Celebrity Chef and Activist Jamie Oliver gave a fascinating and disturbing presentation at TED on how food is literally killing us.  We are eating ourselves to death.  We live in the most abundant time in recent history.  In the developed world, we have living standards which were unheard of only a generation ago.  We also have access to the great equalizer, the Internet.  Despite all of this, 2/3 of Americans are overweight.


What really stuck with me is how casually this can happen and how it affects all of us.  This really got me thinking about the Workshifting diet.  If you frequently work out of a coffee shop, airport or any other remote location, have you ever stopped and considered what you're eating?

Well...I did.  On occasion, I workshift from Bulldog Cafe in Solvang, California.  I happily enjoyed a latte with a ham and cheese quiche for breakfast.  Throughout the day I was snacking on whatever was there, muffins, juice and more coffee.  I don't think my story is unique so I started poking around the internet for tips on a healthy travel diet.

Much of the advice appears to be consistent:

• Pack you own food
• Eat breakfast at home
• Avoid the drive-through
• Be mindful of what your order
  

Sounds logical...but hell, I don't do that.  Doing a quick search I didn't find any practical advice so I reached out to Celebrity Fitness Coach and Nutritionist Rich Guzman.  This is what he had to say:

Meals:  One third protein (eggs, fish, chicken, turkey, tofu) and two thirds vegetables (greens, squash, or other less starchy ones) if you're trying to remain healthy and lean.  

Timing:  Eating every three hours is advantageous to keep the body from burning muscle for energy.  If you have the tendency to feel bloated or have indigestion after most meals you may have food allergies to yeast, gluten, dairy, or sugar.  Sugar is the real enemy when trying to maintain or lose body fat.  It sneaks into our diets via fruit juices, alcohol, packaged or restaurant food, and in our energy drinks.  The body can only manage small amounts of sugar in the system and uses insulin to keep the body on an even keel.  The body reacts in a defensive mode when sugar is introduced in mass quantities by pumping out insulin and storing everything as fat (carbs, protein, and fats).  

On-the-go:  Starbucks has oatmeal and hard-boiled egg choices.  The dried fruit and nuts also works if you're training hard and need a snack. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf offers a yogurt parfait and a tuna sandwich.  My recommendation for a drink is Green Tea iced or hot, or a soy decaf sugar-free coffee drink (take all the fun out of it).  

If you have questions, you can reach Rich Guzman on Twitter @laroxdude.

The best outcome of this post would be awareness.  You are going to do some of the things Rich recommends and not others, but if you keep this top of mind and share information on lessons learned, we'll all be better off.

What are your tips for healthy eating on-the-go?

Photo Credit: sshb

Ah the holidays. Time for family, for food and giving and a few days off to relax, unwind and send people to your out-of-office auto replies. It's also a time when many people travel and have to adjust to a changing schedule for workshifting, fitness and eating.

My Christmas weekend was no different. Over in Daytona with my wife's family we enjoyed an amazing Florida holiday weekend filled with fun, family and food. Over the last two months I have been working hard to work out, fighting to get back into shape (that seems to have escaped me after those high school baseball days) so that I can stay healthy working long days on a laptop. With a new sleep pattern, a full house and some rain, it made working out a little more difficult. Luckily I had a built in personal trainer on site.

My brother in law, Barry Heyden, is the former strength coach for the NY Mets and came well prepared to keep me on my holiday schedule. During the 4 days I had the opportunity to learn to use things that are available and also time allotments to get the most of my workouts. No one wants to spend 45 minutes to an hour on vacation getting sweaty by themselves and no one wants to carry a portable gym on an airplane (plus I'm sure TSA wouldn't be too happy about that!). Barry had the solution that I am going to share with you today that really any traveler can use to get the most of their traveling adventures and still feel like they are in the hometown gym or running a few miles around the neighborhood.

It's All About The Core

The core as in the midsection where all the turkey, pasta and sweets have taken over (though it was so tasty to eat).

When putting together a quick holiday exercise plan the focus was on working the core and building heart rate quickly. We performed a slew of exercises from push-ups with some bicycle kicks in between each rep to leg lifts with the bike kicks. All with a high intensity and short rest time. This got the blood pressure to rise and the lungs to begin to strengthen.

Multitask

The next best suggestion from Barry was to work as many muscles with each exercise as possible. Remember that we are working in a short window of time. Maybe 20 minutes before breakfast, or a quick break in the action in the afternoon. The more you can accomplish with one group of exercises the better.

We started with a squat to shoulder press. No lie, but this was tough. We started with arms in the air with a broom stick. Then we went down to squat, bringing the bar down. Before we attempted to stand up, we raised the bar and then came back into the start position. Doing a set of 15 really whipped us into a quick sweat, working the legs, core and shoulders with one quick minute long exercise.

When you are creating your hotel workout, look for similar activities to work many areas of the body. There are plenty of add-on exercises and motions that can turn single muscle exercises into multiple with a little creativity and thought.

Hydrate With Water

Whether on the road workshifting or having fun on the holidays it is very easy to pick up a cola, beer or loaded fruit juice. Barry said this was a huge mistake that many of the Mets players also had. Keep replenishing yourself with water and your body will cool down and recover faster. Adding sugars will only slow the growth process. Also look for a quick healthy snack after going through a quick training. Carrot sticks or apple slices are easy ones and they can even be picked up at the hotel convenience store or local grocery store.

Above All Else, Shoot For High Intensity

I know as good as anyone how easy it is to relax, throw the feet up and say I'll get back to it when I get home.

Going hard for 20 minutes can be the best thing you do all day as it gets not only your body but your mind stimulated and ready for a rocking day. Whether that be meetings, presenting or giving superior attention to the family. The key here is to have a quick plan of action to keep yourself in a high intensity physical mind frame for 15-20 minutes. The number of reps or sets is irrelevant. Going quickly and with full focus from pushups to lunges to laptop curls will ensure that you keep yourself in a ready and mobile state. Above all else it will allow you to survive the equivalent of the freshman 15.

What are your holiday and hotel workshifting fitness tips? I'd love to hear what gets you going on the road (even if it's just to get away from the crazy in-laws for a few minutes!).

Photos by: ex.libris & Playtime Fitness

I don't spend my day thinking about sleep.  My mind is consumed with work, life, and everything in between.  However, I notice a material difference in my performance depending on the number of hours of sleep I get.
 
7 - 8:  Rock star
6 - 7:  Feeling good
5 - 6:  Is a cold coming on?
4 - 5:  I'm irritable and no amount of coffee can help
3 - 4:  New born sleep (for those that know what I'm talking about..it's bad)
 
I work so hard at being "on" and I need to work just as hard at being "off".  I find that if I'm active right up until I go to bed that I have a really hard time turning my brain off.  I'm in bed, and I can't fall asleep...it sucks!
 
If I take some time to read a few pages of a magazine or book, it really helps.  Also, if I'm worried about something I write it down.  There is something about writing things down that makes them seem not so overwhelming.  It also serves as a reminder to deal with it in the morning.
 
If all else fails, you pop a pill, but I find that to be a very short term fix.  It only solves the symptom and not the problem.  Figure out what's keeping you up, and solve it.  Easier said than done, but with a little effort, I find that I can get the "feeling good" sleep most of the time.
 
Both WebMD and Harvard have published articles with tips on how to sleep better, and I encourage you to read them, but I'm really curious about what your healthy sleeping tips are?

Photo by: just.Luc

This was originally posted on my personal blog but thought that these tips would be applicable to workshifters as well.

It's really hard to stay motivated to go to a gym consistently. Some people are intimidated by working out around others. Some have no clue what they're doing and are embarrassed or worried they're going to injure themselves. Others are confused because there's always a new workout on the cover of Men's Health or Cosmopolitan. And well, then there's always the bunch that supposedly don't have time to workout but never miss an episode of American Idol.

Working out doesn't have to be that difficult. First of all, if you're intimidated, embarrassed or concerned, try hiring a trainer, even if it's just for a single hour. I promise, it will be helpful. Even though I workout 4-6 times per week, I still try to add in other ways to stay healthy and get in a little extra workout whenever possible. It helps to keep me focused and as long as it doesn't interrupt the rest of my life, why not? So, today I have 7 tips for you that are simple, fast, and won't take longer than a few minutes extra each day, if even that long.

7 Simple Fitness Tips

1. Unless you work on the 103rd floor, consider taking the stairs. Just by taking the stairs to the 4th floor where I live, I add an extra approximately 11,000 stairs to my daily routine per month. For me, it is usually faster than the elevator, doesn't make me tired, but does keep me active.

2. Unless you're going to a professional sports game where the parking lots are miles long, park a ways away from the front door. I park approximately 500 steps away from my truck at my house even though there is parking approximately 50-100 steps from the front door. This adds an additional 22,400 steps per month to my activity, if you account deduct the 100 steps per day I could be walking.

3. Buy a pedometer. You can find them for relatively cheap, around $20 or so, and if you're a competitive person like I am, it will become a game against yourself. Set your goal for 10,000 steps per day. If you buy a little fancier one it will even calculate miles and calories burned. Track your progress in a simple Google Docs spreadsheet and try to improve a little more each day.

4. Buy a bluetooth headset for your office. If you're usually stuck at your desk all day long on conference calls, buy a bluetooth headset for your office phone. Then, take your calls from the headset and walk around your office if you don't need to be behind a computer screen. If you're going to try this, make sure you get a Plantronics set. They're the best, bottom line.

5. Pick up workout bands. You can hide these easily in a desk drawer or carry them in your bag when you're traveling. These little bands will allow you to get in a decently intense workout when you can't make it to the gym. Even if you do make it to the gym regularly, you should add these into your workout.  Check out AJ Leon explain how he uses these to stay fit while traveling.

6. Go for a walk around the building at lunch. Take 10 minutes at lunch time and take a walk around your building. Just this little additional exercise will help to energize for the long afternoon ahead and will add a couple more thousand steps into your daily routine.

7. Do a set of pushups or situps. It's mid-day and you're tired. You've been staring at your screen for what feels like 60 hours and it's not even lunch time yet. Hop out of your chair, pop down and knock out a set of pushups. Nothing crazy so you don't mess up your office attire, just 10-25. Even if you did 25 pushups only 3 times per week, it would add up 300 extra pushups per month.

As you can see, none of these suggestions are particularly hard, take up a lot of time, and are all meant to give you an extra burst of energy. Whether you workout constantly or don't even know what the word "gym" really means, adding any one of these tips into your daily routine will help you out.  Couple these fitness tips along with trying to eat healthier while workshifting, and you're in great shape! :)

What easy things do you do to try to keep in shape, stay healthy, and stay energized?

Photo by: Phillip Klinger

Working while on the road is complicated. Acclimating yourself to new cities or cultures. Getting to meetings. Finding internet access that won't require you fork over the deed to your house. 

Earlier this week I interviewed Greg Matthews, Director of Innovation at Humana, while he was in Boston to speak at the Enterprise 2.0 conference.  A title such as "Director of Innovation" is not one that we're used to seeing in the health industry.  This interview provides a glimpse into all of the innovative things that Greg and his team are working on. 

Many of these innovations apply to the mobile and distributed workforce by encouraging people to get out from behind their desks and become more active.

Note: Don't mind that the video is a little shaky.  I forgot to bring along the tripod :)

While searching through the photos on the CrumpleItUp's Flickr account, I thought these few were particularly interesting.  Why?  Because even though Greg and his team don't usually work from airports, coffee shops, bookstores or other workshifting locations, they have taken the time to make their office a fun, active and inspiring place to work. 

By making this investment into their work space, the Innovation Center shows it's employees that they want them to be active, have fun, and not be stuck at their cubicle or in their office all day.




To learn more about Greg and Humana's Innovation Center, you can find them on the very fun website CrumpleItUp.  You can also check out recent posts by Chris Brogan ("More Fun Then Talking About Insurance") and Amber Rae Lambke ("Social Business from the Inside Out").

You can connect with Greg on Twitter and LinkedIn.

What are some ways that you stay active as a workshifter?