more balanced.
I came back from a trip to Dallas last week (that was immediately after Paris and Orlando, which was immediately after a long stressful work trip to Chicago). Â I’m on the high side of my weight range, but I’ve also lost two pounds since last week. Â I realized that while I walked at lot in Paris and Orlando, I drove everywhere in Dallas. Â And Chicago–well, when I wasn’t in meetings, I was surrounded by paperwork and takeout. Â So I see room to change.
I picked up a FitBit a few days ago. Â You might have heard about that.
This device tracks how much I walk. Â And even on a non-trip, it is eyeopening. Â I tend to walk a lot. Â For a few days, I was doing 15,000 steps and it was giving me pretty badges for it. Â I had a fairly busy day yesterday, and expected I didn’t hit the 15,000 steps I had been hitting.
I wasn’t expecting to see that I did 4,000 steps. Â I went from 15,000 to 4,000, but I had assumed I had come close to 15,000. Â I took a walk for a while and got myself up to 8,000 steps. Â It’s also reminding me to take the steps and is making me wish that my building had regular stairs, not just emergency stairs that dump you outside in a random spot (without letting you back in).
I’m going to try to pick up other habits and post as I go about how  it’s going.  (And I’m going to be honest, which may be embarassing at points!)
But I want to keep my weight more flat.  Not only will I have a consistent clothing size, but I can eat more when I’m not traveling 😉
What are your tips and tricks for dealing with this, and what do you struggle with?
Disclosure: If you purchase items from my Amazon links, I receive a small bit of affiliate credit. If you purchase a FitBit, please do not do as I do, and definitely be especially careful in an airport.  I appreciate your support!
I’ve noticed the longer I am away traveling, that the extra pound here and there do tend to show up. And whereas, like you, I used to be able to drop them off pretty easily… these days it just doesn’t happen that way 😉 So I am VERY careful of what I eat when I travel!!!
(However, I do think the gain has something to do with sitting sedentary on the plane too)
If planes installed elliptical options instead of seats, I would be all over that.
I found that the best way to help with travel weight gain is to eat like I would eat at home. That means not finishing every last bite on the plate (even though wasting food kills me), drinking mostly water with me meals, and not ordering an appetizer and/or dessert very often.
Forcing yourself to drink more water throughout the day is a big help as well. I now find it fairly easy on business travel to eat decently, but on personal vacations when I’m with my husband, we are each other’s worst influences!
FitBit sounds interesting – I’ll definitely have a look at that.
I’ve recently got into the habit of having the same amount of breakfast when staying in a hotel that I would do when I’m at home. Just because there’s a lot of options doesn’t mean I have to have them all.
It’s all so easy to pile on a little extra when travelling and staying in a nice hotel… when you have access to the Executive Lounge it means there’s an array of local / traditional cakes to choose from for afternoon tea. You’re just so spoilt for choice and takes a bit of discipline to limit yourself to just one slice.
Just one slice, just one glass of wine, just one cordial… the just ones add up too!