This week and next week I am in India for work. Seriously, business travel has major potential to have a terrible impact on your health. It sounds fabulously glamorous to be jetting off into the sunset, but for someone who is trying to be healthy, it is a challenge on many fronts.
Firstly, I love Indian food and Indian food loves me. Unfortunately, I struggle with the ‘off switch’ and tend to majorly overeat. This is fine when it’s once in a while, but when eating Indian for lunch and dinner for two weeks... well, it’s not fine. Secondly my work here involves a lot of consumer research, which due to the language barrier means a lot of sitting around watching a TV screen and listening to translators. Thirdly work travel usually involves team dinners at restaurants where it is so easy to enter the mindset of ‘eating out’ and ordering something special.... every night. Fourthly the time difference between here and Singapore means that you go to bed later, but naturally wake up earlier. Being tired is a huge barrier to my will power and makes it much harder to resist the cupboard of sweets and biscuits at the research center. Fifthly air travel (similarly to eating out at restaurants) has its own psychology, especially eating in business class – plenty of alcohol, pre dinner snacks, entree, main, cheese, dessert, chocolate... how to resist?!
So this has been my plan so far:
Exercise – although I usually only take carry-on luggage, I squeezed my exercise gear into my bags this time. Each morning (so far, at day two) I have gone to the gym and walked for 30 min on the treadmill while reading my notes for the day. My fitness testing at work said for maximum fat burning I should exercise between 110 and 120 bpm which is achievable at a brisk walk with some incline. Actually, this walking time is quite an untapped reservoir for catching up on reading and definitely makes the time go faster. Clock-watching is a terrible habit of mine because I tend to run/walk outside over being in the gym.
Lunch – eat day the research center serves up the most amazing array of curries, rices and side dishes. So far I’ve tried to minimise curry and carb consumption at lunch time (to avoid falling asleep watching the research TV, and because I know I’ll probably be having heaps for dinner) and chosen chicken tikka and veges instead. The only exception to this is the bread... I think it’s impossible for me NOT to have a chapatti with my lunch (I loooove them) so I try to have one instead of two... or three...
Dinner – I’ve tried to remind myself that when I’m eating out it isn’t a special occasion, and I really don’t need an entree and a main, and tried to eat more slowly and actually stop when I’m full. I find this incredibly difficult as I grew up finishing everything on my plate, but good conversation always distracts me. Also, eating with people who aren’t big drinkers also naturally limits my wine intake which always helps the will-power. Last time I was here for similar research a colleague and I went out and had a bottle each... oops. Not great for concentration the next day!
Sleep I am struggling with at the moment. The hotel I’m staying at is really really noisy. I’m talking ‘banging and crashing in the stairwell at 5am’ noise. Earplugs are a must. The upside of the time difference is that I naturally wake up in time to go to the gym... so there are definitely positives and negatives.
Flights – this is a tough nut to crack. Business class service is so wonderful and feels like such a treat it feels sacrilegious to turn down the champagne on boarding. I’m trying to approach it like restaurant eating... we’ll see... work in progress, I’d say.
All in all, at the end of day two I would score myself a 5 out of 10. Plenty of room for improvement. I think my goal for these two weeks will be maintaining the status quo and if I achieve that then I will be a happy camper.
Speaking of the status quo... one week of socialising had me right back to where I started from three weeks ago. I nearly cried when I had my weekly check in last week. I was so proud of my progress thus far and seeing it all whipped away was heart breaking.
Oh well, back to square one, back on the wagon and thinking positive thoughts... It doesn’t help the cause when a friendly (and I’m sure well-meaning) man sitting at the cafe table next to us over Chinese New Year in KL was explaining how fat Arab men go for skinny women, and how skinny Arab men go for fat women... and then gestured to me! Ouch! In the end I just had to laugh – it was laugh or cry!
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