Advice for Hotel Living

Hi all

Just wanting a little bit of help. I am trying to get to my goal weight but its getting difficult given my Circumstances. My job involves going Away for extended periods at a time to foreign countries. Before i left i was loosing about 1Kg a week through Cycling 6miles a day and eating ok (not amazingly well but not utter rubbish) as Well as doing half an hour in the Gym every weekday and 1 hour on weekends. However now i am Abroad once again and i do not want to put the weight back on, which i am doing. The issue is i am staying in a hotel for the entire trip and there are no excersice factlities and It is not safe to leave the hotel after Dark (when i get back from work which is 6 days of the week.). So i'm looking to improve my Diet.

The issue with this is i don't see how i can. currently i eat

Breakfast
Nothing - small bowl of cereal maybe twice a week if i get chance but usually not hungry.

Lunch
1 Cheese and Ham Sandwitch no butter using a small loaf

Dinner
Meal in the Hotel (usually with 3/4 bottles of Larger) - Fresh fruit and Veg unsafe to eat (wahsed in tap water so no salads all veg must hav been cooked) as there is no pasta or rice dishes so its a meat dish with Chips.

Sundays i tend to only eat the Big meal at night and catch up on sleep during the day.

So Options are Limited. I don't Snack, I'm only eating one decent meal and drinking mostly Iced Tea in the Day and beer at night and i'm sure that's not enough to explain the weight gain especially since i'm hungry most of the time with no way of satisfying it except smoking. the nonly thing i could cut is the Alcohol but that alone wouldn't be gaining me weight i'm sure.


Any Advice you can give is appreciated.

It's the alcohol. Look up calories of booze, it's crazy. Where you working? I go abroad a lot. And work in other cities in uk too so have to live out of shops and ready meals which is enough of a pain in the uk let alone abroad.

I struggled in eastern Europe this summer to find anything vaguely edible, when it was, it was potato potato potato can you get to shops in the day?

Mandlegrot said:

It's the alcohol. Look up calories of booze, it's crazy. Where you working? I go abroad a lot. And work in other cities in uk too so have to live out of shops and ready meals which is enough of a pain in the uk let alone abroad.

I struggled in eastern Europe this summer to find anything vaguely edible, when it was, it was potato potato potato can you get to shops in the day?

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I'm currently working in the north of mexico so its pretty much a warzone with people being shot every night and the millatry policing the streets. but other places i wil be working include the middle of brazil, north of India, Afganistan, Africa and Eastern China. So you have no idea about what your buying and you have to make do eating whatever is safe, but i need to cut the calories somewhere as i can't be dealing with 6-10 months of an unhealthy lifestyle a year jut to loose it on the UK.

I agree, the alcohol is a culprit. Chips also make it easy to eat a lot of calories very quickly so if you must have them stick to a small handful only.

I'd also suggest you eat a small breakfast containing some protein and eat more veg overall. A lot of the countries you mention should have cooked vegetable side dishes that you can order. These changes will even out your intake over the day instead of a big influx right before you sleep (when you don't burn many calories).

Exercise-wise, why not take a kettlebell in your luggage to use in your room? If you're worried about the weight you could try resistance bands or even make yourself a routine of body weight exercises - cardio isn't the only way. You could also get a pedometer and set yourself a target of steps to do during the working day. Depending on your hotel you could also walk around the public areas there.

Also, Google 'exercise for travel' - many results!

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/25/how-to-stay-in-shape-while-traveling/ for example

There was a website - cannae remember it - but it was geared towards the army, and how they exercise when stationed somewhere that is a security risk. It was all about using objects around you that are to hand - lifting sandbags/tins of food for weights...jogging on the spot...using a chair/bed for pushups/raises/stregnthening.

I can see that in some of those countries eating will be hard, especially fresh food. I can sympathise with you on that one - I'm vegan and eating out is a no-go in eastern europe unless I want chips, chips and chips. How about buying some tablets to clean up water with, and ordering stuff to take to your room? There must be something they can do