What you choose to eat can calm, energize, irritate, or suck off your energy, all in the space of one day on the road, unless you give it more focus and thought. Being away from home, stuck in hotel rooms, on buses or planes, eating on the run, and wanting quick-fix ‘pick-me-ups’ can be a disastrous mix of situations that lead artists to make the wrong food choices.
The Nutrition side of the ‘Stage-Ready’ program focuses on balancing food intake throughout the day, giving musicians everything they need to maintain energy and concentration, reduce food cravings, and feel at their best, both on and off stage. It’s not about crash diets, complex food combining, or unmanageable eating plans. Even perfectly timed meals and snacks can be hard to administer in a world of delays, rescheduling, unexpected commitments, and ‘meet and greets’.
For artists employing their chef, or simply the services of a tour catering company, we can liaise and help devise suitable meal options, without treading on toes or muscling in on their own proposed strategies. We’re here to help, not take control. We also plan artists’ nutritional needs to include essential stock in their dressing rooms, on planes and buses, as well as advising on hotel eating – in their rooms or restaurants. Wherever an artist goes, healthy energy-boosting food is guaranteed to follow.
Touring for any length of time is tiring
It involves late nights, delays, constant travel, and, more often than not, changes in the time zone. Keeping on top of health, and ensuring a consistently good level of energy, is paramount to getting through days, weeks, or even months away from home and a routine. Adding a well-being plan to the mix of regular fitness and healthy eating ensures that artists are advised on how to improve their sleep patterns, reduce touring stress, and maintain a positive frame of mind while being away from family and friends for prolonged periods.
Our well-being consulting addresses recovery from exercise and stage performance, through sports massage treatment that deals with the regular aches and pains caused by repetitive stage activity. We provide such treatment at hotels, venues, and even during showtime, in case the need arises for quick seated treatment during changeovers or before final encores.
We also find that getting artists ‘up and about’, out of their hotel rooms while on tour, is a great way to refresh the mind and reduce the boredom of downtime, which would otherwise be spent watching TV or staring at four walls. We also enjoy researching the current tour location, and looking for fun and unique activities for artists to try, because sometimes a change of scene is all that’s needed to recharge the touring batteries.