Over Eating while Traveling

I have this issue when traveling. So much of the food available to me when traveling is free and limitless. Mostly because of the loyalty status I enjoy from being a frequent traveler.

When I fly I’m flying at the front of the plane, most of the time, on international flights I’m often served a several course dinner along with breakfast, with unlimited snacks and drinks in between. I rarely turn down the meals but do on occasions.

Added to that is my lounge privileges at the airport. In the lounge there is again an unlimited supply of buffet food available throughout the day. And sometimes I visit several of these lounges at one airport to get a flavor of them. That means food sampling at each one.

At the hotels I stay there is almost always complimentary breakfast. If I have the option to order from the menu rather than a buffet, I always take that choice. But over 90% of the time it is usually buffet style. Another opportunity to overeat.

Added to that, if I’m staying at a Hyatt, Marriott, or Hilton, which is often the case. I get club lounge complimentary privileges (if they have one). That means more free buffet food in the evening. Ugh!

As I’ve written before, it is possible for me to take a trip and never pay for a meal, especially since I usually skip lunch when I travel. I’ve never done that, but still it’s possible.

What’s worse, is how this can be compounded. For example, I can wake at my hotel for a morning flight, when I arise I will eat the complimentary hotel breakfast before I leave for the airport. At the airport I’ll enter the lounge and then have some more light bites before I board. Then, on the plane, another full breakfast is served.

I’ve done that often. I never eat 3 full breakfasts but rather three undersized breakfasts, which in total amass to one oversized meal. Yeah, not that healthy I know, but I know many other travelers do the same because I see them eating in the airport lounge and then eating breakfast again on my same flight.

I remember in my early days when I seldom traveled, if I had a big cruise or other trip coming up, I sought to lose 5 pounds before the trip. I did this knowing I would gain 10 back on the trip. But I don’t do that anymore due to frequent travel. Instead I try now to maintain a reasonable weight by cutting out carbohydrates and excercising daily. It seems to work for the most part.

But I’m still prone to overeating, something I don’t like to do. Even if I don’t gain weight it just feels wasteful and glutinous because I travel so much.

I write this now as I’m flying in a first class cabin and just refused the free breakfast. After all, I did just eat at the airport lounge. This was rare for me, so I decided to write this post as I’m proud for my one small accomplishment today.

I try to stay healthy by exercising an hour every morning. This includes stretching for 10 minutes, 30 minutes on my eclipse, and 20 minutes with light weights pushups, and sit ups. I also stay away from sugar.

A friend of mine recently had bypass surgery on his heart. We were eating together one day and I told him I read an article that said if you do 40 pushups every day you have a 90% reduced chance of a heart attack. So I told him that’s the first thing I do in the morning.

He paused only for a second to think, and then responded, “It’s a lot easier to have the bypass surgery!”

Maybe I should rethink?