It’s one thing to do your exercise and stick with your heart-healthy diet at home, but what about when you travel? It may take a bit of extra effort and commitment, but you definitely can take the program on the road with you.
Do all recovering heart patients stay with it? Research from the University of Houston indicates that individuals with heavy demands on their time tend to slip in terms of exercise. When eating alone, as on a business trip, they’re likely to eat foods higher in fat than they would if at home or even if eating with others.
No doubt about it, we’re living in a mobile society, and that puts a strain on your commitment. Most of us spend a lot of time on the road, travelling for business or for pleasure.
As with all other aspects of your recovery, you’ve got to view this one with a positive, upbeat attitude. Don’t view it with doom and gloom like Nathan Pritikin did in his books when he called restaurants “the enemy camp” to be avoided at all costs. Even a respected heart researcher like Dr William Castelli of the Framingham Heart Study has sounded pessimistic about the prospects when he told a group of physicians that “if you have to eat out you are as good as dead”.
Well, I’d like to take major exception with those two negative opinions. I’ve travelled extensively following the publication of The 8-Week Cholesterol Cure, at times spending as much as 70 per cent of the month on the road, at other times travelling non-stop, city to-city for a month or more at a time.
I’ve flown on virtually every airline in the sky, stayed at every major hotel chain and dozens of little independent motels, visited large cities and small towns and eaten in countless restaurants. I can speak with some authority, then, when I say that it’s not only possible, but actually easy, to take one’s heart-healthy program on the road.
The travel industry recognises a giant trend toward the desire to make healthy choices in exercise and dining. They’re reponding beautifully, more strongly than locally based restaurants and food companies. That’s no doubt because the traveller tends to be more educated, more affluent and more in tune with the compelling necessity to take care of himself and herself.
If you have special dietary requirements, let the hotel know. Speaking up will let the management know that they need to get on the stick if they want to keep your business. Be outspoken and be proud of your healthful eating habits.
In Canada, 1500 regular hotel customers did just that. When interviewed about what they wanted in foods, they spoke up about healthy alternatives to heavy, rich dishes. As a result, 32 Holiday Inn hotels across that country now offer menu items developed in co-operation with the Canadian Heart Foundation. They call such items as filet of salmon, chicken Shanghai and spinach salad with sesame seed dressing “Heart Smart”.
I mention these things to let you know that you’re not in the minority. Rather, you’re riding the crest of a trend that’s sweeping across most of the Western world. Start taking the attitude that the first things to pack when travelling ate your healthy program and practices. Don’t leave home without them!
A good start is to get acquainted with an accommodating travel agent. If you don’t already know this, it costs no mote to arrange your travel arrangements with an agent than to do so yourself. In fact, very often an agent can do the bookings for far less.
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Cardio & Blood/ Cholesterol