I Fly to Work

Update: avoiding dry eyes after a flight

Yesterday's plan worked.  I woke up with my left eye just feeling slightly gritty. No red eye, at all.

I can't remember the last flight that didn't result in sore eyes the next day.  This is great progress!  I still think I'll try a lubricating eye drop on my next tip.  I'm curious how much difference I'll feel compared to the artifical tears. 

 

Dry Air on Airplanes: red eyes without flying the redeye

It never fails.  The morning after a plane flight I wake up with tired, dry eyes.  Every. single. time.

According to The Dry Eye Zone, I'm not the only one.  Airplane air is notoriously dry.  As well, the fresh air vents seem to aim directly at our faces.  And of course, we travelers tend to consume more caffiene and alcohol that we likely should.

I'm going to see if I can wake up tomorrow without sore eyes.  (I'm currently on a 2-leg flight from Spokane to NYC).  Here's my plan:

• Only one time through the Starbucks line and no additional coffee on the plane.
• Drink at least two glasses of water on each leg of the flight.  (The Dry Eye Zone says internal dehydration contributes to dry eyes.)
• Apply artificial tears before and after each leg
• Turn off the direct air vent

If this doesn't work I'll try using lubricating eye drops instead of artificial tears on the return flight.

I'll report in tomorrow with the results.

Dry Airplane Air and Your Health

Continuing yesterday's thread of staying healthy on the road....Road Warrior Tips posts a study showing our biggest risk in that germy plane is actually the ultra-dry air:

Even though we’ve mostly made it past this year’s prime flu season, every frequent flier knows the despair of being seated right next to a frequent sneezer. And who hasn’t found jet lag morphing into a ticklish throat or achy body and grumbled about that recycled, germy airplane air? Well, although the germs are certainly major players in the cold and flu game, according to a 2004 study by University of Victoria researchers, the major culprit is not germy airplane air but rather the plane’s dry air—the result of pressurized cabins.

via www.roadwarriortips.com

They list 4 strategies to stay healthy in spige of the air -- it's a blog post worth reading.



Staying Healthy on the Road

Extensive travelers are 260 times more likely to rate their health as fair to poor, according to a Columbia University study quoted in The Economist.

That's right, 260 times more likely. 

It gets worse. 

Among my fellow road warriors obesity is 92% more common than for light travelers.  Blood pressure and cholesterol don't look much better.

Is this a surprise?  Not to me, and not to any business traveler who's lived the life for more than a few months. 

Staying healthy on the road doesn't happen by chance.  Without planning we'll fall to the bad-health trifecta of inadequate nutrition, exercise, and sleep.

We CAN maintain our health on the road, if we want to. 

Nutrition:

Carol Margolis posted a video yesterday showing all the healthy foods she packs for a 7-day trip.  She's motivated me to add protein shake mix and some baggies of nuts to my suitcase. 

I already pack a few meal bars and a bag of my favorite teas from Adagio.  I try to eat salads at least every other day, and stopped drinking alcohol entirely a few years ago.  (Yes, it is possible to be successful in sales while drinking club soda.) 

There's a slew of opportunities to eat sugar and grease on the road: just say no.

Exercise: 

Business travelers who exercise consistently don't rely on well-stocked gyms.  Some own a membership to a Y or a gym chain, but we know better than to assume those gyms will be available. 

I've tried using the exercises in Mark Lauren's You Are Your Own Gym.  It's a good workout, though I have challenges performing some of the exercises in my room. 

I also subscribe to My Yoga Online:  I can stream a variety yoga videos (from relaxing to vigorous) to my laptop and iPhone.   

Sleep: 

Of the three, I find sleep the toughest.  My goal is seven hours sleep a night.  When traveling I probably average five. 

• Planes arrive late. 
• Time zones steal away hours. 
• Customer dinners run long. 
• Project tasks go awry. 
• Email stacks up

I haven't found a good answer for this one, except to continuously remind myself I'm aiming for seven hours.  If someone has some suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Fellow road warriors, what are your stay-healthy tricks?

 

[exercise image from Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

One of the Best Perks of the Road Warrior Life

Yes, there’s at least one great reason to work on the road.  Really.

Let’s face it: life on the road can be tough.  Some road warriors take to it like ducks to a pond, not able to imagine life without the swim.  Others barely tolerate the time away from family and the morning “what town am I in” confusion. 

What’s the perk?  Location independence!  I’m working today in Albany, NY.  Albany is not my home town.  I’m three time zones away from my own comfy bed and the pugs who greet me at the door.  My TomTom iPhone app tells me my nearest customer is a 10-hour drive away.

I’m in Albany to visit my 3-week old granddaughter.  I flew in on a mileage ticket (thanks to a partnership between Alaska and American airlines), took 3 days’ vacation, and am working remotely from Albany this Thursday and Friday. 

My customers are happy wherever I call them from (obviously this only works if I don’t have an onsite customer visit scheduled).  My manager still enjoys the benefits of a productive employee.  And most importantly, when I hold my granddaughter in the living room of my proud son and daughter-in-law, our family is together.

Free airfare to my cross-continent family, and the ability to work from there when I’m low on vacation?  Priceless

Late-Night Airport

Here's what the Minneapolis airport looks like at 11:00 p.m.

Flying isn't all fun and excitement.  Today I sat 5 hours in Spokane waiting for a plane, then another hour ON the plane, and arrived half-way to my destination in the middle of the night.  Tomorrow morning I get to catch the 7am flight from Minneapolis to finish this marathon...

Night night everyone!

Healthy Eating on the Road: Some Tips over at Examiner

Tired of 'travel bloat'?  Cheryl Murphy at The Examiner posted some good tips last night for eating healthy while on the road.

It's tough to eat well, particularly in airports.  Portion control is key.  Those of us who eat out all the time have to break from the "eating out as a treat, let's have lots of food" mentality.  Non-travelers can get away with that, we can't.

I carry almonds when I travel for a quick pick-me-up.  And if flying out early in the morning, my new favorite "road breakfast" is the oatmeal at Starbucks.  (I get it with the dried fruit topping.)  It's hot, it fills me up, and beats the heck out of a pastry or muffin any day.

Have some road-tested healthy eating tips?  Please share them with the rest of us here in the comments!

News: Alaska Airlines 25-Minute Bag Guarantee

One of the reasons I try to avoid checking my bag is it takes SO LONG to get it back in the baggage claim.

It looks like Alaska Airline's decided there's some room to one-up the competition on this issue.  They're in the middle of implementing a Baggage Service Guarantee.  According to this service, if your bag isn't in Baggage Claim within 25 minutes of when the plane parked at the gate, they owe you $25!  Or if you prefer, 2,500 Alaska Airlines miles. 

Since at least half my flights are on the west coast, I try to stick with Alaska Airlines as much as possible.  Hmm...maybe I'll check my bag the next time I fly to California.

[Note:  This guarantee ends December 31]

Six Web Resources Every Business Traveler Needs

Every experienced business traveler has a set of websites they won't live without.  Our list of travel websites are the tools of our trade -- part of what gives us a competitive edge out there in the world. 

If you're starting out as a business traveler, there's a set of questions you need to be able to answer about your trip.  Here's my must-have website categories:

Which Airplane Seat?

I can't imagine not having SeatGuru.com available.  If you consistently fly just a couple routes, you already know which seats you want.  Since I fly nationally, the only planes I know well are those from Spokane to Seattle and Spokane to Minneapolis.  For everything else, I'm clueless. 

Enter SeatGuru to the rescue!  They have plane maps for each airline's configurations, for each plane in the airline's fleet.  Better than that, they use color to show particularly good and bad seats, and explain why. 

What's the Weather?

Okay, this one's easy.  Weather.com is in my bookmarks.  I can look at the 10-day forecast, yearly averages, and the current air quality -- all easy as can be.  For example, I have an upcoming flight to Los Angeles and wanted to know if the fires would pose an air quality problem.  Weather.com had the answer.

What are the hotels like?

I'm a long-term Hilton member.  For Hilton hotel reviews I search the "Hilton" section of Flyertalk.com's "mile and points" forum.  You'll find discussions of nearly every Hilton property there. Members of FlyerTalk are seasoned travelers, and I trust the reviews.  For "what hotels look good in this city" questions I head over to TripAdvisor.com.  I've found the reviews to be rather wide-ranging and tend to look at the overall tone of the reviews.

How will I get there?

Since buying a Garmin I don't use mapping sites as much anymore.  While I like both Mapquest and Google Maps, only Mapquest is able to feed locations to my Garmin.  If I'm hitting several locations in a row I'll build a route in MapQuest and then download it from my PC to the Garmin.  (What can I say, it's easier to type on a computer keyboard.)

Are flights running on time?

If you don't have the FAA's flight delay site bookmarked on your laptop and blackberry, stop and go bookmark them now.  Seriously!  If you know a region's running slow you can get on the phone and start adjusting your meetings accordingly.  If you're in sales, there's a good chance some of your competition isn't doing this -- remember what I said earlier about getting a competitive edge?

What are my peers saying?

Okay, that question's kinda lame.  But still, I really, really recommend looking at the FlyerTalk forums. 

It was on FlyerTalk I learned about Hilton GLON awards.  (If you're a Hilton Honors Diamond and don't use GLONs, you're spending way too many points on your rewards stays....)

Have a question about a loyalty program?  Someone there knows the answer. 

Need an interpretation of a term of carriage for a particular airline? (don't laugh, there's times when this helps!)  Yep, someone out there has it darn-near memorized.  Heck, the question's likely already been asked. 

Flyertalk is hands-down my favorite resource for learning the ins and outs of traveling. 

We've barely scratched the surface of resources for the business traveler.  This is just an off-the-top-of-the-head "survival" guide of basic site categories you need. 

I'm guessing I missed a few gems.  Fellow business travelers, what sites make it into your "Top 6 List"?

Trying to Sleep on a Plane? Here's Some Tips

Sleeping on a plane comes easily for a few people - my husband being one of them. For the rest of us, trying to sleep on a plane is frustrating to the max. I could sleep more easily in a room full of hyperactive kindergartners than an economy-class plane seat.

If you have problems sleeping on a plane, here are some tips to help.

Get the right seat: try for a window set, in a row where seats recline (some seats don't.) Being in the window seat lets you lean against the wall when trying to rest. The downside of sitting in the window seat is that it's much harder to get to the aisle if you need to use the facilities. Life's a tradeoff.

Avoid caffeine and alcohol: this should be common sense. Caffeine makes us jittery, and alcohol makes us sleep less deeply. Be aware that studies show the effect of alcohol on a plane is double that of drinking on the ground.

Give yourself room: having enough legroom can make a big difference in your ability to get comfortable. When traveling on a long flight, I make a point of only carrying on one bag...and putting it in the overhead storage. I try to only put my laptop, a couple books, and my sleep accessories in the underseat storage.

Try to fall asleep early: it's usually easiest to enter a drowsy state during takeoff. I'm told that during takeoff the cabin has decreased oxygen levels and an increased G-force. The combination of these makes us drowsy. Whatever the reason, I do tend to nod off more easily prior to getting into the air.

Use sleep accessories: a pillow and blanket are crucial to managing your comfort. Earplugs (wax, not foam) and eye masks make a big difference as well.

Before you head out for your next flight, take a few minutes to prepare with some of these tips. You'll have a lot better chance of catching some z's, finally sleeping on a plane.