Staying in Shape on the Road

We've all seen some crew members carrying a few extra pounds around. Honestly, it's not easy to stay in shape on this job. Staying in shape means eating well and staying active. Here, you live on the road a lot of the time. You're poor. And, you spend most of your time either at a hotel or an airport. You end up eating out most often and that's neither healthy nor cheap. Oh yeah, your job involves you sitting on your ass for hour after hour as well. Yup, there's stress involved, too. And, we are required to have medical exams on a regular basis to determine if we are healthy to fly. Sounds a bit odd, I know. Also these smaller regional aircraft tend to fly shorter legs and more of them each day. This means that the crew is constantly going from here to there, then over to here, back to there, all day long. And, half the time they are switching aircraft between legs too. Sometimes, they will fly the whole day and never have a chance to even get a quick bite to eat in the airport. None of that appears to be the company's concern, however. It's all about "schedule integrity" from where they sit.

Around the start of the year, I began taking steps to combat what I call, Fat Pilot. Turns out, there are a lot of things you can do on the road to help stay in shape. Not all of these items will work for everyone, but if you can use at least a few of these, perhaps it can help you avoid having to buy some larger uniform piece next year.

1.) Bring Food: People that do this are easy to spot. They're the ones with a little insulated cooler hanging off their rollaboard. I think it's a great idea, however, this seems to be best suited for those who live in base. Some hotels have refrigerators in the room, and some have one in the main kitchen that you can ask to keep something in overnight. (Don't forget to ask for it back when you checkout in the morning!) Some places don't have a fridge at all. Depending on what you bring, this may cause issues. I'm a commuter, so I don't typically find it practical to haul yet another bag of some kind around with me. And, it's tough to bring more than 1 or 2 day's worth of food.

2.) Bring Oatmeal: This is my mainstay on the road. I stay clear of the instant stuff and get the real deal Quaker Oats. (This is per recommendation of Alton Brown's on a Good Eats episode.) I bring a quart sized bag of them on every trip. They are quite bland, so I add my own cinnamon and brown sugar. Each hotel I've stayed in has a coffee maker. That's all I need to make some hot water, and I can get a couple coffee cups of oatmeal to pour the water on, and let them soak for 4-5mins, or just pour the oats right into the coffee pot itself. The only other required item is a lexan spoon that I always have with me. Might not be luxury, but then again, take a look at my paycheck. Oatmeal is on par with the money I make. (Yes, images of Oliver Twist do come to mind...)

3.) Plunder the Booty: Another thing you can do, which of course is prohibited per company regulation, raid the galley cart! Now, like anything else that people do which they aren't supposed to, there is a certain etiquette to be followed. You can't just raid the damn thing like a Viking. Simply put, most of what gets sent out to a plane from catering will be thrown away if it is not eaten. Fair enough. This is why crews don't feel bad about taking snacks, especially after a flight is done. But, the passengers are the ones paying to go along for this little airplane ride, so consider them. If you are lucky enough to fly a plane that has a first class and there is a meal being served then you might get some food to split between the crew if there is anything left that the passengers didn't want. I find that the best way to guarantee leftover food is to purchase your own food to eat before the flight. That works like you wouldn't believe! However, it also works in reverse. If you don't buy something to eat when you have the chance, there won't be a single peanut left for you.) Most people think that airlines always have food for the crews. Mainline flights have "crew meals" for flights over 2 hours (I think) in length. We in the regionals, don't have such luxuries. However, many a/c in the regionals don't have a first class, hence, no meals at all. So, when raiding the leftovers in the snacks, try to steer clear of candy bars and the like. Try and stick with bananas, apples, and the like.

4.) Workout at the Hotel: Most hotels have a workout-room of some sort and I try to hit these as much as I can. But on short overnights, the last thing you care about is hitting the gym. Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs was asked how he stays in shape while living on the road. He recommends the Prison Workout. It's totally worth it to get up 10mins early, and knock out this routine. It's certainly a lot better than not doing anything and it doesn't take much time.

5.) Water, Water, Everywhere: Each plane I know of always has water on board. Coffee is a mainstay of 99.9% of pilots, that's for sure, but do your very best to drink a LOT of water each day you're on duty. Try not to always drink something like Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, etc. That's a lot of sugar and calories. Consider that you're also living in a pressurized tube. It's being pressurized with air from high in the atmosphere. It's VERY dry. Staying hydrated will keep you more alert, and also help your body fight the dry environment in which we spend so much of our time.

6.) Hotel Breakfasts: Another side of regional airline flying is that you tend to stay in some OK hotels. Usually they are nothing fantastic, but perfectly decent. Some are total crap, but that's another post... Usually, the best part of a good 3-star hotel is that you get a free breakfast! Again, I recommend staying away from the donuts and the danishes. Try sticking to cereal, bananas, apples, oranges, stuff like that. I know the other items look really damn good. Trust me. I'm a complete sucker for a doughnut. I'm part Homer Simpson. And, you know what, every now and then, go ahead and have one! But, don't have one or six every damn morning! It's also easy to grab an apple or banana and stick it in your flight case for later if you're going to have a long day. Always keep something in there, just in case you plan to have a long break, and then some wonderful delay pops up, weather, maintenance, late inbound flight, whatever, and then that nice 1.5 hour break in the middle of your day becomes a quick turn and you never get a chance to even step off the plane. Even a couple granola bars are worth having. You might be wondering if this is a safety issue. Just think of those Emeralds Nuts commercials on TV nowadays.

7.) Walk: Another small help is to bypass trams and moving walkways when you have the time. You will get a bit of exercise just pulling your bags around. And, if you have a decent break during the day and a big airport, take a stroll around the whole place! Again, even just small activity, on a regular basis will make a noticeable difference over time.

8.) Workout at Home: When at home, I run. I don't like running either. However, there really is no better way to get such a workout in, in so little time, with so little money invested. Think about it. Get a decent pair of shoes, and I'm guessing you have a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. Go run! Hell, chances are, if you're not in shape, 10 minutes of running, and you'll be pretty tired! I'm trying to work up to running a marathon next year. I'm not sure why, except that I always figured it would be cool to look back and say "I've run a marathon." Well, I'm not exactly young anymore, so if I'm going to do it, I better get moving on it. We'll see how it goes.

9.) Challenges: Here's a neat little challenge for all you blog readers out there. I formally issue you the challenge to do 100 pushups and 200 situps. Yes, in a row. I ran across these two little gems a few months back. It's a regimented progression to increase your push up and situp capabilities. Again, it's not easy, but it's also not super tough either. Time commitment is fairly modest. The program will vary slightly based on how many pushups and situps you can do right now. I've been working on both. I have a long way to go on the situps, but I'm getting close to 1/2 way done for the pushups.