Habits and Hustle - Episode 422: Liron Kayvan: Healthy Travel Hacks + How to Stay Fit on the Go

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

Traveling for work or pleasure can make it challenging to maintain your health and fitness routine. That’s why in this Fitness Friday episode of the Habits and Hustle podcast, I talk with my friend Liron to give all of you the tips you need to stay fit while traveling.  We discuss the importance of planning ahead, packing your own healthy snacks, and making a commitment to stick to your fitness goals no matter where your travels take you. We share practical strategies to help you prioritize your well-being on the go. Liron Kayvan founded BFLA in 2019. He’s a NASM Certified Group Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer, and Transformative Life Coach. Liron has competed in Amateur MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and Rugby and has been a Fitness Coach for over 10 years. What we discuss:  Bring your own healthy snacks and meals in your carry-on instead of relying on airline offerings Stay hydrated by drinking only water during the flight Get up and walk the aisles every hour to avoid being sedentary on long flights Maintain your normal fitness routine as much as possible while traveling  Take advantage of hotel gyms to fit in workouts Working out while traveling can actually boost mental performance and productivity  Visit grocery stores to stock up on healthy foods vs. always eating at restaurants Track food intake if you have specific weight loss or body composition goals Walk everywhere possible while traveling - to meetings, sightseeing, etc.  Make your non-negotiables for diet and exercise while traveling and commit to them Thank you to our sponsor: AquaTru: Get 20% off any purifier at aquatru.com with code HUSTLE Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off  TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. BiOptimizers: Want to try Magnesium Breakthrough? Go to https://bioptimizers.com/jennifercohen and use promo code JC10 at checkout to save 10% off your purchase. Timeline Nutrition: Get 10% off your first order at timeline.com/cohen Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers.  To learn more about Liron Kayvan:  Website: https://www.beyondfitnessla.com/  Instagram: @beyondfitnessla Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it! Hey friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast, where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up. Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it. All right guys, welcome back to Fitness Friday

with my friend, Liran. Hello Liran. Hello Jen. Thank you for coming. Thank you for having me. I have a topic that I wanna talk about that I think is really, really important and we don't really hear it as often as I thought we could,

not could, but we should, is this is going to be an episode about fitness and travel and how to stay on point with your health and fitness goals while traveling. Because the truth is so many people who listen to this podcast travel a lot. They're entrepreneurs, they're people who just are on the go a lot. And it's really hard to stick to a program when you're constantly flying. And what really kind of gave me this idea was in the last few months, I've been traveling

way more than I have in the past, in the last six months, I should say. And no matter how much I worked out or, you know, ate okay while I wasn't traveling, the travel killed me, right? Like I just gained weight or I couldn't, it was really, really hard for me. And what I noticed that really worked for me, the first thing that really I noticed is staying away from the food on the airplane.

Like that to me is the biggest, biggest issue with staying on track with your fitness is when you eat the food on the airplane. It is packed with preservatives, sodium, the highest sodium. Like the second I take a bite of that food, I have to open the button on my pants, right? Like it's so bad for you.

Yeah, yeah. Airplane food is like kind of the exact opposite of my philosophy on nutrition, which is you want to eat as naturally as possible. You want to eat as if you are in the jungle and, or the rainforest or the forest or whatever. But airplane food is literally to a T like packaged, you know, scientifically like made in a lab, you know, that's what they, they, they, why is that? Like they say to you and they, cause it has to last forever. It's a, it's a business. The airplanes are businesses and they need to make things as cheaply as possible that last as long as possible. But the funny thing is like even in 2025, right. And they are

giving you healthier options on the plane. They're still not healthy options. They're still not healthy options. And you can get your little snack packs, which is like the nuts and the crackers and this and that. But to me, the best strategy is don't even think or look at the cart going by it. Let it keep on going. Like don't eat any snacks on that plane. Yeah. Get the food. Like I pack, like people laugh at me because when I go on a plane, like there's more food. I bring more food with me than I do clothing or anything else. That's the Jewish mom thing. Maybe it is. It's deep in your genes. Maybe it is. But I will say like this my strategy and tip number one when you are traveling

is never touch the airplane food, never, ever, ever, pack everything in your carry-on. And that's what I do. I pack fruits and vegetables and snacks and I bring everything from home. And like I said, like most of my luggage or my bags are filled with food versus clothing. Like I'll be I'm much happier wearing the same pair of pants every single day.

And the same to have fresh food. Then yeah, I'd rather have fresh food or quality food. And because the trouble I have is also that like, I don't know what happens on a plane, but the second I get on a plane, I'm starving. Starving. Is that what happens with you too? Yeah, yeah, I don't even. I don't know what the second and then I feel like I'm starving. Starving. Is that what happens with you too? Yeah. Yeah. I don't even. I don't know what, and then I feel like I'm like stuck on this-

You're also a bit bored on a plane. And that's what I was going to say, because it's like a boredom factor, even though you can watch a show or whatever else, like you have this like knowledge that, okay, I'm going to be on this flight for five hours or four hours and I can't go anywhere. What is there to eat? Like you want to like pass the time. So like ways to like eliminate that honestly is like, you know, like you kind of like have like this, this thing in your, you reframe it where it's like, I'm not, I'm not touching anything that comes on that cart. I have all my snacks. So there's no excuse for me not to eat that food.

I know what you mean. Actually, like I don't ever really crave like beer and potato chips. Like it's not a craving of mine really, like beer once in a while. But like whenever I get on a plane and I see someone order beer and potato chips, I'm like, I really want that. You know? And it's something about being on the plane and the boredom factor where I'm like, I need something, you know? I get that. I get what you're saying. And like you're also like constrained to your seat. And it's like, to me, like another great strategy is like, don't drink anything besides water or like, that's what I do. I only have water because right away, like the,

I guess the air pressure can make you much more, it changes your body. It definitely slows down your digestive system too. Like your gut tends to freeze up. I think also traveling at an unnatural speed across, you know, you're changing time zones. Right, right. Like that is gonna, and it's not just on the plane, but like the actual flight is going to mess up your circadian rhythm for at least a day, depending on how far you go.

Like when I go to London, like three days after my body, I'm waking up at the wrong time. My digestive system is off. Every, my energy levels are off because of that jet lag too. So it's like the, the sitting down in a plane eating crap. And then also having jet lag is a component is a, is a big kind of perfect storm to derail your fitness. Right.

So that's why the other thing I think is super important is to keep, keep your routine as much as possible. Like, have like your regimen or your routine and try to maintain it as best, I'm not saying perfectly, but as much as possible. But also while you're on the plane, make it like, you should set an alarm that every hour that you walk up and down the aisles, because that, again, being sedentary for so long is just so bad for you, right?

Like to me- Stretch, stretching. Stretching, like it causes like, I start getting sciatica because I'm sitting too long, like all of these things, right? Like you have to make a concerted effort to do these things. Like, and know that like, okay, I'm traveling.

These are my hard nose. These are like things that are non-negotiable. I'm not allowed to eat the food on the plane. I have to walk up and down the aisles every hour on the hour, and I'm only allowed to drink water. That will help you 50%, literally 50% with keeping your goals for your health and your fitness by just doing those three things. The other thing is staying on that routine as much as you can. Whenever I get off of a plane,

if I'm going somewhere far, I make myself like move my body for 30 minutes afterwards. I have to like walk around the hotel, go on a treadmill in the gym, every hotel now or wherever you're going has a gym, take advantage of it like first thing, I think. Yeah, actually, I love working out on vacation. I absolutely love it. It's got harder since I had the second kid because it's hard to leave two kids with my wife and then go work out. But I used to like up until this summer, we went to Italy, the first time I didn't work

out for two weeks, I think since I started working out, whenever we go on vacation, even long like two week trips, I'll always like sneak off to a hotel or find a new gym in town actually. I love it because I'll go to a new part of town. It'll be very, very different. I get a lot of inspiration, different machines, different gym culture, different like, you know,

you can people, I love working out on vacations. But to me, that's not even an option. Like, it's not even an option to me, like I said, if no matter where I am around the world, I try to stay on my routine as best as I can. And I work out every day, no matter what, no matter what the jet lag, no matter what the time difference is. I'm talking also about like business people traveling, no matter what the jet lag, no matter what the time difference is. I'm talking also about business people traveling, when they don't have, they're not with their family, right? It's just, it's really hard to stay on point if you're somebody who's a consultant and

you're always on a plane. Are you talking about work trips? Yeah, I'm talking about work travel. I'm not even talking about family travel. I'm talking about, by the way, all travel, but a big part of that is like work travel. Like I'm, I'm, I'm traveling a lot for work. I'm going to different places for consulting gigs or speaking gigs. And like, if you're always on a plane, that's part of your, as an entrepreneur, that's part of your life. You know, like you have to like integrate these things to make it a non-negotiable.

I'm guessing you have to plan ahead for these things too. You have to plan ahead for everything in life. Because you have to find, like say you do want to find a gym. Yeah. You have to see, does my hotel have a gym? If not, can I schedule a couple of hours to go and find a gym somewhere and make it stay on, you know, stay on my routine? And the other factor is when you, especially with regard to work, if you know you're going to function better,

like your brain and body is going to function better, when you're working out, then it's a performance booster. And so therefore it's actually part of your work. 100% in spot. I also think just because there is such a thing, and I think this is a big one, it's the 80-20 rule, right?

Like 80% of what you do is your nutrition and 20% is a big one, it's the 80-20 rule, right? Like 80% of what you do is your nutrition and 20% is your fitness stuff, right? So you really have to watch what you eat when you're traveling if you are, if you really want to, you know, maintain or achieve your goals. It's a lot of it is about what you put in your mouth, not what you're doing in the gym. So making better choices. Now the issue is portions. Again, it's always a lot of it comes down to portions. For whatever reason, psychologically, it's been shown that when we are traveling, we tend to eat way more than we do when we're back in our own regimen at home, right? So if you're conscious of that

and conscientious of that, make sure that when you are traveling, that your portions are not crazy, like half the portions at a restaurant you're going to. Or what I do a lot is I go to a grocery store and I buy a bunch of food and I bring it back to my hotel. And so I'm not relying on like restaurant food that also when you, the more you eat at restaurants, the amount of calories that are added just by the sheer cooking way they're cooking the food, the oils and all the added stuff. Like it adds up so fast.

I go to like, I go to the grocery store and I buy like sliced turkey. I buy myself, like my fruits and my vegetables and things that I know what is in it. That's a, that's a big thing you just mentioned. And, and I think in general, whether you're on a work trip or a pleasure trip or whatever it is, whenever you're traveling, seeing fitness as part of the travel, as part of the trip, like not that divorcing psychologically, your health and fitness from the trip, but making it part of it. Meaning to be specific, when I went to Italy, right?

Everyone says with Italy, oh, you have to have pizza, you have to have pasta, you have to have gelato. And it's fantastic. The pizza, pasta and gelato are fantastic, but I don't want to live off that for two weeks. I'm not going to enjoy it. So I go to the grocery store every day in Italy. And that was a really cool experience.

First of all, you're getting to know the country better and the people better because you're living like a normal person. That's how normal people eat. They don't, Italians don't eat at a restaurant three times a day. They don't. They're just like everyone else. They go to a grocery store, but their grocery stores are a million times better than American ones.

Same thing with London. Yeah. Fresh fruits. Like the deli section is incredible. All these amazing cheeses and sun-dried tomatoes and olives. So it was an amazing experience for me. And I got to stick to my health. I didn't really need, I had a couple of days where I had loads of

pizza and pasta and stuff, but in general, that's not my thing. And I stuck to my thing. I stuck to my stuff and it was super easy, super enjoyable. I did not feel like I was deprived from my travel at all because I embedded my fitness and my health into my travel. Yeah. I love, see, people who know me, I mean, you don't know me that well, but people who know me well know that I'm like, I love the grocery store.

To me, going to Costco or going to Whole Foods and walking the aisles is my happy place. To me, I love it. And so I realize that most people don't love it, but I'm telling you, if you really are serious about, you know, you can't have it both ways. Like, there's always a give and take in the world, right? Like, if you want something, you have to, like, take away something else, right? Like, as much as I love to eat, you know, these amazing meals at a restaurant, every single meal, I know what the result's going to be.

So like, I don't do it. I like make sure that I'm very reticent and cognizant of like making my own food as much as possible. With that being said, like if someone, again, just like, you may not like the grocery store like I do, but if you actually try to incorporate that into your travel, it will save you so many calories of eating every single meal out at

a restaurant. Even like, if you're traveling for two days, right? And you're eating out lunch, breakfast and dinner, even like, even like breakfast is much more like that. You can make it in your room. Yeah, it's unnecessary. But even to go even further and say like, I don't think the trade off is as much as people think. Like, it depends on what you're diet. I love my diet. I love eating healthy, which to most people sounds like, yeah, they kind of roll their eyes and they're like, of course you love eating healthy. You just like, you're lying to yourself. I'm not. I eat the foods that I enjoy. I eat the foods that I enjoy. Me too.

And so like going to a grocery store, I actually find more enticing than going to a restaurant because I don't buy into the whole restaurant thing. I don't think restaurants are as good as people make them out to be. I think they just don't, they're not connected with their food. Well I think that, I think just overall eating at restaurants too much will make you gain weight. There's no way around it. There's no way around it. I haven't seen anyone eat out more than 50% of their meals and be in the shape they want

to be. I've never seen it. Maybe you can, I think it's possible to eat out a bit and eat out a good amount and still be fit, but I haven't seen anyone eat out more than 50% of their meals. If you want to, for like, there are like a very, there's a very like small percentage of people who are just like naturally very lean, okay? God bless you people. But for the majority of people,

if they want a certain aesthetic, if they're eating out every single meal, there's not a chance that they're gonna be able to maintain their overall body fat, their aesthetics. It's just impossible. Having said that, I think you can do a little bit of research, but again, there's the trade-off. You actually have to put a little bit more effort and focus into it. But if you do a little research into where you're eating and what you're eating and what the options are, you're going to be a lot better off. Listen, you can make better choices. options are, you're going to be a lot better.

Listen, you can make better choices. You can make better choices. There's a difference though. I mean, even with the best choices, what will happen? You can make the best restaurant choice on the planet. You can go the most organic, the most farm to table restaurant on the planet. You will eat a bigger portion, way more at a restaurant than you would at your own home, number one.

And there's always hidden ingredients that you may not know about, right? Because to make food taste good, they add extra oil, extra butter, extra something, something that you don't know about that you're not taking into account. And if you really have a goal that you're trying to achieve, you have to track what your food intake is, right?

Like the people who get to the result are using trackers. Like they're putting, they're using my fitness pal or all these other tracking devices and they're incorporated until you know exactly what it is. By the way, like I always say to them, oh, I'm just eating a chicken breast and I'm only eating this. And when I actually put that stuff into the,

my daily food intake into one of these trackers, I'm always really surprised at how many more calories I'm actually intaking that not like, it's always a 500 plus more than I really thought. Can I tell you something? Yes. I actually don't believe in calorie counting. I don't believe, listen, I'm not, let me say this also. I don't really calorie count because like I'm okay with like, I'm not trying to be on

the cover of, you know, name it, Oxygen magazine or fitness magazine. But what I'm saying is for people who are trying to lose fat or lose weight, right? Like who are trying to lose fat five pounds, right? You have to track, you have to see what you're having. Like there has to be a calorie deficit. I think the biggest, the reason why that works is because most people are just not aware. They don't even know, they have no idea.

There's no awareness. They didn't even realize that they ate this thing. They wouldn't remember it. And this has been studied by the way, like people are so bad at knowing how much and what they're eating. Well, that's my entire point. I think it doesn't, you could be a fitness enthusiast who exercises and thinks it watches everything you're doing and exercises consistently eats well and all the things. And then it's those people are like, I don't know why I'm not losing weight. I don't know why I'm not losing weight.

I don't know why I'm not gaining muscle. I don't know why, because they're not tracking it properly. They don't know what their macro nutrients are, what they're eating, their mic, whatever. They're not, they don't know that there's at some point, this is the truth, right? Like if it's much easier to lose 30 pounds than it is to lose five pounds. And if you're trying to lose 30 pounds than it is to lose 5 pounds.

And if you're trying to lose 5 pounds, it is imperative that you track to see what you're doing day to day. You need to have a deficit in your calories if you want to lose weight. Period, full stop. There's nothing, there's no way around it. 5 pounds is so difficult to lose. I mean, the smaller the amount that you're trying to tweak, the harder it is. And that's why you can't just eyeball things and just, you know, rely on

your memory. Like, oh, I had a Greek yogurt here and I had a protein bar here and I had a piece of chicken. Without doubt, you're forgetting things that you're eating. And I think it's really, it's a really great tool if you really want to achieve a certain goal. But we can talk about that on another podcast that we're going to be doing. This is about travel. Those are my tips that I think are really important. Stay away from airplane food. Make sure you're walking on the plane, you know, every hour on the hour. I'm going to reiterate them, only drink water.

Stick to your routine on the trip as much as possible. Try to stay away from eating every meal at a restaurant. Try and incorporate grocery shopping. Go to a grocery store, buy food for your room, your hotel room, or for wherever you're staying. It will save you so many calories down the road. Is there anything else? That's my recap. think about food quality.

Oh, always the quality of food. In America, America has one of the low, I mean, I don't know where you're traveling specifically and this is a good, and the whole nother thing, but America is on the definitely on the lower end of food quality. So there's a lot of countries you can go to where everything's fresh. There's very low additives. And so you can partake of the local cuisine a lot, a lot more guilt free than in the kind of more Western world. It really just depends where you're going.

But I think by focusing on, on food quality, you know, go to, go to grocery stores, go to farmers markets. And also walk as much as you can. Walk a thousand percent. It's probably number one. Yeah. Walk to, walk to your meetings as much as you can. Yeah. Don is probably number one. Yeah. Walk to your meetings as much as you can. Don't get a cab if you can walk.

Yeah. That's why I love going to New York. New York is the best. I love going to New York. New York is the best. Because I walk everywhere. It's a walking culture. You know, you think that like this whole idea of like living in LA and that it's like such a like outdoorsy.

There's nowhere to walk. Nobody walks anywhere. By the way, I have this rule, I talk about this incessantly, is that if it's two miles or under, I will not get into a car. I absolutely refuse to get into a car. I walk everywhere. And so it's a great, it's a non-negotiable. And that's not just the walking, that's the sunshine, that's the vitamin D. I mean, we've

got like ash falling on us now, but generally 99.9% of the time, being outside and breathing the fresh air and seeing the trees and having the sun on your skin, apart from the actual physical walking is going to do so much, not just for your mental health, but your physical health too. That people really sleep on that stuff. You got to create non-negotiables for yourself. If you want to get to your goal. That's period, full stop.

You have to. You have to put that in there. That's why my two miles are under rule for myself. And do you keep that when you're traveling? 100%, that's why I love going to New York. So what I was gonna say is it's interesting because LA has this preconceived notion that it's the healthiest place to live,

but yet nobody walks here. They will not walk to the grocery store if it's a quarter of a mile away. To me, I'm like, I purposefully live in a place where I can walk to the bank, I can walk to the grocery store, I can walk to the mall, I can walk to all the, I can walk to the gym if I need to. I want to make my life as walkable and as simple and convenient as possible for myself. I'm exactly the same. We're literally, we're buying a house right now and non-negotiable, and this might sound crazy to some people is, can I walk to my place of business, my gym from my house? That doesn't sound crazy to me at all.

I will never, I went to look at a house recently that was beautiful, okay? But it was up in the hills. You couldn't pay me money to live there. Because all I think about is, oh my God, if I need to go get a carton of milk, or if I need to go get something... Very practical way of thinking. I'm practical at the, at the core, at the core, core part of me is like, I can't think outside of being practical. I'm a Virgo. That's, I am very practical. But like

to me, it's like, if I can't walk to get a carton of milk, or if I can't walk to the coffee shop, I cannot do it. I will not do it. It's not just about fitness. It's like your lifestyle. 100%. Okay. That's it for me and you and everybody else. Guys, if there's anything else that we're missing, leave a comment. Did you like this episode? Did you hate this episode? Did we leave anything out about how to incorporate great ways to travel and yet still stay on your fitness path, right? Yeah. Let us know. Thanks as always, you guys, for listening. Bye-bye.