When you travel a lot you have to be very creative with your nutrition, especially if you’re living a healthy lifestyle, or if you’re a fitness professional like myself.  Since I knew I was heading out to New Jersey and New York for one week I decided to be more strict with my nutrition a month before the trip to allow myself some “cheat” meals.

The food choices in New York are insane, there’s just too many options and I like to give myself some flexibility when I’m traveling.

However, I was having sensory overload and said screw it!  Yes, my name is Rommel Acda, I’m a fitness professional and I ate like SHIT for a week!  Not only did I eat crap, but since I was on a business trip networking I boozed it up too!  

I didn’t go overboard with the alcohol, but when combined with fatty foods well, that’s just a major double whammy to your midsection (This is where you sing NSync’s “Bye, Bye, Bye” to my flat stomach).

Right about now my clients who are reading this are saying “But yeah Rommel, you can eat like that, you have a fast metabolism!”  I may have a raging metabolism, but if you paid attention to the video in my last post you should understand by now that you CANNOT out train a bad diet.

“But you still must have worked out hard while on your trip, because you’re always working out, and that would help offset the bad food a little wouldn’t it?”  Umm…asides from walking about 3 miles on most days, and then maybe 5 miles for three days straight in Manhattan, in my opinion, that activity doesn’t even come close to one of my 15-minute workouts.

So let’s just say I didn’t do crap in terms of activity, and like I said earlier you still CANNOT out train a bad diet.

Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about was how to reset your metabolism and your body after coming back from fat producing trips like the one I just had.

Here are my 5 simple “reset” tips:

1. Consume two meal replacement shakes in place of breakfast and dinner
2. 2-3 meals should be leafy green salads with lean proteins (use extra virgin olive oil & vinegar, or a “goddess” style dressing if you prefer the creamy stuff)
3. Lots and lots of water (shoot for 64-80 ounces)
4. Almonds to help cut cravings between meals (6-8 almonds is good) or all-natural peanut butter
5. EFA’s or Fish Oils (3-6 grams for the day)

Here’s what a sample day would look like for me:

Meal 1 (Breakfast): Meal Replacement Shake – Biotest Metabolic Drive or Prograde Lean (typically in 16oz of water), plus 1 EFA capsule

Meal 2: Salmon Nicoise Salad, plus 8-10 oz of water

Meal 3: Grilled Chicken Salad, 6-8 almonds on the side, plus 8-10 oz of water and 1 EFA capsule

Meal 4 (post-workout): Biotest Metabolic Drive or Prograde Lean (typically in 16oz of water)

Meal 5: same as meal 4, but I’ll add Trader Joe’s Valencia Peanut Butter with Flax Seeds for a bit of a treat, OR another big leafy green salad like Steak Salad with Peanut Vinaigrette and Cilantro, plus 1 EFA capsule

Meal 6 (pre-bedtime snack): 1 tablespoon of Trader Joe’s Valencia Peanut Butter with Flax Seeds if I don’t add this to Meal 5, plus 8-10 oz of water

The above is a simple format that I learned from a registered dietitian, and I’ve discovered it works really well not only on myself, but with my clients.

It’s not rocket science, it’s essentially helping your body reset by consuming high quality nutrients without fat-storing insulin spikes from starchy carbs.

The process varies per individual, and I’ve noticed that I’m back on track after three days of incorporating this routine.

The lesson here – You can’t be strict 100% of the time, but as long as you have and understand the game plan for optimal nutrition it’s easy to get back on track.  Don’t stress yourself out by feeling you can’t enjoy certain food pleasures every now and then.

Let me know if this post was helpful for you and leave me a comment.

Have a great weekend!

- Rommel