How to Stay on Track With Nutrition While Traveling

Nikkiey: While you're away, you are in control of the choices that you make.

Yo, yo, yo, what's up, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome, you guys, to episode number 37.

Today, I'm going to dive into all things related to travel: how to balance your nutrition and your fitness goals while you're traveling, while you're living out of a hotel, while you're going on vacation, all of the things. This was actually inspired by the questions I ask you guys on my stories about what you would want answered here on this podcast. This was one of the questions, and I was like, how fitting. When this podcast goes live, I am going to be traveling.

So I'm going to share with you guys how I'm going to prep for that travel, and also past stories of all of the times that I've been traveling, been on vacation, had to live out of a hotel for a full month, lived in Bali for six months. I'm going to share mainly stories during this topic of the things that I did that helped me be successful at maintaining my body composition and my fitness goals while still doing all of those things: traveling, vacation, living in a hotel.

So that's what we're going to get into. Let's dive into it. What I want to first talk about is vacation and traveling for work or business, because that's what I'm going to be doing when this podcast is live. Then I'm going to share with you guys the story of how I lived out of a hotel for over a month and how I managed balancing everything pretty damn well, if I do say so myself. Looking back, I'm like, damn, these are really solid tactics, takeaways, tips, tricks, everything that I can just share with you guys.

First and foremost, traveling for business and going on vacation kind of go together in some respects. As I've already mentioned three times, I'm going to be traveling when this podcast is live. I'm only going away for about four days. I leave on Sunday and I take a red-eye home on a Wednesday night. What I'm going to do to set myself up for success and prime myself for this travel is pack a ton of protein bars.

Condition One is so good. The protein bars are bomb. So is 1st Phorm. Their protein bars are great. And then, and this will make sense in a second, I'm going to put protein powder in a sandwich bag and label it protein powder, because that's how you get through the TSA. This is really important, and I'm going to touch on why it's important to have some balance here in a second.

When you travel, when you go away on vacation, when you're going away for business, mainly you're going to be eating out. And all of those foods are mainly carbohydrates and fats. Now, there are ways to control how you order and choose food, which I'll get to in a second. But the lacking macronutrient is protein. From listening to this podcast and knowing me, if you follow me on social media, you know I pound home how important protein is for you to build muscle, to maintain muscle, and for everything related to your fitness goals.

Protein is so freaking important. And what's the one macronutrient that you don't get when you travel? Protein. So how can you best set yourself up for success to get enough protein while you travel? By having protein bars, protein powders, all of the things protein. Beef jerky is great. Anything that's dry. So that's what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to be bringing protein powders and protein bars. Most importantly, you can only get dry food through TSA. You guys know that you can't bring water, drinks, all that jazz. You have to dump it in the trash can beforehand.

If you bring dry food through, know that protein powder can be easily confused for other things. So if you just put it in a sandwich bag and label it protein powder, then you're solid. You're going to get through TSA. I have been stopped a few times, and they had to take the protein powder out, test it and clear it. But you know that you're chill. All right, so just do all those things.

Dry foods are chill. Oatmeal packets, rice cakes, rice packets. I'm just firing off the top of my head, along with the protein powders and protein bars. Those are some things. Oh, no, you can't bring peanut butter. I got stopped in TSA for peanut butter when I was traveling overseas. So those are just some examples of what you can easily get through TSA, and you're setting yourself up for success while you're away.

Rice cakes are definitely solid because you don't have to cook them. Oatmeal, unless the place you're going to has a microwave, may be a little challenging. But those are some good snacks that you can have throughout the day. While you're traveling, you're most likely going to have breakfast, lunch and dinner. But in between is also important, because you want to make sure you're getting in all the macronutrients that you need as best as you can. I'm going to talk on that in a second.

But what I really want to harp on as well with vacation and traveling for business: when this podcast is live, you guys can hop over to my stories at @nikkieystott on Instagram, and I'll do my best to document how I go about this. When it comes down to the choices that you make while you're away, you're in control of that. Okay? You're in control of the choices that you make on business trips, on vacation, when you're traveling. But most importantly, it's meant to be enjoyed and relaxed. I tell anybody that I've coached, I tell all of our WarriorBabes, please do not track your macronutrients while you're on vacation.

Even if you're traveling and there are a lot of things out of your control, you can do your best to control things, like I'm saying here with packing protein and making choices when you're ordering out. But make sure that you're also enjoying your time and that you're feeling relaxed. You don't need the stress of having to track macronutrients. I mean, it's silly. It's more of a mindset, you guys. Whether you're traveling for a couple of days or on a one-week vacation, in the whole grand scheme of your entire journey, it isn't going to completely ruin your progress.

What matters the most is that when you get home from this travel, when you get home from your vacation, you get right back to it and you get right back to your routine. Little story here. My birthday was last week. It'll be about two weeks ago when this podcast goes live. I went down into the city for a couple of nights, and I relaxed. I enjoyed myself. I didn't bring protein with me on this one. I just went on a whim. I really heavily enjoyed myself.

But the difference is coming home. Sure, I felt all of the effects. I had a ton of inflammation in my body. My brain was foggy. All of the things that you would experience if you're totally off your normal routine, especially when it comes to food, when you're eating pancakes and cake and having a couple of drinks when your body's not used to that. I felt all of the things.

I was super inflamed. My body was very puffy. My face was very puffy. My energy was low. My brain was super foggy. And that's normal to experience when you're away or not keeping to a consistent routine. But most importantly, when I came home, it's not like, oh, I'm going to keep doing this and I'm going to keep eating this way. Hell no. First of all, when you do it for so long, your body gets adapted, which is one thing that I absolutely love, because I cannot imagine going back to the way that I used to eat or the way that I used to be eight years ago.

Because I have this new profound understanding of everything. So when you do that for a little bit, it's like, dude, I don't even want to go back. Give me my routine. Give me my eating routine. Give me my workout routine. Because I didn't even work out. It was my birthday, too. So I got back, and literally my next meal back at my place was my meal-prepped meal. I'm not kidding you. And the next day was getting back into walking.

Getting outside, hitting 10K to 15K steps. And then I made sure that I had a full day of eating under way before I put myself back in the gym. That's how it is for me. What matters is that you get home after said vacation. It's more the mindset. People get to that point of feeling what I'm explaining: I feel like I gained ten pounds, or I feel like I gained five. And the scale will say that. But it's mainly inflammation from all of the things that you ate, the sugary things, the alcohol that you had.

So it's just so important. I think that's what mentally weighs on people. But if you get back to your routine, I guarantee you that you'll feel so much better four to five days after being back into your routine. Guarantee you. I've been there. I've had clients say, holy cow, it's like the vacation never even happened. Or people go away on vacation, and because they have all of this consistent routine down for themselves, they come home having had all of the things that they enjoyed.

And then they didn't even gain a pound. They may experience other things, but then they get back into the routine, and it's like nothing even happened. So it's definitely individual for everybody. But it's definitely more of a mindset thing when I speak to the balance of how to stick to your goals and set your nutrition while you're traveling. It's the mindset that one week away is not going to mess up anything, unless you're an asshole and keep doing all of those things that you did on vacation for the next two, three, four, five, six, seven weeks when you're home.

So the moral with vacation, travel and being away is that it's really important to get back to your routine when you're home. But pulling back to how you are in control of the choices that you make: sure, it was my birthday. I enjoyed drinks. I enjoyed pancakes. I enjoyed cake. I enjoyed all of the things. But know that the majority of the time when you travel, you're in control of the choices that you make when it comes to food. You could choose pancakes, pizza and pasta every single day.

Or you could choose to ask for an egg white omelet with toast, or a chicken sandwich or a wrap for lunch. And then in between, you're having rice cakes, which are solely carbs, and protein powder, which is solely protein. And then for dinner, it's salmon or steak with rice and potatoes, or some veggie. The two big differences between those two examples are, first of all...

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The first difference is the weight of how you're going to feel after eating. The first example is super heavy. You feel like you're going to fall asleep, low energy levels, all those things I felt when I was away on my birthday. But normally I choose, and what I would recommend for you guys to normally choose, the second, which is very light.

You're going to feel good. Your energy levels are going to be stable. You're going to be mentally and cognitively more focused, more alert, more present, all of the jazz. And the other difference between the two is that one of them is all carbs: pancakes, pizza and pasta. The other one is more of a balance between protein, fats and carbs. So the moral is, while you're away, you are in control of the choices that you make.

Most importantly, on vacation, travel, whatever: bring the protein. But enjoy it. Relax. One week away is not going to screw up your progress at all. And then get your routine back to normal when you're home. Now, that was mainly around nutrition, so let me talk about fitness a little bit. Find a gym. The majority of hotels have gyms. For my small group of clients, and I know our coaches do this too, they ask for programming for their travel.

One of my babes right now is in Jamaica for her wedding, and she was like, give me a workout plan while I'm away. I was like, I got you. She took a video of the entire gym when she got there, and I whipped it up in about an hour. It's a killer workout, and there she has it. For the four days while she's away on vacation, she's going to work out. So it's mind over matter. You may not want to do these things because you want to relax. But if you really want this, if you're really into the health lifestyle, if you really care about the goals that you're striving for, and just overall for yourself and your mental health, moving your body is just so good.

Especially on vacation, when you're usually lying around and chilling out. Or for me, I'm going to be in meetings. So I'm going to wake up in the morning and make sure I get my steps in. I'm going to wake up and at least move my body in some way. It's just making it a priority. Before I talk about living in a hotel for a month, I also want to say that it matters where you're at in your journey.

Going all the way back to the beginning of my journey, when I was a competitor and I locked in the goal of competing and stepping on stage, I still had all of these travel things. My mom ran marathons, and I would come support her on those marathon trips. I remember one of them specifically was down south. I want to say Kentucky. That sounds about right. And I was in the midst of my prep and was competing in a couple of months.

I wouldn't say that you need to do this, but depending on where you're at in your journey, it's not a bad idea. If you're really in a deficit and a cut and you want to make the cut as good as it can be, then some of these things may be good, especially packing some meals that you can get in during the day, and then being able to have all of the dinner options that you want with your friends and family while you're out. I don't want to take you away from experiencing things, and the majority of you listening to this are not competitors. But to show you the dedication that I had to my goals at the beginning:

I literally meal prepped all of my meals for the three days that we were gone, weighed them out, put them in Tupperware, and put them in a cooler, a big-ass cooler, like something you would tailgate with. I got ice, put a ton of ice in it, and put it in my mom's car. We drove down to Kentucky. For those of you who don't know, I'm from PA. By the time we got to the hotel, the ice and the food lasted. Everything was solid.

Whenever I needed to eat, I would just pull the food out of the cooler. And by the way, yes, I ate it cold. But that's what you do for some goals. And to keep the longevity of it, when we got to the hotel...

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In order to keep the longevity of the food, first of all, there was a microwave, so I was able to heat it up. But I would put the cooler in the bathtub, unplug it and dump out all of the ice. Then I would walk down the hallway with the cooler to the ice machine and fill it back up with ice.

Guys, it's the perfect way to have a mobile refrigerator with you. Ain't no excuse there. If you're a competitor and you've got to do those things, you've got to do those things. There was even a point, and I'm not going to go this far for you, where I was going through TSA with all of my meals and I was eating tilapia on a flight. I'm not kidding you. I felt so bad for anybody sitting around me during that plane ride, because the smell of cold fish was probably horrendous. But you know, goals, man.

I had a goal in mind, and I was committed and determined to do anything that I had to do to achieve that goal. When you get to the end of a goal, you look back and ask: did you do everything right? Did you do everything that you could have possibly done to get you to where you are today? In that moment, I was always able to say yes. And I was always super proud of myself for the adversity, the things I had to figure out, the problems I had to solve, the things I had to say no to, because it led me to the goal.

The same goes for you. It may not be that freaking extreme, and I wouldn't say it needs to be that extreme. But what do your goals mean to you? Are you dedicated? Do you want to achieve them? Even if you set a date and you get there and you ask those questions, and the answer is no because you didn't control yourself while you traveled, and maybe it spiraled for a couple of weeks afterwards, let me tell you, then you need to put some of these things into play for yourself.

Prep your meals, pack your meals, do that stuff. Even if it's only a few meals throughout the day, or it's protein bars and protein powder, and you're picking the lighter foods during the day while you're out to eat, then you can have the big meals with your friends and family because you've saved up that extra room. And if you learn macros, you'll be able to do all of this stuff. You'll just know. Macros aren't another diet. It's a skill set that will serve you for the rest of your life. Anyway, that's everything related to traveling for vacation, with a couple of stories in there, and how you can prime yourself mentally, plus some of the tactics that I shared with you.

Now I want to share with you guys, because some of you may have to live out of a hotel for an extended period of time for work. I didn't have to live out of a hotel for work. Well, technically I was working from the hotel, running WarriorBabe. But anyway, I had to live in a hotel for a little over a month, back at the end of 2019.

If any of you guys have to do this for work, I would totally recommend finding an extended stay, because they have a fridge and a stove. And if you go down to the front desk, you can ask them for a hot plate. If there's no stove, they can give you a hot plate and you can cook on it. I had to do that. In one of them I had just a fridge and a microwave. The second one I stayed in had a stove.

It was very small, though. Or did I have to use a hot plate for that one? I don't remember. But those are your options. While I stayed there, I found a local grocery store and grocery shopped all the things that I needed. Then I meal prepped everything with a hot plate and whatever I knew I could cook in a microwave. So it's on you if you're traveling and staying in a hotel for an extended period of time. Let's say you don't have the option of a stove.

They probably still have a hot plate downstairs, so definitely go and ask. Then go buy a cooler, and do the thing I already described: put ice in the cooler, empty it out and put new ice in it, because that's your fridge. And if there's no microwave in your room, there's probably a microwave downstairs somewhere. You can whip up pretty much anything in a microwave, like oatmeal or egg whites, something that's super easy. Microwavable rice. There are so many options.

It's about looking at the resources, thinking outside the box and asking, how can I prepare myself for this? And some answers will come. Grocery store. Bam. Meal prep. Hot plate. Microwave. If you didn't know those things existed, they do exist in hotels, and you can set yourself up with them. So it's on you to go out of your way to do those things. I definitely made it a priority to make sure I was still in alignment with everything that I wanted to do for myself.

I personally could not fathom eating out every single day for a whole month, so I had to figure it out. Not only is it a waste of money, it would have been totally detrimental and counterproductive to the goal I was working toward at that time, which was maintaining my body composition. I still needed the proper nutrition to do it. I'm trying to remember exactly the foods. I know rice cakes and oatmeal were a big thing. Egg whites, and full regular eggs.

I was able to cook sweet potatoes and chicken and everything on the hot plate. There's anything and everything you could do with a hot plate and microwave. Maybe there are some things I'm missing or not thinking of, but it's totally possible if you think outside the box. And to combine living in a hotel for work with traveling for vacation really quick, for the gym: when I traveled to Kentucky with my mom, I would ask her in advance, where's our hotel?

I would go to Google Maps, look at the hotel and search gyms, and all of the local gyms would come up. There we go. I would then just walk into the gym and get a day pass or a week pass or whatever I needed. Just making it happen is what I did and what you need to do. Cool, I found this gym. I'm going to make my workout happen on this day, this day, this day and this day.

And I'm going to go to this gym. It sounds so easy, me tactically talking it out to you guys. But it's on you when you travel, whether you go on vacation, you're traveling for work or you're living in a hotel. You now know by listening to this podcast that it is possible for you. You just need to implement it for yourself. So again, some takeaways: definitely prepare yourself ahead of time for any travel by bringing protein powder and protein bars.

Label the protein powder the right way to get through TSA. You can also bring some other dry foods, like rice cakes. And then it's more of a mental game, you guys, totally more of a mental game. One week away is not going to ruin all of your progress. What matters most is whether or not you get back on your routine when you get back home. If you don't get back on your routine, then yes, all your progress could be lost. If you do get back on your routine, you're solid. And when you're traveling, look for gyms. Search the gyms around the hotel that you're staying in, whether you're on vacation or living out of a hotel.

And make it a choice to choose the foods that are going to support you. Choose the foods that have a solid balance of protein, fats and carbs, so you don't feel bogged down after you eat a meal. Instead you feel like, okay, that was super light, I feel great, and now I'm ready to crush the rest of my day. I hope you guys found that valuable. Those are some tips, tricks and ways to help you stay balanced with your nutrition while living in a hotel or going on vacation, and with your overall fitness goals, making your workouts happen while you are away.

All right, guys. Hope you enjoyed it, and I'll catch you in the next one. Real quick: the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals and feel insanely confident. The only way we can do that is if you rate, review and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask you to do is leave a review. It will take you ten seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.