It is vital that you take care of yourself while you are on the road. We have many responsibilities and it can be easy to put our needs on the back burner. Before you know it you are eating poorly, not exercising, not sleeping and it starts to take a toll on not only your work but on the quality of your life.

If you are interested in doing this job long term you need to set aside the time to care for yourself. If you just do a few trips here and there, it is okay if you let yourself “slide” those few weeks out of the year. But as we all know they quickly add up and start to affect us. I have watched so many tour guides burn out and have to leave a job that they loved because they did not set up boundaries to care for themselves.

Health is Not Rocket Science:

• Eat Well
• Be Active
• Sleep Sufficiently
• Take Time to Stop and Smell the Roses

We get caught up in every new health fad instead of simply doing what we know we need to be healthy. So how do we practically do these four things on the road?

1. Eat Well

This is the biggie! On the road, we are surrounded by people on vacation. They are eating like they are on vacation. We are encouraging them to eat all the famous desserts and cheeses of each area we pass through. We have huge included dinners with included desserts. We are riding all day and passing snacks around the coach. We often have to do fast food for meals due to scheduling or lack of other options. We often have to be working during a meal break so we need to grab something quick that we can scarf down. We are working so hard that we “deserve” to have that extra piece of a pie that one of our passengers gave us….and the list goes on! All of this catches up with us quickly, first in sluggishness and then you need to get the next size up in clothing.

There are a few tips that I have found to be helpful for eating correctly on the road:

• Bring your own snacks. Often we wait until we are really hungry to grab something and our only options are a donut or fried pork rinds (which are delicious by the way, but not great for you). When you bring your own snacks you control what is going into your body between meals or when something happens and you have to skip a meal. You know what you need to consume, but for me I generally bring
  • For the Coach: (I have a container or Ziploc filled with goodies)
    • Water- I always make sure to have plenty of water. You get several reusable bottles that you fill up at the hotel each night or have a case of bottled water. Not only do you save on buying water, but staying hydrated is key to being healthy. If you are not a fan of plain water you can get those little flavor packets to add-in.
    • Granola/Protein Bars (read labels as some of them are just candy bars in different wrappers)
    • Peanut Butter in individual packets.
    • Fruit (if I am not crossing international borders). Mainly apples as they last a long time (it only takes one banana being left in an overhead bin for you to not do that again)
    • Jerky
    • Huel (*see my note at the very bottom as to what this is)
  • For the Hotel: (Ziploc in my suitcase) Often times you get in to the hotel and maybe it has been a while since dinner and you want a snack. Be prepared so you do not have to go to the vending machine.
    • A sampling of the same things on my coach list above
    • Flavored Tuna in individual packets
    • Individual cracker packets (for the tuna)
    • Tea bags and little honey packets
    • There are several ready meals that do not need to be refrigerated if you have a tour that requires dinner on your own after you get into the hotel often.
• Don’t eat like you are on vacation! Have the same rules that you would have if you were at home and trying to eat healthy.
  • Eat moderate portions. Don’t fill a plate at the buffet. If it is a plated meal, don’t be afraid to leave food on your plate. I know that is blasphemy for those of you that like me, were raised to clean your plates. But the reality is you are not wasting that food if you shouldn’t be eating it. Let me explain, if you eat more than you should then you gain weight and you have to work hard to lose that weight or you have to deal with the repercussions of being heavier (clothes not fitting, loss of energy, etc.). So basically by not eating everything on your plate you are actually doing yourself more of a favor than if you ate it. To be clear I hate how we waste food in this country and there are so many people who need that food, but you overeating is not helping them or you.
  • Don’t eat the stuff you shouldn’t eat. Stay away from a lot of sugar or soft drinks, you know the drill.
  • You may be great at moderation, but I am not. So what I do is just not have the dessert because I can’t just have one bite. If it is a group meal that is the time that I go and pay the bill. I stay away from all soft drinks and just have them for special occasions.
  • Give yourself a break. I generally will have one or two meals a week that I let myself indulge like I am on vacation. This way I can have something to look forward to and don’t feel like I am missing something when we are at a place that is known for their desserts or fried foods.
• If you feel like you need to track calories just to get a better grip on your diet, there are great apps for that. I personally use My Fitness Pal App https://www.myfitnesspal.com/  (available on all devices), it is very easy to enter your meals (you can type or just scan barcodes to add food). It gives you a breakdown of where you are lacking or overindulging (carbs, protein, fats) it even sets a per day calorie goal that is personal to you and your goals.

2. Be Active

Notice that I said “Be active” not “Train for sprinting up Mount Everest with no oxygen”. Simple choices you make every day make a huge difference.

• Taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
• Walking around at rest areas, or when passengers have some free time.
• Doing a few laps up and down the hall in the hotel before going to bed.
• If the hotel has a fitness center use it.

We sit a lot and that starts to get to you. Some of our tours are very active (student tours in Washington DC is better than any gym!) But you need to have consistent activity. I really like having my Fitbit as it keeps me honest (me: “I have walked a lot today!” Fitbit: “no you haven’t”) If you do not have a fit bit there are many apps that you can download on your phone to track your steps and fitness. They are a great tool to keep you motivated and consistently active:

• Android
  • Google Fit
  • Samsung products- Samsung Health
• I-Phone
  • Activity Tracker
  • Pacer
  • Steps App

Hotel Gyms can be very hit or miss. Sometimes they are non-existent, or have broken equipment, or are filled with our passengers. I have found that doing bodyweight exercises in my room is a great way to stay in shape regardless of where I am. There are several great apps that you can customize to what you are wanting to do.

• JEfit : This is a free app that you can select a body weight workout and it will led you through it.
• You are Your own Gym : This app does cost money but it has a video portion so you are literally lead through the exercises so I feel more motivated.
• There are so many apps that you can find one for whatever you would like to do from stretching to yoga to break dancing.

For those that would like to be more active and go for a run, I often will try to pull double duty with a run and scope out places for the next day. If you are in town and going to have some free time the next day you can run around the area to get familiar with it. You get a good run in and you have great suggestions for your passengers for the next day. There are many apps that will track your run or give you runs in the area. Nike Run Club, Map my Run by Under Armour, Runtastic Running App

3. Sleep Sufficiently

Your commentary is fine, go to bed. In the beginning I cannot tell you how many times I stayed up late into the night perfecting my commentary only to not do a great job presenting because I was so exhausted, or to not be able to handle a situation well because I was not on top of my game. The more you do this job the more you will discover that while commentary is very important, it is much more important that you are present and active with your passengers. That is not just for you, but for them. They would love to have an expert as a tour guide, but if they had to choose they would rather have one that is personable and attentive to what is going on. You can’t do that if you are consistently not getting enough sleep.

Each person is different in how much sleep they need. You have to discover for yourself what that number is and work around it. I have to have 8 hours of sleep otherwise after a few days I start feeling it. So I look at the time I have to get up to get everything done the next morning, I count back 8 hours and that is the time I have to be in bed. Then I prioritize what has to get done and what will not get done.

Obviously there will be times I break this rule or someone breaks a hip in the middle of the night. We need to have a general rule/boundary that guards our needed sleep.

White Noise App- There are many of them out there. They are of great help when you have a noisy hotel room. Whether you are too close to the road or city noises or your room is haunted, this little app is so helpful. You can choose from a wide variety of ambient noises to lull you to sleep. Each person is different but for my ears “pink noise” is the one that drowns out the most noises and lets me sleep. You can also use the app is an alarm.

Speaking of alarms, none of us wants to oversleep and the fear of that can sometimes keep us up. I always have the front desk set up a wake-up call and have my phone set with an alarm as a back-up. It gives you piece of mind to sleep better.

4. Take Time to Stop and Smell the Roses

While I do encourage you to always stop and literally smell roses (check for bees first), I mean that you need to take time to enjoy life and allow yourself to take a break. The busier you are the more your brain needs a moment to just be. Call it mindfulness/meditation/whatever, just give yourself a few minutes to breathe deeply and not allow your mind to work on anything but being in the moment. This is such a powerful tool that “resets” your day. Those few moments can give you a different outlook on a situation and bring calm into the storms of your day.

You can make it as formal or informal as you would like. There are a lot of great apps out there that will lead you in some mindfulness exercises. Or you can simply decide that for 5 min every morning before you get into the craziness of everything you are just going to sit on the corner of the bed and relax and take deep breaths. This is also great to do throughout the day. Take a moment when the pax have free time or are taking some photos to just “be in the moment”. Relish in the fact that you are standing in front of the Eifel Tower. Yes there are things to be done, but you need to enjoy these moments even if it is for only a few minutes.  

Bottom Line:

You know what you need to do, you did before reading this article. You need to set up some boundaries and habits so that you can be healthy and enjoy this amazing job that we share. Don’t get burned out because you didn’t take time to take care of yourself.

Eat Well, Be Active, Sleep Sufficiently, and Take Time to Stop and Smell the Roses

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* A note on Huel. (Get $10 off)

Huel is a nutritionally complete, convenient, affordable food with minimal impact on animals and the environment. It is not a protein workout drink or a weight loss drink it is just the right amount of protein, essential fats, carbohydrates, vitamins & minerals. Literally a balanced meal in a bottle.

Just to be clear, I do not work for Huel so this promotion is based solely of the fact that I found something that is brilliant and I want others to be able to enjoy it as well. At first I did not want to include Huel in this article because I didn’t want it to look like a commercial, but I thought that was silly to leave it out.

I first tried Huel as an experiment, because I thought it was a excellent idea and fit perfectly with our lifestyles. Think of the time you could save if for every lunch (that was not included and you didn’t have to be working) you could just add water and shake. No standing in line or having to navigate what to eat. You then had that hour to yourself, if you needed to get work done or just have a break. Not to mention how much money you would save on a meals over time. Huel is under $2 a meal!

In short it does work and it is awesome. The main thing that people complain about is the taste or texture, but that seems a moot point because you have several flavors or flavor enhancers and you can change the texture just by adding more water. I like the vanilla flavor, but I love the chocolate flavor. They have an unsweetened unflavored variety and it tastes like it sounds- bland. You can mix flavors or add your own flavors, many people add coffee or other things in the mix to their liking.

I do not use a blender, just the shaker bottle that comes with your first order. I just measure out a serving and put it in individual Ziplocs so I just grab one, add water, shake, drink and then clean it out for the next day at the hotel at night. Easy Peazy

Read the reviews for yourself and see if you think it is something that would help you as much as it has helped me. I do not go crazy with it like some people and just drink all their meals. I just do one a day, normally at lunch. This stuff lasts a long time so even if you are just replacing a few meals a week it is worth it.

The downside for me going into it was the fact that you have to buy so much to just try it. You have to buy two bags. If you hate it and don’t want to keep it you can return the unopened bag but you have to keep the bag you opened (which makes sense). Many people actually cook with it and there are a lot of great recipes out there so if you don’t want to drink it you can still use that bag for cooking nutritious meals.

My biggest piece of advice it is going to sound funny: You need to drink it like water. What I mean is, don’t drink it like you would a smoothie where you are sloshing it around in your mouth or feeling the need to chew. Just drink it down. There is a big difference, when you drink it like water you are not really tasting it that much it is just going down, you are just getting a hint of the flavor. But if you are drinking it like you would a Starbucks drink trying to savor the flavor it is not as good. Also if you do not like the texture, adjust the amount of water you add and add some other flavoring in it if you want. I am confident that everyone can find a flavor or additive that they will enjoy. But I have to laugh at the people who complain because it does not taste like a drink from Starbucks that is filled with fat and sugar (because it is not filled with fat and sugar).

A perfectly balanced meal, way cheaper than any meal we can buy, more free time in my day- you can’t beat that in my opinion.

If you want to try it visit https://huel.mention-me.com/m/ol/ru9ap-casey-walton . You will get $10 off your order, and I will get a discount as well. This is just part of their referral program for anyone who has used Huel, so if you have a friend that already uses Huel you can use their referral code.