I’m blogging from not-all-that-beautiful Renton, Washington this morning.  We’re in the area to attend an extended family get-together (HIS family…not mine) on Saturday.  But we decided to make a long weekend of it, so we could take the girl child and her best friend out and about Seattle.  We drove up yesterday (Thursday), and we’ll head back home on Sunday.

Traveling is a bit of a PITA, as it does disrupt my routine.  Nonetheless, I’ve found it’s not difficult to maintain some semblance of diet/workout discipline on the road – which helps enormously.  For example, we brought along two portable pieces of workout equipment with us: my push up bars and our TRX Suspension Trainers.  The latter has a door frame mount, and packs up neatly in a mesh bag that can easily be crammed into a suitcase.  To me, it’s an indispensable piece of travel equipment.  We did a quick, in-room workout this morning using a circuit: push ups, crunches, inverted rows and one-legged squats (we used the TRX for the last two).  After spending the better part of yesterday afternoon behind the wheel, it felt great.

I also brought along my running shoes and shorts.  Lucky for us, there’s a park across the street, so I’m set.  On the last trip like this we took (Pittsburgh), the environment around the hotel wasn’t very workout-friendly, so our cardio consisted of running ”laps” up and down the stairwell (the hotel had 8 floors, so this got our hearts racing).  We’d also make a point of beating the kids when we went out together - they’d take the elevator, so we’d make sure we got to the destination floor before they did (I have teenagers, so have to make sure we do everything in our power to be annoying).

Food hasn’t been too much of a problem, either.  We got in late last night, and settled for eating at the coffee shop adjacent to our hotel.  The menu, needless to state, was uninspiring, but it was still possible to come up with some acceptable entrees: I had the grilled salmon, and asked the server to hold the “special” mashed potatoes that normally go with the dish (these were blended with cheese, bacon and sour cream), and ordered double veggies instead.  We ate breakfast there too…our server was a bit flummoxed by the fact that we overlooked the stuffed hash browns, sausage, bacon, pancakes and omelettes, in favor of poached eggs, fresh fruit and oatmeal – lol.  But I cannot deal with all the grease…once upon a time, I worked as a restaurant line cook, and know first-hand how much of that semi-hydrogenated sludge gets slopped around.  I’ll pass, thanks.

Learning to cope with restaurants isn’t easy for a lot of people.  Just this week, one of the members of the  ”Bodybuilding Revealed” forum started a thread to discuss a “cheat meal” he had at Cheesecake Factory.  As it turned out, this wasn’t so much of a “cheat” as it was a binge – but this isn’t unusual behavior for many people.  Eating in a restaurant (especially one like Cheesecake Factory, that features a lot of “food porn”), is like “written permission” to go off the deep end.  You’re explicitly encouraged to overeat: the servers will plunk bread and butter on the table, ask you if you want drinks and appetizers, and cajole you to order dessert.  But all that stuff is just filler…it offers so little in terms of nourishment, it’s just not worth it.  I love good food, and I always eat well (I average a good 2200 – 2300 calories/day), but I’m just not interested in eating “food” that will – in the long run – work against me.

So it’s not impossible to live healthy…and out of a suitcase, simultaneously.  Just takes a bit of planning…

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