Week starting 02.02.2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Wellness by Michael Tomasini \u2014 Executive Field Notes)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week started with candles and cake, then ended with airport delays, a right-hand-drive rental car, and a night view over Dublin from a hotel room that felt like a quiet exhale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there was a single theme running underneath everything, it was this: reliability beats perfection. I kept choosing the plan with the lowest failure probability\u2014whether that meant bringing a keto \u201cescape hatch\u201d to a dessert-heavy birthday, skipping a risky city run in Istanbul because Friday traffic could have cost me my flight, or accepting an airline delay because they took the time to replace a faulty navigation component instead of gambling with safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Monday \u2014 Birthday energy, dessert culture, and a changing palate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Monday was my second son\u2019s birthday. He turned 14, and we had a full house: in-laws and extended family who had arrived over the weekend to go skiing. During the day, life ran in parallel tracks: I worked from the home office, my wife went to work, and the boys were at school. Meanwhile the kitchen turned into a bakery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It hit me again how normal sugar is in our culture\u2014not just present, but celebrated. Multiple desserts appeared: chocolate muffins, cinnamon rolls, cheesecake, and the kind of powdered-sugar-on-top-of-sugar situation that used to feel standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The saving grace\u2014and honestly the more interesting story\u2014was that we had options. My wife made a keto version of a pecan pie for the birthday, and we also had a big plate of fruit and nuts. The classic desserts were still there, but something had shifted in me (and even more in her): after months of greatly reducing sugar, the \u201cnormal\u201d desserts tasted overly sweet. Not \u201ca little rich\u201d\u2026 too sweet. That\u2019s one of those small moments that quietly confirms you\u2019re rewiring your baseline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few days earlier, on Saturday (January 30), we had done a different kind of sweet experiment as a family. The boys wanted to make chocolate from raw ingredients, but we couldn\u2019t find cocoa butter anywhere. So we pivoted: confectioner\u2019s chocolate and a pile of \u201cwhat if we try this?\u201d ingredients. They melted and poured chocolate over nuts, marzipan, homemade cookies, and whatever else seemed like a good idea. It was chaotic in the best way\u2014family bonding disguised as kitchen science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monday evening, one guest started feeling ill and needed recovery the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tuesday \u2014 Snowy roads and fasted Zone 2 as a pressure valve<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tuesday, the in-laws went up to Oberwiesenthal \/ Fichtelberg for mountain time. I used the window for what has become a reliable anchor: a fasted Zone 2 lunch-hour run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When they returned, they reported the roads were extremely slippery and that they narrowly avoided an accident. That detail matters. It wasn\u2019t theoretical winter\u2014it was \u201cthis could have gone sideways\u201d winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wednesday \u2014 Shoveling, delays, and Istanbul<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wednesday was the transition: shovel the driveway, weave past parked cars, and head to Leipzig airport for a business trip to Istanbul. Weather caused a delay from Leipzig to Frankfurt. I made the connection\u2014but only just. One of those \u201cI\u2019m technically calm, but my nervous system disagrees\u201d travel moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That night in Istanbul, I had a grill platter\u2014simple, hearty, and very \u201ctravel body wants calories\u201d energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday \u2014 Client meetings, portion control, and hill intervals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday was full work mode: client meetings, and a lunch that was too big. Instead of letting that turn into a full-day food spiral, I did something that sounds boring but is actually elite travel behavior: I saved part of lunch for later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meals stayed protein-forward and practical:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And despite being in a new city with a packed schedule, training still happened. I ran hill intervals nearby and captured a Strava flyover\u2014one of those \u201cI was here, and I still did the thing\u201d receipts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friday \u2014 The disappointing finish (and the hidden win)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Friday was a disappointing end to my first Istanbul trip\u2014not because Istanbul failed, but because the schedule did. I was blocked from visiting the city by dedication to work: I needed to get out an offer for a client and finish my meeting presentation for Monday in Ireland. With Istanbul traffic on a Friday afternoon, a city run felt like gambling with my flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I chose the low-risk plan: a bit of souvenir shopping for the family, then the airport. That produced a funny side effect: too much time and thousands of steps walking the terminals. Istanbul\u2019s airport is huge, with multiple security layers. It\u2019s the kind of place where \u201cI\u2019ll just pop in\u201d becomes a fantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The return to Germany was the same story in reverse, but weirder:<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that last security check, they were very concerned with my selfie stick\u2014treated like a potential weapon. Bundespolizei inspected it, photographed it, and documented my passport and ID card. Then, as if reality wanted to turn surreal, the security staff became interested in my TikTok account. Bizarre is the correct word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frankfurt to Leipzig was also delayed\u2014this time due to a failure in the flight computer responsible for navigation. Here\u2019s where the week accidentally gave me a perfect analogy: a critical piece of equipment failed, and Lufthansa took the time to replace the faulty part rather than send us on our way with something questionable. The flight was delayed, but we got to Leipzig safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That decision mirrored my own pattern all week: choose reliability over speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People were sprinting to catch train connections. I had my own small deadline: my parking spot was only paid until midnight. We landed just before 23:30, and I got to my car with enough time to exit before the parking would have expired. I arrived home shortly before 01:00 on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And home was still \u201cbirthday alive\u201d: my eldest son was out at a friend\u2019s house, and my youngest was still awake playing video games with friends as part of his birthday celebration. After airports and security lines, it was oddly comforting to step into normal teenage chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saturday \u2014 Pancakes, trip-chaining, a safer hobby room, and recovery rituals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Saturday morning we had breakfast together: my wife, my son, and three of his friends. Classic Tomasini pancakes. The kind of meal that isn\u2019t \u201coptimal,\u201d but is absolutely family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then I went into housekeeping mode: glass recycling, filling the car (the gas station had mysteriously been closed the night before), and because we\u2019ve had a lot of slippery snow this year, I combined the loop with picking up salt and sand from the home improvement store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was trip-chaining. It\u2019s not glamorous, but it reduces friction\u2014future problems pay interest if you ignore them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saturday also included a quiet proof moment: my wife proudly showed me her glucose and ketone readings from her Keto-Mojo reader. She\u2019s been tracking and adjusting her feeding behavior accordingly\u2014real feedback-guided change, not vibes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the afternoon, my youngest son and I cleaned up the hobby\/tool room in the basement. I\u2019d been putting it off because of higher priorities, but he\u2019s deeply interested in electronics\u2014and his birthday gift was a new soldering station. Cleaning the space was about more than organization; it was about giving him a safe, functional setup. We reorganized, cleaned sawdust and leftovers from older projects, and reset the room for the next season of building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dinner was udon noodles and chicken\u2014then a recovery ritual that actually happened: we set up the massage table, I gave my wife a massage for her long week, and she returned the favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunday \u2014 05:30 lifting, firelight, and Ireland travel begins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunday morning I got up around 05:30 for a weightlifting session. Then I started a fire in the fireplace, cleared the dishwasher, said goodbye, and drove to Leipzig airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Security was easy. They didn\u2019t even notice my selfie stick\u2014the same object that triggered concern and police documentation in Frankfurt days earlier. A good reminder: travel friction is often random.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The flights Leipzig \u2192 Frankfurt and Frankfurt \u2192 Munich were smooth. I broke my fast intentionally: Unicity Balance first, then meatballs and Parmesan cheese. I also used the travel time to look for birthday presents for my wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Munich \u2192 Dublin started with a 20-minute delay due to a drone sighting near the airport. The total delay ended up being almost an hour, but I made it to Ireland fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A colleague didn\u2019t. He neglected the fact that he needed a visa to enter Ireland and was denied boarding\u2014so he\u2019ll join Monday via MS Teams. The lesson is brutal and simple: the biggest travel failures aren\u2019t always fitness or discipline\u2014they\u2019re admin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I picked up the rental car and it was blocked in by another vehicle, which gave me an unexpected gift: a moment to get oriented. Right-hand drive and stick shift\u2014new inputs\u2014but I made it to the hotel in downtown Dublin without issue. The hotel was a little hard to find, but I found it and got lucky with a parking spot on the street nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After checking in, I had a chat with my family, then headed out for a protein-forward beef-based dinner in the old town. I finished the night with a walk to explore Dublin\u2019s nightlife before heading back to the hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And from the hotel room: the city lit up under a dark sky\u2014church spire cutting the horizon\u2014quiet enough to feel like the week finally gave me a pause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What this week taught me (without the motivational poster energy)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n FAQ<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you stay healthy during business travel?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I use a simple system: fasted training windows when possible, protein-first meals, and \u201cbuffers\u201d (time margins) to avoid rushed decisions that create stress and bad food choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What should you eat at a hotel breakfast buffet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I build one plate around protein and satisfaction: cheese, eggs or fish, olives, olive oil, and vegetables when available\u2014then stop. It prevents the sugar crash and constant snacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you train when traveling for work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I aim for one anchor session (weights or intervals) and one easy aerobic session (Zone 2). Short sessions that happen beat perfect plans that don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Want my travel routine in one page?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Download the Keto Week-1 Travel Checklist (Busy-professional version) on the website and keep it on your phone for your next trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A week that started with a family birthday and ended in Dublin nightlife. Between Istanbul airports, delays, and security checks, I leaned on a simple system: fasted training windows, protein-first meals, and buffers that protect outcomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[86,139,76,1,45],"tags":[90,87,39,118,102,70,141,59,44,69,119,64,106,37,140],"class_list":["post-5471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-executive-field-notes","category-family","category-performance-on-the-road","category-travel","tag-airport-routine","tag-business-travel","tag-consistency","tag-family-time","tag-fasted-workouts","tag-fasting-routine","tag-interval-training","tag-mindset","tag-recovery","tag-resistance-training","tag-routine","tag-travel-fitness","tag-travel-rhythm","tag-travel-wellness","tag-zone-2"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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What used to be \u201cnormal sweet\u201d can become too sweet. That\u2019s not deprivation\u2014it\u2019s recalibration.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Skipping the Istanbul city run wasn\u2019t failure; it was risk management. Same with an airline replacing a critical navigation component instead of \u201choping it\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Trip-chaining errands, protein-first meals, fasted training windows, a 05:30 lift, and a simple recovery ritual at home\u2014none of it is flashy. All of it works.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n