Healthy Meals for Professors-on-the-Go (4/5) - Academic Travel and Cooking in Your Hotel Room/Eating Between Conference Sessions

Readers,

Every year, I present sessions for at least five to six local, regional, and national conferences. Fortunately, our university offers a slight amount of funding for academic travel, but the other sources of funding have to be either funded by external grants or our personal funds. During my first year out of graduate school, my family had to drastically reduce our personal household budget to accommodate my conference travel. As a result, I have had to adopt a very frugal lifestyle when it comes to attending academic conferences. However, this year I have to focus on living a frugal, yet healthy lifestyle when attending my conferences.

Usually, I travel with the following items:

- At least five pieces of fruit and veggies (bell pepper, avocado, bananas, grapes, etc.)

- A plastic bag filled with Planters Nut-rition goodies!
- A plastic bag filled with five or more Honey Ginseng Green Tea packets from the Republic of Tea.

- Instant soup and oatmeal packets.

- An empty reusable bottle.

- Kashi Granola Bars

- My hubby's Texas A&M Coffee Mug (great for instant soup and oatmeal)

This instant breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner kit helps me survive the long conference days and the equally long grading sessions at night for my online classes. It is very interesting how some professors stop communicating with their students and grading papers when attending academic conferences. I set boundaries with e-mail response times and I might have to alter my virtual office hours, but I never stop communicating with students (even when my schedule becomes quite hectic).

Recently, I started exploring additional ways to become more productive in my hotel room while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Here are some great (yet extreme) videos focused on how to cook in a hotel room. Some of these might be great for you! :)

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

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