Any career where you spend most of the day sitting can feel counterintuitive to a healthy lifestyle. This is as true for truckers as it is for 9-to-5 office jobs. Just because you spend the majority of your day sitting behind the wheel of a truck doesn’t mean you can’t still be a healthy trucker.
When you’re a professional truck driver, you have a lot of miles to cover and a specific length of time within which you have to cover them. This can mean long days, but just because a day is long doesn’t mean you won’t have time to take care of yourself. Like Small Business says, OTR “Drivers may be on duty for up to 14 hours following 10 hours off duty, but they are limited to 11 hours of driving time.”
However, those ten hours of off-duty time have to include a full night’s sleep. This is true for local drivers as well. Even though they may not have as many miles to cover, they still spend most of the day behind the wheel and will benefit from some self-care routines. With these three healthy trucker lifestyle choices, you can strike a pitch-perfect balance between productivity, rest, exercise, and a balanced trucker food list.
1) A Well-Rounded Trucker Food List
Eating on the road is never easy. You’re often stuck with whatever restaurants are just off the highway or whatever offerings the nearest truck stop has. While there’s plenty of healthier options for eating on the road, eating out is never cheap and can place an unnecessary toll on the driver’s wallet.
There’s nothing wrong with eating out—it’s often a great way to experience the best of the local cuisine, after all—but it shouldn’t be the only option when it comes to available food for truckers. If you’re trying to find better, more nutritious meals to keep you going, then why not make them yourself?
Not only is cooking a productive and enjoyable pastime but thanks to the wealth of portable cooking appliances available to truckers, it’s easier than ever to prepare meals on-the-go. To help you build a better trucker food list for yourself, consider investing in some of the truck driver cooking equipment All Trucking outlines:
- Portable Stoves
- Microwave
- Freezer/Refrigerator
- Blender
- Electric Skillets
- Crockpot
“By cooking your own food on the road, you can control the ingredients that go into your meals,” Roadmaster.com says. Putting together your own meals entails an ever-rotating menu that’ll help you “cut down on salt, fat and other unhealthy additives.”
2) Truck Driver Exercises
Perhaps the most important part of being a healthy trucker is staying active. Staying active is easier said than done, though, especially when you spend most of the day behind the wheel of a truck. But thanks to recent initiatives like “truck stop gyms and in-cab workout systems,” staying active while on the road is easier than ever.
For example, Justin Boschee—a truck driver interviewed by Men’s Health in 2014—has learned to embrace a spontaneous approach to exercise while on the road. With an understandably limited amount of free time, Boshee makes sure to get a quick workout in whenever he’s not driving. And since he keeps a handful of fitness gear with him, he’s ready to go at a moment’s notice.
“‘The unpredictability of my job is an advantage,’” he says. “‘It keeps things fresh.’”
3) Embrace the Healthy Trucker Lifestyle
Living the lifestyle of a healthy trucker doesn’t have to be a challenge. With trucking companies doubling-down on trucker health and wellness, and new technologies improve the comfort of the trucks themselves, drivers have more resources to live healthier lives than ever.
If you want to learn more about the truck driving life and hear how Lily Transportation emphasizes the health and wellness of its drivers, then get in touch \with us today!
