The traveling blues

I’m writing this post from my lovely 27th floor room in the downtown Chicago Marriott, on Day Two of a work conference (though it feels more like day twelve). How does your food and exercise do when you travel out of town? Me, I like to throw all my plans out the window! Apparently.

Though perhaps, to be truthful, I didn’t so much throw my plans out the window as neglect to pack them in my suitcase. I might have brought my sneakers and sports bra, but I totally neglected to plan for the overwhelming onslaught of food!

Between the late-night post-flight room service, free continental breakfast, keynote lunches (2) and networking dinners (2), I have been feeling somewhat overfed. I never met a plate of obscure chicken with fancy veg and potato product that I didn’t like! Oh, did I mention the free Clif bars and fruit during session breaks? I am simply bulging with hotel food! I am also bulging with one fancy Wicker Park wine bar dinner and one cheesy New Orleans-themed restaurant dinner. If you’re thinking I’m describing a few too many meals for the two days I’ve been in town, then it’s true I might be exaggerating, but it’s still a little obscene and ridiculous. I have lived about five Food Days in the span of two and a half of your puny human earth days.

I’m proud to say that packing the sneakers and sports bra bore fruit, because today I forced myself (ha!) to skip out on two snoozefest conference sessions in order to go to the hotel gym. I did have ulterior motives, though, as my airplane ride + sleep deprivation + 2 days of awful hotel chairs = back pain spasms. Not only did I do 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer plus some weights (mostly for my rotator cuff), I also came back to the room and did some deep stretching, some yoga, some meditating with my feet up on a chair, and some Hula dancing, all to shimmy some good vibes down into my lower back so it would stop hurting. Well, it didn’t work so well, though I do feel good about being active, and I’m hoping that some extra sleep and ibuprofen tonight will help me get through tomorrow’s closing sessions and the flight home. But this one day of activity really cannot balance out the rest of the unhealthy choices.

Lessons learned for traveling: I am happier when I exercise (shocking!), I need to get more sleep, and I need to take better care of my stomach. Leaving food on the plate is not enough when the food is lovingly dripping with sauce, and lunch-then-dinner are being shoveled down my throat with barely any time in between. I would have been much more sane, food-wise, if I had waited until I was hungry to eat for the past two days, accounting for the larger meals and the jet lag. Being overstimulated by hundreds of people and endless power point presentations and networking means that I have really poor judgment about when I’m actually hungry. I’ve been to one conference like this before, but it was shorter and cheaper, way less crazy with the food. I understand that we’re getting a great value for our expensive conference fees, but still — the opulence! It must be stopped!

How do other people manage? Maybe next time I need to be a better gustatory detective and watch how other people eat. I tried to, yesterday, but I honestly didn’t see a lot of people eating differently. We all ate the salad with dressing (I avoided the croutons), we all ate most of a bun, my neighbor avoided her chicken breast skin and broccolini but ate all the potatoes (I skipped the potatoes, ate the broccolini, and didn’t finish my chicken). I can’t say I ever felt painfully full, but a few days of this kind of eating sure has messed with me. I really can’t wait to eat some home-cooked food (okay, maybe after a day of restful tea and toast) and get back to my real life. It’s nice to live in a fancy hotel world, but it sure isn’t conducive to healthy living.