Maintaining a Healthy Diet on the Road

The next segment of the MRA healthy travel series is here! We are so grateful to get help from one of Lauren’s very own friends and her personal trainer. That’s right, you’re getting the info straight from the horse’s mouth, MRA 2015 Appearance winner’s trainer that helped her reach and maintain her fitness goals! Please take a look at his bio below and consult him with your questions! We are excited to announce that he will be keeping us up to date with more of this information throughout the year! A HUGE thank you to Brian Ateberry for loaning us your expertise.

“There is no doubt that staying fit on the road is a challenge for anyone. We live in a world with fast foods and faster growing waist lines. There is also no doubt that a successful Rodeo Queen needs to look like a queen and maintain her health and fitness to represent herself well. Beyond the “look” of the competitor, you must maintain a healthy plan to keep your immune system and energy levels up for those important appearances and tasks you need to perform. How do we manage all of these tasks and stay healthy and fit?

Advice I give all of my clients is to first and foremost get educated on HOW to eat versus just eating a certain “diet” from someone.   If you don’t understand how to eat properly and how food affects your body then you will not be able to adapt to various situations. For example, if you don’t understand how to eat “properly” versus just “healthy” then you will be frustrated when you are gaining weight or simply not losing when you think you should be. Fruit is an example of that. Fruit is “healthy” but eating too much fruit is not “helpful” to a weight loss program. It has sugars and sugars are carbohydrates that fuel the body. Too much fuel in any tank can lead to a “spillover” and fat gain. This is a very common mistake. Don’t misunderstand, fruit is okay but you can’t simply eat all you want of it simply because it is healthy.

  Have you ever thought of the body as a Chemistry project? It is just one big chemistry project and if we don’t track how many calories and what kinds, how do we know how to adjust those levels to get the desired outcome? We don’t. When you travel, you should keep some kind of track of how much you eat and how often you eat. Keep in mind that no woman should ever eat less than 1200 calories per day. Some may need considerably more.

You will need easy to eat items you can take with you or find easily on the road. Protein drinks like Muscle Milk ® are found at almost any gas station. Protein bars are another great example. Be aware of what kind they are and look at the sugar content. Just because they are “protein” bars does not mean they don’t have tons of other calories present in them. Other ideas are raw almonds, chicken breast sandwiches, chicken salads, cans of tuna or chicken. Yes, the idea is to focus on the protein as a priority because carbohydrates are in just about everything and most of us are not lacking in them. Grab that fruit or some granola for an easy on the go carbohydrate source.

(Brian Attebery is an N.F.P.A. Certified Trainer with a B.S. in Healthy & Exercise Science from The University of Oklahoma. He owns and operates Results Fitness & Nutrition Center in Oklahoma. He is available for Online Fitness and Nutrition Programs at www.resultsfitnessusa.com. He is Miss Rodeo America, Lauren Heaton’s Trainer. He has been training Pageant Clients for 18 Years and has had multiple winners in the Miss America and Miss USA Programs. )