A little more than a year and a half ago I made a pretty huge career transition. Nearly overnight, I moved from a role at a small, education-focused non-profit to a position at a huge, multinational corporation. Not only did the nature of my work change, but my lifestyle and approach to work underwent a huge shift—I stepped away from local, community-level work and joined a legion of corporate travelers who trek to the airport and travel to their clients each week.
As rewarding and exhilarating as this switch has been, getting adjusted to the impact that travel has on my personal life has been quite the challenge. Working in this space has required me to relearn and re-establish my thinking around personal success, fulfillment and balance. So, in an effort to ground myself and create a sense of normalcy and routine, there are three routines I maintain each week to combat feeling completely disheveled when traveling away from home.
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Planning My Workouts
When I’m working from Dallas, all of my favorite fitness/yoga classes and instructors are at my disposal. Knowing which classes I like and what times/locations work for me makes working out easy, stress-free, and enjoyable! So, naturally, traveling to a different city can make working out a lot tougher.
The combination of my ClassPass membership and a monthly membership at CorePower has made keeping up with consistent workouts a lot easier. At the start of each week on the road, I look at the class offerings closest to my office/hotel and create corresponding timeblocks on my work calendar. This way, I’m able to keep my workouts top of mind and manage my professional commitments and my fitness priorities at the same time.
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Being Intentional About Meals and Snacks (a work in progress)
Healthy eating on the road is by far the most challenging part about traveling for me. Between room service, quick airport meals, and late team dinners, it’s way too easy to eat trash! Traveling while completing the Daniel Fast earlier this month was particularly tough, but the experience taught me a lot about being intentional about what I eat and what I choose to avoid.
When I go into a travel week with plans to drink a certain amount of water each day, eat a certain amount of fresh fruits/vegetables, and avoid food that makes me feel less than ideal (DAIRY!!!), “successful” eating feels much more attainable. Eating right (for my body) makes all the difference to my energy levels, attention span, and my overall mood. Taking the time to put thought into my meals is absolutely worth it!
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Scheduling Time to Talk to Bae
Just as I make an effort to keep up with my own health, keeping up with the health of my relationship is definitely on my mind when I travel. D has been 110% supportive of my career and its accompanying travel schedule, but it’s kind of strange being in a (sort of) long-distance relationship again.
In response to this shift in dynamic, we’ve developed pretty consistent communication structures that have been great at helping ease our—mostly me—out-of-town woes. Making time for a call every morning between 6:45am and 7:00am CT, for instance, is something we both look forward to. And while there are definitely days when meetings and timezone issues force us to skip it—we use the time for a text message/snapchat check-ins instead—connecting in the mornings is a great way to kick off my day.
I’m nowhere near having this all figured out, but developing routines have made such a huge, positive impact on the way I view work-life balance—IT’S POSSIBLE! And I’m convinced that, if I can find balance in this atypical lifestyle, I can find it anywhere.
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