Staying Fit While Traveling...

... Is very difficult. Though it is very easy to stay active and even easier to exhaust oneself while traveling, I found it extremely difficult to stay healthy. Eating healthy was the most challenging (especially since I was on a pretty strict budget). However, I did lots of hiking and swimming while in Italy, both excellent sources of exercise, and a squeezed in some body weight circuits when I had time and energy (not too often). In the entire month I was there, I think "worked out" only four or five times. I lost about 6 pounds of muscle, was constipated for most of the time, completely sleep deprived, and utterly exhausted. It was great.

Here are some silly pictures of me doing one of my workouts in a train station at 3am.

Some bulgarian split squats using a bench:

And some push-ups. Definitely would have been too unsanitary to put my hands on the floor.



Other than these exercises, I did lots and lots of planks and side planks. They're easy, they're good, and you hardly need any space to do them. I was doing them on my bunk in the hostel. I also found some playgrounds with pull-ups bars here and there.

Now that I'm back home and have lots of healthy food and time on my hands, I'm training myself pretty hard to gain back the 6 pounds I lost. I've been cleansing my body of all the junk I ate-- drinking lots of water and eating lots of fruit and vegetable and oatmeal-- and sleeping about 10 hours a night. Yesterday I had a pretty serious lower body workout:

Leg Press: 3x12
Smith Machine Squats: 3x12
DB Lunges: 2x15 (each leg)
Deadlift (alternate grip): 2x10
Standing Calf Raises: 2x10
Seated Calf Raises: 2x10

Lifted about 60% of the weight I was lifting before I left for my trip, and despite all my stretching and walking, I'm still sore beyond sore today. However, it's my own fault for being an idiot and diving into the deep end right away when I should have eased myself back into my routine more gradually. Oh well. Live and learn.

More updates to come!