THE SCAEE PROBLEM. 10 HEALTHY TIPS FOR CABIN CREW
By Raluca Uzunov, Personal Trainer & editing contributor
It seems that the weight issue is a subject of high importance among the cabin crew members and to their lifestyle. The scale and supersizing their bodies has an impact on their career, as it is proved that the lack of exercise or poor eating habits lead to a sedentary lifestyle between flights or during layovers. This change in your weight affects you physically, which leads to being obliged to request another uniform size. This can be a problem among some airlines, as they have uniforms only in few sizes available only. Lack of exercise can have a detrimental effect on your health, too. If you become an overweight cabin crew, it is most likely to get a notice that informs you with the period in which you have to be back in shape or to a suitable weight, according to the airline’s grooming standards or you can even be terminated. Some airlines calculate your weight by measuring your body mass index (BMI) in relation to your height. BMI over 25 is classified as overweight, if you attend a cabin crew interview and 30 as obese. However, recent airline announcements state that weight should be proportional to your height, which means that you do not have to be super skinny, but rather have a pleasant appearance.
Once you start flying, it is highly probable that you lose some kilograms in the first months, as it happened to some of my trainees, due to the pressure of flying sometimes only with very senior crew or working only in unwanted areas like the galley (the aircraft kitchen). However, so many flight attendants develop the bad habit of ordering take away food or even worse, fast food. This only helps you to pile on the pounds, if you are not going to exercise after the flight. Persons who can abstain themselves from eating fat food late in the evening or at night are to be admired, because this means they are conscious of the job they have and its implications. But besides this, it is always good to take care of your body generally speaking. Then it means that you are a conscious cabin crew!
In the Middle Eastern countries, the problem of being overweight has increased in general, along with the rise in income. Diets high in carbohydrates have been combined with diets higher in proportions of fats and sugar, due to the fact that cabin crew are sometimes flying so much (100-120 block hours per month) that they feel physically exhausted. This situation can happen especially when you arrive early morning from a 10 hour flight, then after a minimum rest of 11-12 hours in your accommodation you have to operate another short or even long haul flight at night. Being involved in such a demanding job, leisure time has also become less active for the cabin crew, as home entertainment or a mall culture (window shopping) has started being considered a better activity.
If exercising is not for you, then here are some healthy tips to help you enjoy eating while on duty:
- Having no time to prepare a healthy meal while at base, cabin crew make the mistake of pre-ordering fast-food or take away. Be careful that restaurant portion sizes are often larger than the ones served at home. So it is better to order two entrée dishes instead, which are smaller in size and can be taken on a plane or even better, have them before leaving your house for duty. With the “beat the bulge” concept in your mind, you should have smaller portion sizes five times a day and control the intake of fatty meals like burgers, fried food, pizza or pasta. Out of five meals, make sure two of them are just snack. It has been proven that any time a person feels hungry, s/he risks having larger portions of food. The body goes into the “starvation mode”, retains the fats as an energy source and this is how it leads to putting on weight. Rather than super-sizing your portion just because of an exhausting flight and gaining pounds in this way without realizing it, why not try super sizing the range of healthy food you eat. This is how one should think! Don’t forget that 1 pound of fat represents about 3,500 excess calories. So next time you have a coffee, instead of a latte grande (300 kcals) have a Flat White (130 kcals) and the croissant (330 kcals) with a vanilla biscotti (110 kcals). Replace the double burger (560 kcals) with a classic Caesar salad (100 kcals), the crispy chicken sandwich (670 kcals) with some potato wedges (240 kcals) or a Chicken salad (210 kcals), a beef pizza (340 kcals) with a tomato soup (120 kcals) and the pasta baked marinara (800 kcals) with grilled chicken wings or breast (150 kcals). Remember: don’t rush when you eat, enjoy your meal!
- Get a salad with you on plane in order to have a healthier meal, as cabin crew meals are high on calories. Use olive oil and lemon juice dressing or a spicy dressing; this will help you increase the metabolism and burn the fats.
- Bread and crackers are often served to the passengers, to keep snacking on cheese, butter and an appetizer before having a hot meal. I know the smell of the bread buns being heated in the oven is so tempting, however limit your intake to one piece only with the starter while having your crew meal. Just because it is there in the galley, this does not mean that you have to eat 2-3 pieces. Think you might even need it for a hungry passenger.
- When it comes to food that you can carry with you and give you enough energy for a flight, pack some boiled eggs, chicken, turkey or fish. You can add avocado, yoghurt with 0% fats mixed with banana and flaxseed. For dessert, try packing for the flight just a few pieces of dark chocolate, dried fruits or some fruits if you need something sweet to round off your crew menu, like slices of apple.
- During a short layover, if you are too tired to exercise or you just have a minimum rest at the hotel, include 10 minutes of intense training, such as: jumping jacks, mountain climb and mixing squats with jumps. This is an efficient training if you take only few short breaks. Also instead of ordering fries at the room-service, opt for a baked potato and a salad with a dash of oil or any other dressing.
- Avoid being on diet. Cabin crew are people always on the move, with little time on their hands to cook. So try to stay on a healthy dietary plan only when needed and pay more attention to the food quality and intake. Just remember that you do not have to finish the whole nuts pack today, for example or just have a smaller portion of your preferred food every now and then. You will always find that food around and it will not disappear.
- In order to be a fit cabin crew, take also some other positive measures. Getting sensible alcohol intake and stop smoking are often recommended. Before any duty reduce any stress situations if possible. Don’t forget to have a good sleep as during this process, we still burn the fats and the metabolism will work better for a healthier body.