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Traveling? Get Outside

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I’m on the road right now for World Series pre- and post-game coverage with my FOX team. Travel can present unique challenges to our well-being, so I work harder to stay on point when I’m away from home.

How often do you travel for business and find yourself eating meals in your room or the hotel restaurant? Perhaps you wake up, hit the fitness center, hop in the shower and head to your meetings. Those might be in the lobby or the convention center. You could easily spend the entire day inside the walls and windows of the building and never feel what the town has to offer. Do this frequently enough and you’re missing opportunities to experience a richer life.

Finding a restaurant on the road and walking there from your hotel is the ideal way to explore the culture of the city, get some exercise and simply be outside. From Harvard Health:

Light tends to elevate people’s mood, and there’s usually more light available outside than in. Physical activity has been shown to help people relax and cheer up, so if being outside replaces inactive pursuits with active ones, it might also mean more smiles.

I’m sitting and typing at Room 39, a Kansas City café, roughly a 30 minute walk from our hotel. I’m crushing a summer frittata that I most certainly could not get in the hotel restaurant. Its eggs come from local Missouri farms. The feta cheese provides a rich, salty, creaminess in every other bite, while the winter squash balances the dish with its mild, dense, sweet flesh. The dish included local greens and wild mushrooms. I left pleased I had ventured out into the streets to explore.

Now, I’ll find a gym and train, then walk a bit more to finish out my morning. When I arrive back at the hotel and begin my workday, I’ll be satisfied and perhaps even more focused. From psychcentral.com:

Even if you don’t have hours to spend outside, taking 15 minutes to step outside and take a few deep breaths can greatly help clear your mind and relax your body. Being in the sunshine, even if only for a few minutes, helps the body absorb vitamin D from the sun, which is known to help improve the mind.

We can’t always find sun, but we should be able to find our way outdoors and have a healthier, richer life experience.

Think you can beat Room 39 for breakfast? I’m open to suggestions.

Kap

  • https://www.facebook.com/matt.dorsey.35 Matt Dorsey

    The prices outside the hotel are another reason to “get out.”

    • http://www.Kelebekfusion.com kbeyazdancer

      Agreed Matt!

  • Chris

    No Breakfast, but The Farmhouse on Delaware St. looks like a good take.

  • http://gravatar.com/knmehler knmehler

    corner restaurant in westport

  • darby wright

    Great post.recharge the mind when in fresh air

  • https://twitter.com/athleticone01 MIchelle

    I hear Room 38 isn’t bad

  • http://theoneinbetween.blogspot.com/ Kelly

    Room 39 is great! You could have gone to the University right next door to use the gym. There’s also a Gold’s in Westport (same area), and a gym called Woodside just down the road - I’m sure you had no trouble finding anything. Other places that do local food: Westside Local (think they are anyway), Novel (more spendy though), Bluebird Bistro, Reiger Hotel… actually quite a bit throughout the city! I hope you find some more! As for breakfasts, I’m a fan of First Watch… but it’s more of a chain I guess.

  • http://www.Kelebekfusion.com kbeyazdancer

    I also travel alot for business and I get cranky if I’ve been in meetings or workshops all day long and only see the sky through my curtains. I try to look up local places within walking distance in advance so that when I get to my destination, I can do things outside of my hotel. I prefer to walk or carpool as I really don’t like driving more than I already have to (thanks to my lovely daily commute).
    That picture above is gorgeous by the way!
    -Kelebek

  • Matt

    I second The Farmhouse, if you’re looking for lunch (brunch/breakfast only on the weekends & you’ll be in SF by then), but it’s North of downtown in the River Market, and would be quite the walk from where you are. It’s one of my favorite joints in KC & everything’s local farm-to-table.

  • Hollie Hamilton

    I’m working on a novel and today I just sat outside and wrote, it was wonderful.

  • Gloria

    When you hit SF make sure to take a run over to Just For You Cafe just south of AT&T ballpark for your early morning breakfast and then hit up the Ferry Building to sample some of the areas best locally grown/made food.

  • Bruce

    Could have removed the traveling part of the title altogether. This applies to every day and it’s something I struggle with daily as well. Keep telling myself I’ll jump outside of the office for a 15 minute break, or a nice walk at lunch… and the next thing you know the whole day has gone by and I haven’t left my desk once because I’ve told myself certain projects or issues were just more important. And we really know that’s never the case. Then I leave work with aching shoulders and back and a mound of self-created stress that doesn’t have to be there.

    Thanks for the reminder as always, Kap.