I'm confident that many readers share itineraries similar to this when traveling for business:

Tuesday morning: 7am flight from North Carolina to Phoenix
Tuesday afternoon: Meet all afternoon with clients
Tuesday evening: Dinner with clients
Wednesday: All day client meeting
Wednesday evening: Drive two hours to Tucson
Thursday: All day client meeting
Thursday evening: Drive two hours back to Phoenix
Friday: All day flight back to North Carolina

For even the most dedicated among us, finding time for fitness on a schedule like this is extremely challenging. I, however, convinced myself that I would set and achieve some specific goals despite this itinerary.

With this hectic schedule, I decided to focus on maintenance: making sure that my fitness didn't decline during the week. For me personally, this equated to: (1) maintaining my cardiovascular fitness, (2) not eating a lot of junk, and (3) staying flexible.

SMART Goals

These are rather vague goals, but the B-school graduates among our readers will remember SMART goal setting: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. These are great guidelines to apply to your travel fitness, with a special emphasis on attainable and realistic, given the many constraints that we face when traveling.

Applying SMART, I came up with the following goals:

1. Get at least 60 minutes of cardiovascular exercise during the trip.

I have to admit that this sounds wimpy. But realistically, 60 minutes is the most time that I will have. I have already blocked out this time, literally entering it into my MS Outlook calendar. If someone asks me to attend a meeting or call, I'll know whether it is going to conflict with my personal time.

2. Eat no more than two cookies during the trip.

You know how these all day meetings go. They inevitably bring in the cookie tray at 3:00. I know that I will not be able to forgo all of the goodies, so I resolve to eat no more than two.

It drives me crazy to not be eating when others are, so I will pack a bunch of healthy snacks in single serving sizes. I'll take along peanuts, soy nuts, raisins, protein bars, and dry cereal. I hope that by having healthy snacks on hand, I won't be as tempted to dive into the cookies. (CONTINUE...)