Vol. 02, #25 - June 27, 2018 - Issue #0040
FitITproNews: Eating right on the road
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Editor's Corner
Two weeks ago in Issue #23 I talked about staying fit on the road. The life of an IT professional often involves travelling and I've had my share of staying in hotels and using their exercising facilities which usually range from a couple of treadmills to a full-on universal gym machine. In this week's issue of FitITproNews we'll look at the other side of the coin, namely how to eat right when you're on the road. Because let's face it: if you're devoting an hour or more of your life each day to the hard work of exercising to stay fit, the last thing you want to do is sabotage your efforts by letting go and stuffing yourself on restaurant food when you're out of town doing some consulting gig or helping a client who has problems with their network.
So without further ado, here are some tips for eating right when you're on the road. And if you have any tips of your own feel free to send them to me so I can share them with our readers. Email me at [email protected]
Restaurants
You're in a hurry to get to a client site and are tempted to grab a hamburger and fries. Go ahead! Drive through that drivethrough, but instead of ordering a bacon cheeseburger and fries, order a triple burger with extra catchup and no cheese or bacon plus a large diet coke or diet rootbeer. Then toss away the top bun and eat the burger with the bottom bun only for less carbs. The drink will fill you up too, so you won't miss the fries. The extra catchup in the burger will also give you that "just like fries" feeling.
Does the restaurant you're meeting your client at have large salads on the menu? Order a large Greek salad with double add chicken or double add salmon for some protein. Ask for the dressing on the side so you can control the amount you douse over your salad, and ask them to go light on the feta cheese or skip the cheese altogether. Do they offer breadsticks or something similar with the meal? Skip that and tell them you'll opt for dessert instead. But when the salad is finished ask for the menu again and order an appetizer for dessert instead of the usual cake or ice cream. Choose something salty as an appetizer like garlic shrimp or lox on crackers because salty foods are more satiating than sweet ones which just leave you more hungry instead of filled.
Buffet breakfasts
If your hotel offers a buffet breakfast then after your morning workout then you have a couple of good options depending on what kind of workout you did before breakfast. If you hit the universal gym to work your muscles, a good breakfast option is to ask for two slices of unbuttered multigrain toast, then go to the buffet bar and pile high some scrambled eggs all over your toast. That way you'll get about 50 grams of protein which should help your sore muscles rebuild and recover. Don't forget to wash down a couple of fish oil capsules with your breakfast to help balance the saturated fats in the eggs.
If you did some HIIT cardio however instead of resistance training, then your body will need more carbs to feed it for recovery. In that case my suggestion is to go to the cereal end of the breakfast bar and take a bowl and fill it full but not overflowing with muesli if it's available, then pile on as much fresh fruit as possible like raspberries and blueberries (thawed frozen fruit is OK to). In other words forget the protein and just carb up so you'll have energy to take you through the day and keep your brain fired up so you can solve your customer's problems.
Snacks
You're trying to troubleshoot an issue with your customer's environment and you're stuck. You can't see the way forward and you're starting to feel tired. What to do? Grab a snack from your IT backpack. My favorite is apples because they give you sugar for your brain and they fill you up which alleviates your hunger. I always eat organic apples mainly because they taste better which is important too. If one isn't enough, eat two, they're only about 75 calories each.
What about nuts or trail mix? Sure they're healthy, but I also find them addictive. One handful of nuts can quickly turn into two or three as I munch away on the IT problem I'm facing. Protein bars are similar in my opinion: if they taste good they leave you wanting more. And I've never met a protein bar that didn't cause me gastric distress later down the line i.e. flatulence.
What about you?
Those are just a handful of healthy eating tips for the IT road warrior. If you have any recommendations of your own in this area and want to share them with other IT pros who read this newsletter, email your tips to me at [email protected]
Send us your feedback!
Got feedback about anything in this issue of FitITproNews? Email us at [email protected]
Disclaimer: I am not a certified fitness professional or nutritionist so take any suggestions made here "as is" with a grain of salt and a heaping supply of your own judgment. Please read our full disclaimer at the bottom of this newsletter.
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Ask Our Readers: Need help or advice concerning fitness, weightloss, exercising or nutrition? Why not tap into the huge collective expertise of our IT pro readership from all around the world! Send your questions to us today by emailing us at [email protected]
Today's workout
Busy day ahead today so up at 5:30 am for espresso and a bowl of muesli with fruit (see Health Tip of the Week below for details) which I ate *before* working out. Why? Because my workout was going to be 20 minutes of *intense* circuit training using a combination of kettlebells and heavy resistance bands, and the goal of my breakfast was to fuel me up for my workout so I could keep it intense instead of flagging out. To allow my meal to digest properly I spent half an hour answering emails before I went to the exercise room.
Got a favorite workout? Have you developed a workout that you enjoy doing and feel has been contributing to your health and which you'd like to share with our readers Email us at [email protected]
Fitness Toolbox
Products and services we think you shouldn't be without!
GOT ANY exercise equipment, nutritional supplements, personal training services, fitness websites, or anything else you would like to recommend for our readers? Or for that matter do you have any IT products or services you would like to promote or recommend? After all, our target audience here is mostly IT pros! Email us at [email protected]
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HIIT - High Intensity Interval Training Explained
https://www.amazon.com/HIIT-Intensity-Interval-Training-Explained-ebook/dp/B074BK5PBB/
HIIT Workouts: Get HIIT Fit - Fast-track Your Way To A Shredded Super-fit New You With HIIT Workouts
https://www.amazon.com/HIIT-Workouts-Fast-track-Super-fit-intensity-ebook/dp/B010MSYK96/
High-Intensity Interval Training for Women: Burn More Fat in Less Time with HIIT Workouts You Can Do Anywhere
https://www.amazon.com/High-Intensity-Interval-Training-Women-Workouts-ebook/dp/B012986CGG/
Exercise tip of the week
Suspension training on the cheap
Muscle & Fitness is one of the few fitness magazines I still read regularly. Most of the good fitness magazines have bitten the dust over the last decade as the print magazine market in general has dried up. Thank you, Mr. Jobs…
Anyways, while I was taking a bathroom break I browsed a back issue of M&F and found the following article:

While I do agree that these are terrific exercises, to perform them the way they're shown in the article requires that you buy some suspension training equipment from TRX or some other supplier. You can do that if you have some spare bucks kicking around, and this article can help you decide which one to buy:
Best Suspension Trainers (10 Awesome Training Straps to Consider!) (Gymventures.com)
https://www.gymventures.com/best-suspension-trainer/
But what if you're on a budget and can't spare the cash for any more fitness gear? In that case you can usually make do with something kicking around your home or office. To illustrate, the next photo shows my own favorite go-to piece of exercising equipment:

Yes, that's an old oak office chair that I found for five bucks at a Salvation Army store years ago. What makes it a great piece of fitness gear are the following characteristics:
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It's sturdy and will easily support my full weight.
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It's easy to pick up and move around so I can position it where I need it.
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It has arms, legs, and a seat that I can pull or press against or attach other equipment to.
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Extra stability can be achieved by positioning it against a wall or in a corner of a room.
If you use yourimagine a little you should be able to easily see how the three exercises shown in the M&F article can be performed using the chair instead of a suspension trainer.
Health tip of the week
Carb up before HIIT workout
It's difficult to keep up the intensity of a high-intensity interval workout if you just woke up and haven't eaten anything. Because of this I usually eat some carbs before I try performing a HIIT workout, either some toast with honey and no butter or a bowl of muesli with fresh fruit. This morning I chose the latter option as follows:
Put the muesli in a large bowl and add room temperature water to cover and let soak 5 minutes to soften muesli a bit. Then add remaining ingredients, mix, and eat slowly savoring the taste--yum.
Why use water instead of milk or a milk substitute like soy milk or almond milk? Because milk with the dairy fat in it slows digestion (unless it's that horrible tasteless stuff called skim milk) and if you're planning on working out soon you want your food to digest as quickly as possible. And as for those other "fake milk" products, well…
Got tips? Do you have any exercise or nutritional tips you'd like to share with other IT pros who are trying to lose weight and get more fit? Email us at [email protected]
Fun stuff
Despite what I said in the above section, I don't hate milk or have it in for cows. In fact I like cows, they're fun! For examples see these videos:
Best Funny Cows Compilation. Cows Are Awesome #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQk0XHQq4Tg
Funny First Cow Milking Experience With Surprise "Crappy" Ending
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzZs6MprLe0
A flying cow?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNcC5sNHUaE
Festival cow takes Manhattan!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKwGwab3H5c
Product of the Week
Free Tool for Monitoring Exchange Server Status & Performance
 |
SolarWinds® Exchange Monitor is a free tool that allows users to monitor Microsoft® Exchange™ Server 2013 and 2016. Get basic information about the server’s metrics, services, and database availability group (DAG) status. Add as many Exchange Servers as you wish. Simply click the “Add Server” button and fill IP address/domain name and credentials.
Download Free Tool
|
|
|