Plan Nutrition Not Just Meetings at Conventions

I recently went to a convention where all of our meetings and meals were in the same hotel that we stayed in for a week. With our tight schedule, there was no time to run out and look for restaurants. Even if we had the time we wouldn’t know where to go in an unfamiliar city especially coming from a hotel that was in a remote location.

At first, it seemed convenient that our meals and snacks were provided by the hotel each day. There were large amounts of food and it all looked delicious. But after a few days, I saw that there wasn’t much of a variety to the meal plan. Each meal was full of fried food, powered sugar, and pastries. Occasionally, salad, vegetable trays and fruit were available. There was always a supply of coffee, tea, soda and water.

In the beginning of the week, I filled my plate with what looked like a tasty meal. A few bites later, I learned the hotel wasn’t big on using seasoning; most of the food was bland and tasteless. Other processed foods such as egg rolls, pigs in a blanket, pretzels and funnel cake tasted good, like I expected, but made me feel guilty that my daily diet lacked nutritional value.

Here are some tips to help you plan nutrition not just meetings at conventions.

Select More Health Conscious Menus - When choosing the meal plans for a convention please realize that everyone doesn’t eat meat, doesn’t want fried food and doesn’t want sweets at every meal. Make sure tossed salad and raw fruit such as carrots, celery, cauliflower, and broccoli are part of each meal.

Pick Hotels in an Active Part of Town – It’s a matter of budgeting when selecting the host hotel for a convention. Often hotels away from downtown cost less, but try to cut costs in some other way. It’s important that your staff feels like they are a part of the city they’re visiting and that they have an opportunity to walk around to find the food they want.

Schedule More Free Time – I know it’s important to accomplish the work you came to the convention to do, but having meetings scheduled throughout the day, where people can just grab a plate in the hotel and rejoin a meeting can make employees feel rushed and overworked.

Drink More Water – Remind employees that drinking too much caffeine in coffee, soda, and tea and sugar in fruit juice makes them feel sluggish and bloated.

Take Smaller Portions – You might be surprised that the food doesn’t taste as good as it looks. Don’t fill your plate so you feel obligated to eat more or wasteful throwing it away.

Make Time to Walk – You may only need to ride the elevator from your hotel room to meeting rooms. But if there isn’t a fitness center in the hotel, find time to walk the halls or walk around the hotel to burn off unwanted calories.

Has this ever happened to you and how did you handle it?