Traveling Tests You
Getting out of your “safe space” from time to time is a good way to test whether or not the systems and practices you've developed hold up outside your bubble at home.
I had the chance to travel to Denver last week for work. While I don’t travel as much as I used to, I still like having the opportunity to go see customers, spend time with team members, and experience different places. This latest trip was also an opportunity for some reflection on the way I handle travel. Would I be able to maintain my daily set of practices that I know work for me? Or would I revert to my old ways of starting off my early morning flight routine with quad-shot cappuccinos and questionable breakfast sandwiches?
Spoiler: Everything worked out great, and no quad-shots were consumed...
BYO Daily Practice
Just because I’m away from home doesn’t mean I leave my daily practices at home too. I can still get enough sleep, and I can still meditate and work out in the morning - maybe not on my own pillow and with my normal gym equipment, but it turns out sitting cross-legged with your eyes closed is pretty universal, just like pushups. Hotel gyms aren’t that bad either. I loaded The Daily Stoic and Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations onto iBooks and took my journal with me. After a cold shower (Denver cold is much colder than Omaha cold, btw) and snowy walk to the office with my first coffee at 8:30, I was set up for a great day. Control what you can control is the key, and I found I was in control of quite a bit if I was willing to be creative.
Planning Food Ahead of Time
I used to stress about food so much while traveling. The idea that, “if I don’t eat by this specific time my blood sugar will be too low and I won’t be able to think during my presentation,” would lead me to cram down a McMuffin or pastry right before presenting, ensuring the opposite effect I was looking for...
Fast forward to today, probably thanks to a combination of maturity and hard-earned wisdom, and experiences like the recent fast, I realize that my practices are what set me up for success on the road, not the calories I put into my mouth. That’s not to say I don’t eat, but I don’t focus on it, I rather plan for grazing/intuitive eating when I need to so I can go with the flow.
Here’s what that looked like in practice last week
Stopped at Whole Foods the day before the trip and bought 4 GoMacro bars (vegan, can be meal replacers)
Brought a bag of Barukas nuts with me for snacks as needed
Scoped out healthy dinner options close to the hotel and confirmed with the front desk
Found a great whole fruit smoothie shop near the office and bought two, one for 11am and one for 4pm before my flight back
Intermittent fasted until 11am (normal for me anyways, except on heavy gym days) so my mind was focused on work and connecting, and not on eating and digesting
Be Present in the Moment (even in the airport terminal)
Back to stress - definitely a key theme with travel for me as you can see.
Nothing used to stress me more while traveling than weather / mechanical issues that threatened to keep me stuck for an extra night away from home. It only happened once or twice, but just the idea of it would get my HR up to high Z2 and have me looking for any way out, which of course, there wasn’t. Talk about what you can’t control.
A snow storm in Denver that was moving towards Omaha last Wednesday was setting up for the same thing. After one cancelled flight and quick rebook on another airline for an 8:40pm flight a day early, I sat in the terminal bracing myself for what could very likely happen. I saw they had already laid out cots with pillows and blankets on the floor above…
After two delays and still not having boarded at 9pm I looked up and realized something - I was actually okay with whatever happened next. While not ideal, I’d still get home some time. I knew it was going to be okay.
Meditation works people!
Spoiler #2: We did finally take off at 10:30pm after two rounds of deicing and much applause from the passengers
Thanks for reading,
Paul
Plan. Progress. Grace. Move Forward.
I’m planning for a trip to Iceland and your food prep really got me thinking about bringing my own food with me. Great article Paul!