Traveling is a fact of life for any executive in the computer consulting business! It doesn t matter if you are going down the street or across the country, traveling is just a fact of life. The correct lifestyle decisions on the road will ensure you remain healthy, maintain your stamina, and are ready for any challenge.

I spend a good ten days a month on the road now flying across the country to different meetings, projects and conferences. Maintaining a proper diet, fitness routine and balanced lifestyle take discipline when at home and more so when on the road. Here are some basic tips I employ to maintaining a healthy lifestyle while travelling on

business.

Diet Eating properly is one of the most important disciplines you can have on the road. Rushing between meetings and missing meals often means making poor choices later in the day. Avoiding snack food and fast food is a good place to start. Many airports and hotels are now offering healthier choices on their menus. Your diet is critically important to ensuring that you are looking after yourself.

Drink lots of water I have found by drinking lots of water during a conference, my mental retention level increases and by avoiding over consumption of coffee and alcohol I can remain sharp so that no details are missed. This also applies

to soft drinks and other drinks with excessive amounts of caffeine.

Fitness Your physical fitness is another key component to maintaining a healthy lifestyle while on the road. To attract the corporate guests, most hotels now offer a fitness centre, knowing that fitness is important to the lifestyle of traveling executives. Keeping up with your fitness schedule will ensure that you are on-track to keeping healthy.

Sleep Another area I find I skip on while travelling is sleep. I will often stay up late with conference attendees in the hotel restaurant or bar discussing what we have learned that day and before you know it there are only 5 or 6

hours left for sleep. The right amount of sleep is even more important when you are on the road. When flying, I personally try to stay away from the Red Eye flights to lower my risks of suffering from jet lag and other challenges with sleeping on a plane.

A few other tips I have put into practice that contribute to my healthy lifestyle while travelling include:

Stress level There is nothing worse when traveling on business than having to deal with the little issues back at the office. This will derail your concentration and undo the benefits of your meetings and events. It is important to have the right team back at your

office to deal with the day to day details of running the business, so your time is free to focus on your meetings, conference activities or any other important details.

Arranging flights Whenever possible I attempt to arrive well before the start of a conference or meeting. This can be the evening before, if your meetings start the following morning, or when events start in the evening, I arrive in the AM. This way it gives me enough time to get settled and ready to do business. At the end of the event, I am now scheduling a full day off prior to leaving a conference, this time has proven to be extremely valuable in

ensuring that all the details of the meetings and events are fully adsorbed prior to heading home and back into a daily routine.

Costs All businesses like to control costs. So I have started using priceline.com to book all of my travel arrangements like hotels and rental cars. Priceline.com offers a bidding process where you can save hundreds of dollars on the necessities such as airfare, rental cars and hotels. The downside is that you do not get a choice of which hotel or rental car company to use, however you can select the caliber of service and the best geographical area..

To fully absorb the events of your travels, resist the temptation to over

indulge in the unhealthy food, night life, social scenes and other distractions. While traveling, ensure that you take of yourself just like you would when you are working in your home location. Your health and welfare is critically important to your success!

Stuart Crawford is a business leader in the Calgary, Alberta small business computer consulting marketplace. Stuart s company You Factor Inc works with Small Business computer consultants and business owners take care of their clients and ensure they have the tools to grow their business. He can be reached at [mailto:stuartc@youfactor.ca]stuartc@youfactor.ca or via his website [http://www.youfactor.ca]http://www.youfactor.ca. Stuart has just released his first book that is a must for anyone that uses a computer,

you can find his book at [http://www.takingnotes.ca]http://www.takingnotes.ca.