Health Tips for Business Travel: How this CEO Builds his Work Day Around his Workout

Like many CEOs, I’ll often start my day on one coast and end it on another – sometimes with a stop to give a talk or take a meeting in a town in between. In the last 9 months I’ve logged more than 200,000 miles with over 100 flights, zig-zagging across the country to build my company.

Between the airport food, the less-than-sanitary conditions of planes and hotels and changes in time zones, you would expect me to be overweight and constantly battling a cold. But I compete in 10 to 15 cycling events every year, I eat only lean and healthy meals and I’m rarely get sick.

The secret to my stamina is my mindset: I don’t fit working out and eating well into my work schedule. Rather, I build my work schedule around working out and eating well. After several years as a health-conscious serial entrepreneur, I’ve distilled my healthy habits into a few key tips that can help business leaders keep their bodies as fit as their companies.

Prioritize Fitness

In health, there is no room for the “no time” excuse. Turn your health and fitness into your key priority and everything else can be built around it.

No matter where I am, I work out at least five times a week, combining both cardiovascular and strength training. Because I’m an avid cyclist, my cardio training tends to be on the bike, either outside when I can, or on the stationary bike when traveling, but rigorous hiking and walking also helps keep me strong.

I belong to Equinox Fitness, which has clubs all over the country, so I can work out anywhere. And when possible, I turn business meetings into bike rides. I have long maintained thatcycling is the new golf, and I’m a firm believer in integrating my personal fitness goals with my goals as a business leader.

“Walk and talks” are increasingly replacing boardroom meetings, as company leaders realize that some of our most creative thinking and best relationship building occurs while we’re in motion. I like to take this concept further, tapping into clients’ passions – be they hiking, running or cycling – to take business meetings outdoors.

Embrace the Red-Eye

Over the years I have discovered – and even began to evangelize about – the red-eye flight. By turning American Airlines into my hotel, I’ve been able to begin and end each day with a workout and get in two full days of work on each coast.

Consider a typical business trip for me: I work out in the morning in LA, put in a full day in the office, and then hop on a plane to New York. A transcontinental flight provides just the right amount of shut-eye to keep you going strong for another day.

When I arrive in New York, I’m ready for an early morning workout before putting on my suit and heading into a full workday in the Big Apple. Two workouts, two full work days, no time lost for travel. The red-eye one of my favorite travel tips, and the one that has most contributed to my health and fitness.

Be the Cleaning Crew

I’m no Howard Hughes, but I am realistic about how taxing travel can be on the immune system. Airplanes are filthy, even in business class. I usually wipe down every surface of my seat on the plane with a sanitizer wipe.

I also keep Purell in my pocket because as I navigate cities via ubers and trains, and I shake hands with so many people very day, I know I’m coming into contact with bacteria that have the potential to knock me down for a few days. As a result of this vigilance, and being strong from all of my training, I have great stamina and I successfully avoid getting sick.

Plan Your Meals

I’m always careful to eat low-fat, whole-food oriented meals, which means eating healthy on the road requires some homework. Large commercial chains offer homogenous menus across the country, so researching those few healthy options at major chains allows me to grab a low-fat snack on the go virtually anywhere.

When I take a client out to dinner or lunch, I try to steer the meal toward fish restaurants or sushi, where I know healthy options will be easier to find.

In addition to watching what I eat, I also watch what I drink. I stopped drinking alcohol four years ago and it is amazing how easy it was and how much better I feel (no hangovers for me). I love toasting to the success of a good business venture, but not at the expense of my health.

No matter where I am, I don’t lose sight of the fact that my most important asset as a CEO is my health. Staying fit has to be my priority – and it should be the priority of anybody who heads an organization.

Business is an endurance sport, and the CEOs who can best lead their companies to success are those who stay healthy, strong and active.

Even after more than 200,000 miles.

David Norris

CEO, Board Member, 6-time Entrepreneur, Advisor, Investor, Cyclist, 

How to Make Friends When Working Abroad

Going abroad for an extended period of time can be frightening. You’re confronted with your own cultural differences on a daily basis, everything and everyone will likely seem alien, and you may begin to harbor ill feelings to your new country. My second month living in Thailand led to a lot of evening time on my computer. The result? I am now unnecessarily up to date on all pop culture. Someday, I promised myself, this Grandpa will rule all trivia. Because I’m fairly quiet, it was a difficult leap into a new country whose language I didn’t know and making friends while I worked there wasn’t even the first thing that crossed my mind.

But the best way to get over this period of cultural adjustment is to stop hiding in that cozy and well stocked apartment of yours and make friends. But how, you may ask. How can friends be found in a world where you can’t even speak the language?

Make the Most of Your Workplace 

There are a number of ways to go about it. First, try and branch out through your workplace. Unless you have some sort of contagious disease, you’ll likely be able to meet some friendly people through your job. You should realise that social inclusion and kindness transcends language and loneliness can be temporarily alleviated simply by another person’s daily smile. Ultimately though, deeper connections will require learning the language. So learn bit by bit and immerse yourself in the local people. At some point, your new local friends will expect you to know the language well enough that you can make basic conversation.

Connect With Other Foreigners

In my case, I don’t have a workplace other than a few coffee shops I daily bless with the noise of my typing fingers. If you’re living in a new place and doing business online, try and initially fight your loneliness by connecting with other foreigners. There’s likely a good deal of people doing exactly what you’re doing, and you may find some backpackers that you can hang out with as well. Though these meetings can be fleeting connections, as most foreigners you meet will be short time tourists, they’re still great ways to connect as you’ll have someone you can relate to. And the fleeting aspect of it can be a boon too. I recently poured a beer on a backpacker’s head and never had to face any social consequences.

Find Like-minded People

You can also try and find people with similar interests. Great places to find groups of like-minded people include Meet Up and Couchsurfing. Both will allow you to make friends among fellow foreigners and travelers, as well as some local people.
 

Take Advantage of the Melting Pot

However, after a few months into your work, the majority of your friends really shouldn’t be fellow foreigners. If that’s the case, then you’re insulating yourself and it will make homesickness all the worse. If you don’t branch out to make friends among the local people, you’ll begin to treat your new culture with suspicion and you’ll inevitably begin to harbor some prejudice. Your goal in a new country should ideally be to broaden your horizons and assimilate different cultural opinions. Eventually your eyes will have been dipped in your new culture for long enough that you’ll be bicultural.

Become a Habitué

A really great way to create a local group of friends is to become a regular at some restaurant or coffee shop. You’ll grow closer with the employees and owners. Make sure to be kind and respectful, avoid making a mess, learn names, and greet them warmly each time. Practice your language skills whenever you see them. You can make great and dependable friends that way, and you’ll form a reliable group of people who are happy to see you each time you come by. You should be able to swing some free food out of it too. Everyone’s got to eat.

Start new Social Hobbies 

You should also try and develop some social hobbies. Evening walks, fishing, writing, and other similar activities are all well and good, but the fact of the matter is that they don’t tend to involve other people. Try and develop a hobby that brings you into contact with a group. For instance, you can take dance classes, you can learn a martial art, you can join an adult sports league, or you can go on pub crawls. Volunteering is also a great way to immerse yourself in a community. You can even turn a typically solitary activity social. You can go to life drawing sessions through Meetup and turn your drawing habit into a way to make friends.

Really, the most important thing about making friends when working abroad is to just get out and about. Everyone knows Spongebob Seasons 2 and 3 are the greatest gifts to man in the history of the world, but re-watching it every night while screaming ‘My Leg’ probably won’t make you friends. Simple things like walking around downtown on typically social nights will bring you closer to making a group of friends that can help you grow as a person.

Posted by 
Adam Mohamed