Lessons From Thailand: Lesson 1

The World University meet was my first international meet and despite all the advice I had been given, there was much that I just had to learn through experience. Over the next 7 days I am going to post the top 5 things I learned from the trip and what you could learn from my trip as well. I learned 5 pretty massively invaluable lessons that would benefit most of you should you have to travel to a meet regardless of location. So here goes:
Lesson 1: You Don’t Cut Weight On A Plane
In my head I had planned on the 22-hour trip from Atlanta to Chiang Mai to play a big part in shedding a couple extra kilos. I knew that I would not be eating the airplane food and that I would be drinking a lot of water along the way. What’s more, I brought some snacks that I knew would nourish me but put very little weight on me. Unfortunately, I clearly don’t know the science behind water retention and calorie loss while flying. I got on the plane at 72.2 and stepped on the scale in Thailand at 71.9kg almost 24 hours later. I had planned on being 70.9 or lower.n nThis was a major lesson for me to learn as it took some pretty significant work over the next two days to get my bodyweight under control and into the 69kg class. If you are traveling internationally or even across the country, plan on this problem. You just don’t know if you will lose weight while flying or if your body works likes mine. The weight didn’t come off of me the same as it did on land. So for you, get a little closer to fighting weight before you get on the flight, especially if it’s a day-long flight like ours was. Bring appropriate snacks but be sure to space them out over the course of the trip. (Basically don’t eat a whole package of jerky in one sitting.) If you are the type of lifter who is always super calculated with your weight cut, this is a factor to consider. And the longer the flight, the more it should be considered.