Podcast Transcription: The Ultimate Travel Fitness Guide For Busy Entrepreneurs & Executives with Ted Ryce

Ted Ryce: It's easy to stay in shape when you're at home. You control what you have in the fridge as well as what time you go to the gym, but staying in shape while going on vacations, family holidays, and business trips, that's hard. And the reason is traveling adds a new level of unpredictability and challenge to staying on track with your health and fitness goals. What do you grab in the airport when you're hungry? Should you eat the airplane food? 

You arrive in a new city, and you have a fridge, but you don't have a kitchen, or you're staying in an Airbnb, but you're not sure how much you're going to be cooking because you're going to go out to dinner a lot, go out to eat a lot. 

So, listen, I know, because I've been living as a digital nomad since 2018. And if you've never heard of this term, it means I've been traveling to new cities and countries every few months. In other words, I have a lot of practice and expertise staying in shape on the road.  

And in today's episode, I'm going to be sharing with you my secrets for staying on track no matter where life takes you. And I also want to say this is a special episode of the Legendary Life podcast because we've created a beautiful PDF for you that you can download for free.  

It will not only give you the written version of this episode, not a transcript by the way, but something I wrote along with the workouts that I've created for you. You can get that at legendarylifepodcast.com/travelguide. That's legendarylifepodcast.com/travelguide. So let's dive in. 

And the first thing that I always must say is welcome to the Legendary Life podcast. I'm your host, Ted Ryce, health expert and coach to executives, entrepreneurs, and other high-performing professionals.  

And as I said, we're going to be covering my top secrets for staying on track no matter where life takes you. And just to give you an idea of what we're going to cover in this episode, is number one, we're going to talk about the mindset for success. Number two, exercise while traveling.  

Number three, nutrition while traveling. Number four, how to eat at restaurants, and number five, how to annihilate jet lag.  

So, let's dive into the first one: How to master the health and fitness game on the go. 

And what I want to tell you is what I've learned is success starts with our mindset. I'll be straight with you. I haven't had much of a problem staying in shape on the road. I had to figure out the strategies to do it. But I already had the mindset. However, when I started coaching my clients, I was like, "What's wrong with these people?  

Why aren't they doing what I gave them to do?" And then I realized they didn't have the right mindset. So, I want you to understand mindset comes first. And what I want to share are five rules to help you succeed with your fitness goals while traveling.  

So, number one is: commit no matter what. Before all else, make a pact with yourself that you're going to commit to doing something for your fitness no matter the circumstances. "Oh, I didn't have time." BS, did you have five minutes? You could have done bodyweight squats and pushups. One set. "Oh, but that doesn't matter."  

No, yes, it does matter. I'm telling you, I'm an expert here, okay? Commit to doing something no matter what, no excuses, period. This commitment solidifies your resolve and sets the tone for the entire trip.  

Number two is: prioritize your health. Understand that taking care of your health is non-negotiable. Just like picking the kids up from school, you don't just say, "Well, I don't feel like it. They'll find a way to get home." Well, I hope you don't do that.  

And you also say, "You know what, I don't feel like paying my taxes this year." You understand that there are consequences to doing that. The thing is, you can get away with poor health for decades before you have your first heart attack or a diabetes diagnosis. 

But if you're like most of our clients who are 40 years old or above, you don't have that time anymore. So, treat your body with the respect that it deserves. And listen, it doesn't mean you can't have a croissant in Paris or savor some sushi in Tokyo. It means that you find a balance that aligns with your health goals. That's what it means.  

Number three is: embrace adaptability. Remember, you don't need a perfect gym setup to stay fit. So many of my clients felt like, "Well, I can't follow my workout, so I just won't do anything."  

The gym didn't have the equipment that I typically use, so I just skipped the workout. No, you do what you can. Sometimes that's a hotel room workout with no equipment at all, which I'll give you in the downloadable PDF. I'll just briefly mention it here: a jog in a foreign city, perhaps a walking tour or a swim in the ocean—fitness is versatile. 

And if you're only gone for a week or two, or maybe even a few days for a work event or something like that, you can be super flexible, just get something in. Number four is plan ahead. We've all heard that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And it's a cliché, but it's also true.  

So, research your destination. For example, when I got to Ostuni where I was going to be for, I think, nine days, something like that, I had to figure out, "Okay, where am I going to go food shopping?" Because I can't just eat these pasta Chotos, which is the pastry from that region, and drink a cappuccino every day. I started feeling, even though I was really enjoying the food, I started feeling bad. And I knew I needed to buy some fat-free Greek yogurt and some other things that would make me feel better.  

So, research your destination: are there gyms nearby, good places to run, healthy food options? Where are the supermarkets if you want to get some fruit and some fat-free yogurt, in my case, at least. Anticipate obstacles and be ready with solutions. It doesn't take but five minutes to do that.  

And number five is: forgive and move on. If you do slip up, and we all do, even me, don't waste time beating yourself up. Recognize it, learn from it, get right back on track. Remember, perfection doesn't exist. It's just an idea in the human mind. It's an idea. But progress is measurable. 

So, keep those rules in mind: commit no matter what, prioritize your health, embrace adaptability, plan ahead, and forgive and move on. 

So, the second step is exercise. Here's the thing that happens when you're traveling. It's really hard to stay on track with your nutrition. If you're at a work event, people will want to go out to eat for lunch or dinner or both.  

Maybe have some drinks. If you're with family, you've got to kind of do what they're doing. And sometimes you're not going to have the options that you want. We'll talk about nutrition in a bit, but you can always find time to exercise. 

And what I want to tell you is that one of the most common patterns I see as a fitness coach is people try to get and stay in shape by working out for months. They're doing well. Then they get derailed by the holidays or a big deadline at work. Many people fall off the wagon for a few months or even the rest of the year. 

And this seesaw plays out physiologically too. Exercising regularly helps you with your brain, your circulatory system, your respiratory system, metabolism, muscles, bones. You feel great if you're doing the right amount of exercise. But if you stop exercising, your body starts adapting to that, just doing nothing. And that's why I came up with a 10-minute workout. 

So, there are two 10-minute workouts in the downloadable PDF. I'm not going to share what they are because I think some of you will know the exercises, and some of you won't, but go to legendarylifepodcast.com/travelguide. And if you think you can't get a workout in 10 minutes, try it. 

I've given you both a resistance workout and a 10-minute, so that's around 15 minutes with the resistance workout, and then a 10-minute high-intensity interval training workout. And it's complete with videos, so if you don't know how to do an exercise, you just click the link and you'll see. So, let's move on to nutrition. 

Let's talk about simple nutrition strategies to stay on track while traveling because nutrition will be the hardest part when you're away. The hardest challenge you'll face when traveling is just trying to stay on top of your nutrition. You'll be out of your normal routine.  

You may not have the same options you have back home. You'll most likely face peer pressure from family, friends, or work colleagues about drinking and eating too. The bad news is that this can create the perfect storm to not just overeat but feel demotivated when you get back home.  

So, let's avoid that by getting some things straight. The first thing you need to understand is that eating well while traveling is a black belt level challenge, okay? So many people feel bad by getting their butt kicked while traveling, and it's like, yeah, that's because you went into the ring with Mike Tyson. Oh, of course, you were going to get knocked out. Of course, you were going to get knocked on your butt. 

And if you're overweight or obese, if you cannot see your abs, or if you're not in a high level of fitness, you've got a white belt. So, expect staying in shape on the road to be hard. I mean, it's hard for me sometimes. Like this two-week trip in Italy. 

I love the food in Italy. It is incredible. And it's my second time in Italy, and I just didn't want to restrict myself. At the same time, I started feeling bad. It was like next-level black belt challenge because I consider myself a black belt level in staying in shape on the road. And I still got my butt kicked a little bit. So, if you're not like me, expect you to get your butt kicked. 

And I want to say one more thing because I think it's worth mentioning. There are some people who stay in shape on the road. That's because they're emotionally unhealthy when it comes to food. They'll fast or they're in Italy, but they won't eat any carbs because they're on keto.  

That's not healthy psychologically. Unless you don't want to eat any pasta or pizza or pastries. But then again, why are you in Italy if that's the case? So don't look at those people as successes because they're not.  

Even if they look good and they're ripped, they're not healthy psychologically. Okay, I want to say that because it's so important. There are a lot of emotionally/psychologically unhealthy people in the health and fitness industry. 

If you're overweight or obese and you see some of these people like, "I went to Italy and I didn't eat any pasta," it's like, well, that's not. If maybe you didn't want to eat pasta or maybe you're just, again, psychologically unhealthy is what I would call it.  

The real term is orthorexic. Go look that up. It's the unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. Anyway, I'm digressing, but I believe it was a valuable tangent. So, what I like to do when I'm at home is I weigh my food, I track my macros, and when I was in Italy, I didn't do any of that. It was impossible to weigh everything. 

I wasn't going to eat clean. And to hit my protein target, Italy is just high fat, high carb, and low in protein. 

But the key is that I made an effort to do my best. And that's what I want you to do. And if you do get your butt kicked like I did, then learn for next time. What would I do differently? I already know what I'd do differently.  

I'd skip lunch most of the time, or I'd eat breakfast out, so I'd really enjoy a nice cappuccino, and whatever it is that they serve for breakfast, wherever I am in the world. But I would choose lunch most likely and find some Greek yogurt and just eat that and some fruit.  

So, I learned. And one thing I want to tell you is if you follow some key principles, you can minimize weight gain or even lose weight while traveling. My clients do it all the time. Now I came back, I weighed the exact same amount as before I left. 

Even though I felt a bit bad on the trip, with bad physiology from eating all the foods I was eating, even though it was olives, it was Stracciatella cheese, which is my new favorite cheese. If you've never tried Stracciatella cheese, oh my gosh. It's like if you like burrata, it's like burrata on steroids. Burrata is also from the Puglia region, by the way. 

So, let's get into some principles. The first principle is energy balance. Losing, gaining, or maintaining your weight all comes down to one thing: how many calories you eat. And when you understand this, you realize that you can eat pizza, drink wine, and eat chocolate lava cake, and still lose weight if your calories are where they need to be. 

Now, the best way to do this is to track your calories using MyFitnessPal, and quite often when I'm away, I mean, you could even argue I'm away right now here in Lisbon, I'm tracking my calories in Lisbon and weighing my food. I travel with a food scale. And what I do instead of looking at my daily calories, I look at my seven-day calorie average. And this is what I teach my clients too. For example, let's say my daily target is 2,000.  

Then if I multiply this by seven times to get my weekly average, it's 14,000 weekly calories. And if you use MyFitnessPal, there's a functionality that shows your weekly calorie average so you don't need to do any math. It shows you right at the end, okay, here's your weekly average. And why is this important? Well, because there's a good chance that you'll be eating more calories on some days. 

 But you'll have other days where you can eat fewer calories. And knowing your weekly average, just like a budget, will allow you to spend more calories, I used air quotes there, spend more calories on some days and then save on other days so that at the end of the day, you hit your weekly target.  

For example, let's say you travel on Monday and it's a low-calorie day because do you really want to eat airport food, not really. Let's say that you find a few options and you're able to keep it to 1,700 calories. And then Tuesday, you have a conference and it's a breakfast together and then you're having lunch at some restaurant and then dinner is at another restaurant and there are some drinks and let's say you totaled 2,400 calories. 

And then let's say Wednesday, it's a normal day. It's a day you can control your food. And then you eat 1,700 again. Thursday is the same thing, 1,700. Friday, it's a high-calorie day because you're meeting a client for dinner and you have over 2,000, 2,200 calories.  

Saturday, it's another client dinner. It's another high-calorie day, 2,600 calories. And then Sunday is another travel day, which you can kind of, you know, wake up and have Greek yogurt in the morning. That's what I typically do.  

So, I know the math, maybe you didn't follow it, but it's all in that downloadable PDF at legendarylifepodcast.com/travelguide. And you'll see they add up to 14,000. And I share this with you because you can choose the days where you eat less, choose the days where you eat more. 

But what most people do is they just say it's an all or nothing approach. They're like, well, I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to, I don't care. I'm just going to eat whatever the, a bunch of eggs for breakfast because eggs are protein, I think, even though they're like 60% fat and people are just ignorant and they do ridiculous things.  

And then they end up so many pounds over, even though they feel like some of the meals, they weren't really that bad, but they weren't paying attention to total calories. And if you just do this one thing, it'll change your life and your waistline.  

So, let's talk about fat loss nutrition travel strategies when you're not tracking calories. Because tracking calories, it's the best approach. Why? 

Because it gives you the most accuracy and flexibility. For example, I'm going to go out and meet a friend for coffee in a bit, and I'm going to have some type of pastry and because I tracked my breakfast and because I'll track when I'm out with him and I'll track my meals later, I can budget everything so that I stay lean even though I ate a pastry.  

So here are some effective practices that I recommend to clients who don't track their calories. Number one: skip a meal. Now I hate doing this. I'll be honest. 

The only times I skip meals or when I go to a buffet. For example, I was in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and every Sunday they would have a group of entrepreneurs that I'm friends with there, they have a Sunday brunch at the Fives Hotel. 

And they have everything at this brunch. It's really good. Not amazing, but pretty good. And I'll have that brunch and then I won't eat anything for the rest of the day. Or if I get hungry again, I'll have fat-free Greek yogurt or tuna fish, something super low in calorie, high protein. But if skipping meals works for you, feel free to do it. 

Now I've had clients that prefer to have breakfast and dinner and then skip lunch instead of skipping breakfast because skipping breakfast is the most common, but it's actually better if you eat breakfast for most people at least, and then try to skip lunch or maybe even dinner. 

However, dinners while you're away will usually be the biggest meal of the day while you're on vacation, entertaining clients, or meeting with work colleagues. So, skipping lunch is probably your best bet. Have a big breakfast and maybe a light snack and then have the normal dinner. And skipping a meal, there's nothing magical about hormonally or autophagy, all that nonsense. It's just that you spend fewer calories.  

Number two is pregame and this is what one of my clients, shout out to you, Teresa, if you're listening, started calling this technique, so I adopted it. And what pre-gaming is, if you, I don't know if you were like me in high school or college, but what I would do is before we went to the bar, we would drink at home because it was cheaper.  

And so, what pre-gaming is in this context is having something to eat before you go have a meal. Sounds counterproductive, but let's talk about it, because going into a big meal, ravenously hungry, this is something I used to do is a recipe for overeating. 

Being hungry is stressful, and most people tend to develop eyes bigger than their stomach. Has that ever happened to you? You're like, oh, I'm going to have a big meal so I'm not going to eat.  

And then you're just starving and then you just eat so much and it's rushed and you don't even chew your food. You're just swallowing things. Maybe that's just me, but that's how I operated. So, what I have, so what I do and how my clients do now is I tell them to have a protein shake. 

And we're talking just protein and 16 ounces of water before their biggest meal. This will help you to avoid overeating due to high levels of hunger. You can also have fat-free Greek yogurt and a piece of fruit as another example. As another example too, I'm going to go meet my friend for a coffee, but he's probably going to have breakfast. 

I'm already full so I can just have my pastry and a coffee and be fine. And I don't really want to eat breakfast at this place. It's not something super delicious. So, but if I was there and I was hungry, I would eat a big plate of food and it would be higher in calories than what I could make at home.  

So, I'm very intentional. Anyway, so I'm pre-gaming. So, you can also do this. You can also have 16 ounces of water and a scoop of protein before your big meals or what my preference is to have fat-free Greek yogurt and a piece of fruit. This way you show up ready to order what you really want instead of letting your hunger decide for you.  

Number three is stay hydrated. Drinking water is one of the best health habits you can have, period. Not only does it help you avoid brain fog due to dehydration, but it also helps you avoid overeating. Many times, when we feel hungry, we're actually just dehydrated. So, a great strategy is to get a quart bottle or liter, if you're not in the States, and make sure you drink one quart of water in the morning, one during the afternoon, and one before dinner. 

You don't want to drink too late because you'll be up all night using the bathroom. It's happened to me more than more than a dozen times. 

When trying to stay hydrated goes wrong. But the reason why this works is again, it keeps you hydrated, but it also provides some stretching to your stomach and your stomach has stretch receptors in it. And that's also the same reason why you can eat a baked potato, again, a plain baked potato or a boiled potato. 

And you'll feel full, but you eat potato chips and you're not. So, staying hydrated. Number four, prioritize protein and veggies. Protein and veggies help keep you full. The protein helps keep you full, and the vegetables have high fiber in them and other things that help keep you full. So as soon as you look at the menu, preferably before you get there, seek out high protein options and vegetable dishes. 

So, prioritize protein and veggies. Protein and veggies, they'll help keep you full. And if you're full, you won't eat as much. So as soon as you look at the menu, if you're going out to dinner, or as soon as you are able to go food shopping if you happen to be doing that, seek out high protein options in vegetable dishes. 

Opt for lean proteins like fish, chicken breast, and cuts of steak like sirloin or New York strip, and be mindful of the sauce or dressing that veggies come with. 

So, you're not doing yourself any favors if vegetables are cooked in butter or salad dressings, salads with high-calorie dressings, because they add hundreds of calories to your daily total. You can also bring some protein powder and/or bars in your suitcase to supplement. 

Number five is be smart with alcohol. Alcohol affects your nutrition in two ways. Number one, it has calories in it despite not being a food. And number two, it causes you to eat more. The best thing you can do is to avoid alcohol. And listen, no judgments on this as I enjoy the occasional drink myself.  

That said, if you enjoy drinking, you can still make alcohol work by creating a two-drink maximum rule. Also, the types of alcohol you drink have an impact as well. So, sticking to light beer or mixed drinks with zero-calorie mixer, for example gin and tonic, vodka and soda is best.  

And if you drink wine, be mindful of how large the glass is. And don't be shy about refusing the waitstaff that come around to top off your glass. And in the PDF, the downloadable PDF, I have a visual for you that shows you low-calorie options. So again, go to legendarylifepodcast.com/travelguide, and you can see what the different low-calorie alcohol options are. 

Okay, and the last thing I want to talk about is how to handle jet lag and long travel days. And I want to give you an example. Recently, I was in Brazil, then I flew to Miami, then I flew to Costa Rica, then back to Miami, and then I flew to Lisbon, Portugal.  

So, I crossed several different time zones, started to get adjusted there, and then changed again. And it was hard to adapt when I finally got to Lisbon, I was very happy to be here in Lisbon, Portugal. But it was a lot of stress on the body, sitting for long hours on the plane, which I could talk about, I have a whole strategy that I do on a plane that I didn't add to this travel guide.  

Maybe I'll do that some other day or maybe I'll add on to this travel guide what my airplane workout routine is for long flights. But what I want to tell you is this, even though we love to travel, flights can be stressful. Traffic on the way to the airport, flight delays, long days of travel, puts stress on our minds as well as our bodies.  

And if you cross a time zone, it puts an additional demand on your body system. For example, I used to have a client, he was based in Florida, he would fly out to California where a new branch of his business just got built, and he was flying back and forth, and that three hours, even though it doesn't seem like much, it causes fatigue, sleep issues, causes hunger, and other issues due to the stress of travel even if you're flying first class or business. And here's the thing, while you're not feeling your best, 

And here's the thing, if you're not feeling your best, but you're on your way to an exciting vacation, that's not that big of a deal. But feeling low energy when you're on route to an important client or to close a deal isn't a good thing. So, what I want to talk about a bit is just how I get in the zone for traveling. And I do this regardless if I'm going on vacation or meeting with a client. 

Before I travel, I focus on getting good sleep three to four days before I travel. So, I'm building up reserves here because I know the big flight and potential time change is going to take away from me. It's going to take away from my health. And then what I make sure I do is I get a lot of exercise and especially cardio. Cardio makes you more resilient compared to lifting weights. You can, of course, do both, but make sure you get in cardio. 

And we're talking zone one cardio, I'm sorry, zone two cardio. So, getting your heart rate in the 100 to 120 beats per minute range. And keeping it there for at least 30 minutes.  

And also, what I do is I avoid alcohol. Now I don't drink much so this isn't hard for me, but avoid alcohol before you travel. And also pack a sleep mask, earplugs, a neck pillow, and travel snacks.  

You want to make sure that you set yourself up for success. I've got a sleep mask that I travel with, I have earplugs and a neck pillow, and I always make sure I buy travel snacks if I'm going on a long flight because I know the snacks that they're going to give me aren't going to be ideal. Now, when I'm on the long flight, here's what I do. Number one, I know that flying dehydrates me, so I drink water frequently. 

Yeah, you go to the bathroom a lot, but you see people, they're sitting around, they're not drinking anything, people don't take good care of themselves on flights. It's not a big deal. Drink water, go use the bathroom, it doesn't matter, and it gets you up and moving out of your seat. Number two is if you are able to sleep on a flight, wear a sleep mask, earplugs, so that it can improve your sleep quality. 

One of the things that disturb your, or two of the things, the biggest disturbances for sleep are light and sound. So, wearing a sleep mask and earplugs can go a long way. In fact, I fell asleep a little bit on my flight from Miami to Lisbon, helped a lot. Number three, get up frequently and/or walk up and down the cabin to help increase circulation and decrease inflammation. So, sitting for long hours is terrible for your body. 

Whether that's at your desk, at work, or on a flight. But flying has additional stresses that make it a little bit worse, a little bit worse. So, get up frequently, of course, not when you're sleeping, better to sleep. But get up and move if you are awake. And avoid alcohol as it will dehydrate you and disrupt your sleep. Now, when you get to where you're going, here's what I want you to do. 

Go to bed at nighttime in your new time zone. So, if you travel from Florida to California or from Florida to Portugal, doesn't matter, go to sleep at the new time zone. 

For me, going to Lisbon, it meant staying up until nighttime happened, and then taking chamomile tea, glycine, and melatonin. If you have trouble with sleeping due to jet lag, these are the three things that I recommend. 

Also, get sunlight in the morning and stay outside during the day as much as possible to help your body adjust to the new time zone. Light is the most powerful setter of your circadian rhythms.  

So, you want to take advantage of that. And here's the thing, when you arrive at a new place, for example, when I arrived in Lisbon, I drink coffee in the morning. I make sure I drink two or three coffees. Usually, I'll just have one or two coffees. 

But I'll drink two or three; I'll make sure I drink them throughout the morning and even early afternoon to fight brain fog and to avoid falling asleep. What you want to avoid, if you're like me and you are quite susceptible to jet lag, you want to avoid that strong feeling to fall asleep during the day. Because if you do that, you're going to ruin your ability to adapt to the new time zone. It's going to just take you longer. 

And another thing that will help is doing cardiovascular exercise in the morning. So, wake up, get sunlight, drink coffees, uh, two to three, and do cardiovascular exercise in the morning. It's going to help you acclimate to the new time zone. Really important. All right.  

That is it for this travel guide. I hope you liked it. And if it was a bit hard to follow because I know I shared a lot of information here, again, go to legendarylifepodcast.com/travelguide. 

And you can download this in an easy and beautiful PDF that we created for you. Hope you enjoyed it. Hope you enjoy the PDF. Remember, traveling is no excuse to let yourself get out of shape. You just need to develop the right skills, habits, and use the right strategies, and you can stay in shape even while traveling for work or pleasure. That's it for me. Hope you enjoy this. 

Talk to you on the next episode. Speak soon.