Lose Weight With a Job Requiring Travel?

Recently I was asked this question:

"You did paleo and lost a lot of weight, right? Would you care to share your meal plan with me and how you did it while traveling?"

Excellent question on several levels!
1. Yes, if you want to lose weight in a healthy manner geared for the long term, paleo is the only way to do it. Calorie restriction is not healthy and is not a long-term solution.
2. Yes! You can lose weight and eat paleo even while traveling. Restaurants actually make it "easy" if you know what you are shopping for!
3. Meal plan is easy: MEAT!

Here is a picture guide to tell you what is paleo and what is not:

Caveats:
Grey area food - dairy:  no milk; but heavy (whipping) cream, certain cheeses, and butter are OK in moderation if you can tolerate them.
Grey area food - fruit: if I am trying to lose weight, I would not eat anything sugary. Fruit would be out, with the exception of an occasional cheat day (less than two or three servings per month).
Cheat days: the more you have, the longer it will take to lose weight. Once per week is a maximum number of cheat days I'd allow myself if I wanted to lose weight. Keep cheat portions to a minimum. Keep it all on the same day.



MEAL PLAN:
Meat and green-leafy vegetables. 
Preferably a fatty meat. And plenty of it!

Acceptable "substitutes" for true green-leafy vegetables:
Broccoli, green beans, asparagus, cauliflower, lettuce, cabbage, brussels sprouts, etc.
Acceptable substitute for meat: eggs.

It is extremely difficult to eat enough fatty meat and green-leafy vegetables to make your body fat. 


MEAL PORTIONS and TIMING:
Eat until you are full.
Do not eat again until you are hungry. No... check that... until 3 hours after you are hungry.
Eat all calories in a given day within an 8-hour window. (This is a minimum "must")
Try to shrink that window to a 4-hour window. ("Warrior Diet")


FASTING
Fast intermittently - fast for 24-36 hours (ie - eat supper Thursday evening, then don't eat again until Saturday morning).
Do an intermittent fast once or twice a month. Not too much. Not too far apart, either.


WATER
Drink plenty of water.
WebMD suggests a minimum of 1/2 oz of water per day for every pound.
So a 200-pound person needs to drink at least 100 ounces of water every day.

"GOWAD" seems to work well for me. ("Gallon Of Water A Day")


SUPPLEMENTS
Research each supplement and consult your doctor before adding supplements. Do more research than consulting. 
Salt (will be needed in moderation as I drink lots of water)
Magnesium. I take 1200 mg per day. Magnesium deficiency.
Vitamin D. I take 25,000 units per day.
Fish oil. I take 3000 mg per day.
Zinc. I take 150 mg per day.


TRAVEL CONSIDERATIONS
If you must entertain a client, and there is a meal involved, and that meal does not fall within the 8-hour or 4-hour window, my suggestion is a greens salad with oil & vinegar as the dressing.
Of course, avoid breaded meats and such in restaurants.
Be careful on salad dressings - they often have hidden sugar. I'll ask for an order of broccoli to replace a salad.
Be careful of butters that have hidden sugars.


CAN IT BE DONE?
Yes. I did it ... just like I described here.
Starting weight / peak weight: 323
Weight at time of writing this: 212.

Starting pant size: 44        shirt size: XXL
Current pant: 36                current shirt: L



IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE / SUMMARY:
Meat & green-leafy vegetables.
All you want.
One (or maybe two) meal(s) a day.
Plenty of water.






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