1. Monitor Weather Reports: Stay on top of the Weather Channel and local weather reports from your local stations. Granted, they aren’t always 100% accurate, but they should at least give you some trending that will give you a keen sense of what you can expect over the next 72 hours in your area.
2. Check Your Airline’s Site: If your flight happens to coincide with a hurricane, tropical storm, blizzard or any type of weather related emergency, monitor your airline’s website for alerts and advisories. These will give you a heads up if there is a strong chance of your flight getting cancelled. For instance, if you are meant to fly August 29th, and your airline has a travel advisory for that date stipulating a relaxed change-fee policy, this is a heads up that there is a high chance they’ll be cancelling your flight. In this case,  call the airline and make arrangements to change the flight to the days that they suggest for alternate travel. Also, minimize connections as much as possible, as the more connections you have, the more likely you’ll miss one.
3. Call Your Hotel: Of course, if you take off a day later, then your hotel reservation will be impacted. Make sure to call the hotel you’re scheduled to stay at to push off your reservation until the appropriate day. Usually, hotels will not charge you a fee for weather related emergencies that result in a change to your reservation…as long as you communicate with them.
4. Call The Rental Car Company: Most car reservations aren’t prepaid, so make sure to call your car rental company so that you can revise your reservation to reflect your new travel plans. And again, if it is prepaid, the weather should afford you the opportunity for a refund or at least a partial refund.
5. Day of Your Flight: Continue to monitor the flight status online to see if there is any change to your reservation. If there are delays, make sure to plan for any connections that may be missed.

Our flight has been rescheduled to Tuesday the 30th. Fingers crossed the pre-planning pays off!

What do you do to ward off stress when traveling in bad weather?

When writing Get Real and STOP Dieting!, I stumbled upon Lisa Young’s The Portion Teller.  She developed a system for people to easily gauge portion sizes without the need for kitchen gadgets; perfect for the road warrior and dining out. Lisa’s system leverages every-day items as a visual guide for portions, as opposed to the actual referenced measurement.

Here are some common foods, their healthy portion sizes and the every-day item you might use to visualize the portion size:

Fruit and Vegetable Portion Sizes:

• 1 cup of vegetables, leafy greens = A Baseball
• 1 cup of berries = Woman’s fist

Grains and Starchy Carbs:

• 1/2 cup pasta or brown rice = Rounded handful
• 1/2 cup cereal = 1/2 Baseball
• 1 Slice of bread = CD Case
• 1 small potato = Computer Mouse
• 1 ounce pretzels = Tennis Ball
• 3 cups air popped corn = 3 baseballs

Protein:

• 3 ounces meat or chicken = Deck of cards / iPod
• 1 ounce meat or chicken = Matchbook
• 3 ounces fish fillet = Checkbook
• 1/2 cup cooked beans = 1/2 Baseball
• 2 Tbsp hummus Ping Pong Ball / Shot Glass

Dairy:

• 1 ounce hard cheese = Thumb / Tube of Lipstick / 4 Dice
• 1 ounce slice of deli cheese = CD Case
• 1/2 cup non-fat yogurt = 1/2 baseball
• 1 cup of milk = 1 baseball

Fats:

• 1 teaspoon olive oil = 1 die / Fingertip
• 1/4 cup nuts = Golf ball / Egg

Condiments:

• 1 Tablespoon of horseradish = Thumb
• 1 teaspoon of mustard = Fingertip

How do you ensure healthy portion sizes? Do you think this guide helps?

Info Source: Lisa R. Young, PhD, RD. The Portion Teller, New York: Broadway Books; 2005.

Change Your Life! In Get Real and STOP Dieting!, you’ll learn all you need to know to eat healthy for life without dieting! Get it Now!

Do you read nutrition labels when choosing between products?

1. VegGuide.org: VegGuide.Org is a community-maintained, world-wide guide to vegetarian and vegan restaurants, grocers, and more. It allows you to drill down into various regions of the world until you find the city you are looking for. It also gives you listings, ratings, and maps where eating establishments are located. There database lists over 12,000 vegetarian and vegan restaurants and eating establishments around the world, including airports.
2. HappyCow.Net: Mostly focused on vegetarian restaurants, the HappyCow lists almost 14,000 vegetarian and vegetarian friendly restaurants for travelers. They also seem to track your IP address and display establishments located in your area on the home page.
3. VegDining.Com: Also focused on vegetarian restaurants, this site provides global look up. They also offer the VegDining Card, which offers discounts at vegetarian restaurants around the world, including restaurants in Europe, South America, Africa, Australia, Asia and throughout North America with more joining every week.

For those of you who have allergies, or require gluten-free restaurants, the listings aren’t as extensive. They are mostly United States based. Nonetheless, these are helpful resources you can use while on the road:

1. AllergyEats.com: For those with any food allergies, this is your resource for in the United States! It is a comprehensive, user-friendly guide to allergy-friendly restaurants across the United States. It is a peer-reviewed directory of restaurants – rated by people with food allergies, for people with food allergies. It has over 600,000 listings, including those with kids’, gluten-free, and allergy specific information.
2. GlutenFreeRestaurants.org: The Gluten-Free Restaurant Awareness Program (GFRAP) provides listings in North America of 1620 participating gluten-free restaurants.
3. GlutenFreeRegistry.com: What I love about this site, is that they also have Apps you can use on your iPhone/iPad, Android and other mobile devices. They have a database of 18,000+ restaurants, bakeries, grocers, caterers and other businesses that appeal to those who need gluten-free food.
4. OrganicHighways.com: For those of you who want organic cuisine, this site allows you to search for restaurants that serve organic cuisine. You can also do an advanced search for food allergies as well.
5. AllerDine.com: Another site dedicated to North America, this site allows you to search by city and by keyword. They seem pretty new and aren’t as robust as some of those listed above.

Have you tried any of these resources? Have you liked them?

Whether you are staying at the Four Seasons or are hunkering down at the Super 8, make healthy choices at the breakfast buffet with these tips:

1. Fruit: Load up on fresh, whole fruit at the breakfast buffet. Whole fruit provides tons of vitamins and minerals, as well as fiber to keep you full and satiated throughout the morning. Avoid fruit cocktail and juice, as these tend to be high in sugar and low in fiber.
2. Yogurt: Yogurt can be high in sugar. Look for plain low-fat or non-fat yogurt, or better yet, plain low-fat Greek yogurt. Add some fresh fruit and a bit of dry cereal to the yogurt to round out the nutrition and flavor.
3. Pastries and Bread: Most pastries on the buffet are not healthy. This includes croissants, muffins, donuts, danish, pancakes, waffles, amongst others. They are made with refined flour and tend to be high in sugar. Avoid white bread or other breads made with refined flour, and instead, choose whole wheat or whole grain bread whenever possible. Bagels are generally made with refined flour, and can be up to 4 servings of bread per bagel. As a result, it is best to avoid these altogether.
4. Cold Cereal: Stay clear of cereals with added sugar. If the cereal comes in a box, look at the package to see how much sugar is in the cereal. You want to choose cereals that are high in fiber and low in sugar (aim for no more than 6 grams of sugar per serving). Cheerios, Shredded Wheat, Grape Nuts, and muesli are all good options. Some other brands you might see include Kashi and Nature’s Path, both of which tend to be okay, however, they do tend to have a bit of added sugar so read the label carefully.
5. Hot Cereal: If hot oatmeal (non-instant) is an option, this is usually a better option than cold cereal, due to its high fiber content. Ask the attendant if the oatmeal is made with water. Oatmeal made with whole milk tends to be high in saturated fat. Add fresh or dried fruit and nuts to make it well-balanced. Lastly, add some cinnamon for a nice, subtly sweet flavor.
6. Eggs: The healthiest egg option is poached, as it requires no oil to prepare. However, most people don’t really like poached eggs and a lot of hotels don’t serve them. On buffets, is a matter of fact, you are most likely going to see pre-made scrambled eggs, and possibly pre-made omelets. These don’t usually taste very good, and can often be made from a “mix.” If possible, order an omelet at the omelet station (if there is one) and request that they use no butter and very little oil. If there isn’t an omelet station, look for hard-boiled eggs or ask the waitstaff if they can make eggs fresh. If you tend to have high cholesterol and eat eggs regularly, ask for egg whites, as egg yolks are high in cholesterol.
7. Skip the Potatoes: Breakfast potatoes are usually fried and oily, not to mention high in calories. To keep the calories low and the fat to a minimum, ask for fresh sliced tomato instead. This is actually a popular swap out that many hotels accommodate.
8. Bacon and Sausage: Smoked and cured meats are generally high in fat and high in sodium. Ask the attendants if they have Canadian bacon or ham, which tend to be much leaner.

Eating breakfast is a healthy way to start your day. How do you make healthier choices at the breakfast buffet at the hotel?

1. Just Say No: Most restaurants’ bread baskets consist of breads that are made with refined or white flour. In short, this represents lots of empty calories. If you dine out regularly, the best solution might be to tell the waiter or waitress that you would prefer that they didn’t bring any bread or butter at all.
2. Focus on the Fat: Personally, when I sit down for dinner and the bread and butter soon follow, I ask the waiter or waitress to bring olive oil. Nutritionally, the case for olive oil is a no brainer.  Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat, while butter is a saturated fat.  Olive oil helps lower cholesterol (essentially lowering risk of heart disease), protects against wrinkles and reduces oxidative damage and helps in absorption of fat-soluble antioxidant nutrients, such as vitamin E and lycopene found in many antioxidant-rich vegetables. On the other hand, butter – a saturated fat – is known to raise LDL, the bad type of cholesterol, and therefore may increase your risk of heart disease. In a study done by the International Journal of Obesity, people who had olive oil with their bread consumed more olive oil on each piece of bread than those given butter. On the other hand, they ended up consuming less bread in total.
3. Focus on the Bread: Some restaurants are getting on the healthy band wagon, and as a result, may provide whole wheat or whole grain rolls or bread by request. Although they can’t as easily replace the bread as the can with the butter, ask the waitstaff if they have any whole wheat or whole grain options instead of traditional white.
4. Limit Yourself: If you are desperately wanting bread and butter, and you have no control over the kind of bread, take the approach of moderation. Try to limit yourself to no more than one piece of bread and one pat of butter. Although this can vary, you can assume that one piece of French bread and 1 1/2 teaspoons of butter equate to about 150 to 175 calories.

When dining out at a restaurant, do you pass on the bread and butter? Have you tried any of the above tips?  Do you have any tricks you want to share?

1. Fitness Gear: Your suitcase is your best traveling companion. Start thinking of it as your healthy travel and workout companion too. Make the following items “musts” when packing for the business trip: sneakers, workout clothes, and if interested, workout DVDs and/or equipment. If you tend to forget workout gear, go and buy a travel set that you can keep in your suitcase, so that forgetting it isn’t an option. Check out our in room workout reviews: You Are Your Own Gym, P90X and TRX Suspension.
2. Pack Food: Don’t leave healthy eating on the road to chance. For breakfast, I pack whey protein powder to ensure that I get some protein at the start of the day. And for snacks, load up on some nutrition bars and store them in a compartment in your bag. When your stock depletes, restock immediately. Another healthy packable snack is fresh almonds.
3. Airline Selection: Booking air travel is dependent on our origination, our destination, and our budget. However, if you have several options that fit these three requirements, start selecting flights based on in-flight quality. Research typical leg room, food offerings in flight, and other amenities. Although you may avoid eating in flight, many times we succumb to a hunger pang or two. The good news is that many airlines will post what food they serve on their website so you can get some insight prior to booking your flight.
4. Hotel and Room Selection: Start being more selective about the hotels you choose for your business trips. Look for hotels that have decent gyms, or at least a decent gym very close by. Also, if the hotel has restaurants, and you know you tend to eat in the hotel restaurant, start looking into brands that have implemented healthier choices on their menus. For the most part, many major brands have begun to do this. Also, start staying in hotels that are smoke-free for better air quality. Be selective about the rooms you book. Ask reservations for rooms located away from noisy areas and request personal preferences, such as hypoallergenic linens, extra pillows and king sized beds. If you are a light sleeper, start using your black-out shades in the hotel room, and purchase some ear plugs for the especially noisy hotel stay. The most important part of healthy travel for business is a comfortable hotel stay!
5. Make Appointments: One of the biggest complaints I hear from business travelers is that they “don’t have time” to be healthy on the road. Yet, you’re probably fantastic at using your PDA, Blackberry, iPhone, or any other hand-held device for booking your business trip appointments. Use this to your advantage and start “booking” healthy travel to-dos too. Book an appointment to go to workout. Book time to eat. Book snack times. Book sleep times. You might even consider booking hydration time. The good news is that a lot of these can be repeat appointments. So, all you have to do is book them once.

Make healthy travel a priority this new year! Do you have any healthy travel resolutions you are sticking to?

Unfortunately, what should have been a healthy, low-fat, and well-balanced late night snack turned into an unhealthy, high-fat, and sodium laden catastrophe. The salad was drenched in dressing, the asparagus was drowning in butter, and my sandwich was deli meat, not fresh turkey. All three things I ordered were labeled “healthy options” on the room service menu. Lesson learned: just because the room service menu has “healthy choices,” don’t assume that they are. Here are some health tips to make your room service dinner as healthy as possible:

1. Bread: Bread serves a purpose at the dinner table in a restaurant…it keeps you busy while you wait for your food. With room service, however, this isn’t the case. The bread comes when the meal comes. Most hotels don’t serve whole grain bread with dinner, they usually serve french bread or Italian bread…neither of which are especially healthy.  Ask the room service attendant to forget the bread and butter on your order to eliminate the empty calories.
2. Dressings, Sauces and Condiments: Whenever you order a salad, always ask for the dressing on the side. When you eat your salad, dip your fork into the dressing and then take a forkful of salad. This will help keep your fat intake lower than if the salad came with the dressing already on it. In general, this rule applies to any sauce, condiment or dressing, on any item you order. Ask for veggies, sides, entrees, and any other items “dry.”
3. Sandwiches: In my case, my sandwich was made with whole grain bread. Although this was a great start, the meat was deli meat and they slathered the bread with mayonnaise. Definitely ensure that the bread on any sandwich is whole grain or whole wheat. Or, even better, ask for your sandwich without the bread. When in doubt, ask if the meat is fresh, or if it is deli or processed. You want fresh meat whenever possible. This will ensure lower sodium content and more likely than not, lower fat content, preservatives and artificial ingredients as well. That way you have control over how much you eat.
4. Entrees: If you order a main entree, always choose meats or fish that are grilled, poached or baked (and dry). Avoid anything stuffed or sauteed.
5. Included Sides: Often, entrees come with starchy sides, like pasta, potatoes or french fries. In order to cut out excess calories, ask to substitute any starch with either a vegetable or a side salad.
6. Veggies: Just because a side dish is a vegetable, doesn’t mean it is healthy. Depending on the way the vegetable is prepared, it can be extremely unhealthy and fattening, counteracting all the vitamins and minerals you could be getting. Ask for your sides to be grilled or steamed when possible. And, if the vegetable comes with a sauce or dressing, again, ask for it on the side. Typical vegetable sides that you want to avoid include creamed vegetables, sauteed veggies, and stuffed vegetables.
7. Dessert: It is always tempting to order dessert. First off, when you order everything at once, you are starving and don’t realize that you very well may be full at the end of your meal. Secondly, the room service attendant asks you if you want anything else consistently until you say no. If you really want dessert, ask the room service attendant if they have any fresh berries, or sorbet. These options will satiate your sweet tooth without putting you over the edge with calories.

Room service is a great way to relax and get in some alone time in your hotel room. Don’t let it, however, sabotage your attempts to be healthy on the road. Do you have any healthy tips for hotel room service?

I know, I know…you want to lose weight. You yearn for the body you had before you spent hours of every week on a plane. And, you are desperate to have your rear-end look like anything but the plane seat it’s planted in.  But I’m going to let you in on a secret: Dieting doesn’t work.  You may be thinking: “But my friend lost 20 pounds on the Atkins diet!” or “I’ve heard fantastic things about Nutrisystem.”  Yes, these diets work in the short term, but after the diet ends, most people gain some, if not ALL of the weight back.

This New Year, I’d like you to consider resolving not to diet.  And, if you’re about to fall victim to Atkins or Jenny Craig, I want you to remember the following things about diets and why they don’t work:

1. Malnutrition: Contrary to popular belief, most diets are not healthy and may actually border on malnutrition.  Many urge us to do extreme things, forgo our favorite foods or cut major food groups in order to lose weight.  Healthy eating requires ALL nutrients (carbs, fats and protein) and a minimum number of calories in order to maintain health and proper body function.  For the New Year: Focus on eating nutrient rich foods of all types and stay away from those that are made up of “empty calories.”
2. Energy Loss and Metabolism: Dramatically reducing your calorie intake can result in reduced energy levels and fatigue. Given their long days and travel schedules, this is especially detrimental to a road warrior.  Instead, it’s important to understand which foods provide quality nutrition.  For the New Year: Eat small meals often, even if it means packing healthy snacks in your suitcase. This strategy can actually stimulate weight loss, keep you satisfied and maintain your energy levels throughout the day.
3. It is Unsustainable: Depriving your body of vital nutrients or calories can shock the body into losing weight. Once your body gets over the shock, however, it adapts: Metabolism slows, unhealthy physical states (such as ketosis) occur, and eventually, weight loss slows or stops.  So, even if you mentally have the willpower to diet forever, your body doesn’t.  For the New Year: Change from a mindset of dieting to one of eating healthy as a lifestyle.  You’ll lose excess weight and maintain a healthy weight for a lifetime.
4. The Pendulum Swing: Depriving yourself to an extreme, can result in extreme cravings.  The pendulum swings from “being extremely good” to “being extremely bad” to compensate.  For the New Year: Embrace moderation.  Enjoy the foods you love and the treats you crave every so often so that your cravings aren’t extreme.
5. Life Happens: Diets often require us to change our eating habits in such a way, that normal life gets in the way. As a road warrior, eating out can become problematic if your are on too strict of a “diet.”  For the New Year: Find ways to fit healthy eating into every day life, even when you travel, so that you can live life AND be healthy.  Discover which nutritious foods you love that make healthy eating delicious!
6. Quantitative versus Qualitative: Although this is changing, many dieting programs don’t really teach you how to eat for the long term. You may be carefully counting calories, but the food you are eating may actually make you hungrier or cause you to crave more.  For the New Year: Learn what foods are most satisfying and most nutritious.  The more nutritious the food you eat, the less hungry you will be.  You’ll make smarter choices and lose weight without focusing on every calorie you ingest.
7. One Dimensional: In order to truly lose weight, you have to eat well AND be active. As we get older, our metabolisms naturally slow down, so the more active you are, the more calories you burn and the higher your metabolism will stay.  For the New Year: Be active. Find activities you enjoy and make activity a normal part of your day: Take the stairs, walk at the airport instead of taking the people mover, park far away from your office, etc.

Make your New Year’s Resolution to Get Real!  Change your life by changing your mentality towards health, nutrition and wellness.  Stop dieting, start eating and start seeing the results that you want…for the long term!

Stop Dieting and Lose Weight for Good with #1 Bestseller Get Real and STOP Dieting! – perfect for the busy Road Warrior. The book is simple, straightforward, and provides you with a no-nonsense plan to help you eat healthy today, tomorrow and always…without dieting! Available on the Kindle and in Print.  Buy on Amazon Now!