FitCrewLife.com founder Lelanie Nabal balances many items on her plate – she is a flight attendant, fitness professional, and Adidas ambassador.
While she has such a busy lifestyle, she still manages to stay grounded, healthy, and fit. Fit Crew Life is an online resource that provides health and lifestyle advice for frequent travellers.
Here, she tells Rachel Omolewu the mission behind Fit Crew Life, aspirations, and secrets to living the fit lifestyle.
Get motivated, learn creative ways to stay fit and healthy while travelling and pretty soon, you too can be cruising into fitness.
Q: What is your background? Did you play sports growing up? How did you get into fitness and weight training?
A: Since I was six-years-old, I’ve participated in athletics. Being active has always been a part of my life. I started weight training when I became a flight attendant, because the job is so tough. There is a lot of overhead reaching and lifting, and sometimes you need to move quickly.
If you’re not careful, you can injure yourself. So that’s why I started training to build my strength. It helps me a lot on the job. You need to have extra strength if you want to do your job fast and efficiently.
I’m a big advocate for kettle bell training. It helps with my core and grip strength. I’d like to encourage more crew members to do kettle bell training; it focuses on all the muscle groups we use for work.
Q: What inspired you to start fitcrewlife. com? How can frequent travellers benefit from your site?
I started it to help crew members eat healthy and stay fit while travelling. It is especially geared for new crew members and people who fly often. It is a resource. I plan to have more crew contribute to the site. A lot of them do not know where they can buy certain healthy foods [when they land] or where to exercise. I want to tell people you can actually train in your hotel room or workout in the plane.
I want to get into their minds that you don’t actually have to get to a gym to stay fit while travelling. When I travel, I always look out for healthy restaurants.
For example, if crew travel to New York, they can visit the site to learn where they can eat. I also post videos of various workouts they can do in their room.
Q: Do you follow a special diet?
A: I don’t have a specific diet that I stick to; but I always try to make sure I eat healthy in general. I try to eat every two to three hours to keep my metabolism going. I always eat breakfast before I go in to work; it is important for me.
It doesn’t matter if it’s at 2:00am in the morning when I wake up; I make sure I eat something. Most of the time my breakfast is oat-meal and fruit, such as blue-berries.
At work, I usually don’t eat the airplane meals; I’ll pack my own lunchbox or cooler.
Q: What are some of the foods in your lunchbox?
A: I have vegan protein shakes. I always have nuts, like almonds, just for emergencies. Sometimes I get really busy and I don’t have time to eat; so I’ll make a quick protein shake by mixing the powder with water.
When I travel as a passenger, it is the same. I always take my own food and snacks with me; and I use a food diary.
Q: Why is a food diary important?
I’ve found that when people are travelling, they tend to eat more foods than they normally would, especially when they go through different time zones. For example, if you take a flight to New York, you may eat lunch before you go to the airport.
Then on the plane, you’re served lunch and dinner plus snacks. When you land, it’s lunch time so you tend to eat again. This can lead to overeating. A food diary helps you track your meals, especially for new crew members.
I always write down the time I ate. It helps to prevent you from eating too many meals and also to ensure you’re eating the right amounts of quality foods while travelling.
Q: You mentioned working out in your hotel room. What are some of these workouts you do?
A: I do functional, bodyweight workouts. I always travel with a timer and skipping rope. A skipping rope is good for a nice warm-up. I do Tabata-style workouts. Twenty minutes of this 3-4 times a week can really help keep you in shape.
Also, I will work the core and take two chairs together and do L-sits. A strong core is really important for crew members because of the lifting we do. I really emphasise this for crew members to strengthen their core; it helps prevent back pain. Sometimes I will go outside for a run.
Q: Do you ever workout on the plane?
A: Yes, I do. I may do a static squat against the wall. I’ll hold for 1 minute, rest and then repeat. Or sometimes I’ll go to the bathroom and do 50 power squats.
Q: Power squats?
A: Yes, I put the seat down and squat until my bottom touches the seat, then stand back up.
Q: It is similar to box squats?
A: Yes. If one does 50 squats every hour on an overnight flight, that’s a full leg workout!
Q: You’ve got really creative with your training in flight. It seems to be working well for you, you have lots of energy.
A: Yes, it is possible to stay fit while travelling. I’ve also found exercise helps beat jetlag. The best way for me to recover from a long trip, like to Australia or to the States, is to get in a quick workout once I land. It really helps.
Q: You really have a passion for fitness. What are your future aspirations?
A: I enjoy kettle bell training and would like to compete in competitions. With Fit Crew Life, I’d like to get more crew involved and contribute to the site. There are a lot of us that maintain our fitness while travelling. We can share that knowledge with other travellers.
For example, what we do during layovers, our tips while travelling, etc. I want to create a fitness community that will motivate and inspire travellers to be fit.
Q: Any final tips for travellers?
A: Exercise helps to beat jetlag, and can give you energy. Don’t forget to pack your gym clothes. And, if you really want to make sure you don’t miss a workout while travelling, pack nothing but gym clothes.
You can sign up for Lelanie’s fitness newsletter on www.fitcrewlife.com or like the Facebook page (Facebook.com/fitcrewlife) to stay current on Lelanie’s travel and fitness updates!
