Business Travelers Alert: Exercise Your Right to Stay Fit!

The job description: "frequent travel required. Exceptional benefits and bonuses." Sounds great, doesn't it?

"Business travel" is such a glamorous term. We envision a generous expense account for every meal; free hotel stays, complete with chocolate mints on your pillow; prepaid airline flights.

The downside: all those cheese tidbits and martinis at the must-schmooze-with-clients cocktail hours, followed by the five-course dinner topped off by can't-miss-chocolate-parfaits, add up to an expanding waistline. And the endless hours of sitting through flights, meetings, and more meetings don't exactly help your, ahem, bottom line.

The good news: making time for exercise - even when you're a frequent business traveler - is not an impossible dream.

Here are some tips for getting your "daily dose" of exercise:

• Pack your tennis shoes with your carry-on luggage. Once you get to the hotel, ask for directions to a nearby mall. Walking around inside a mall at a brisk pace is a no-excuses opportunity to exercise regardless of the time or weather. • Traveling with a colleague with whom you need to meet? Invite him or her on a "walk and talk" meeting rather than to lunch. • If you can, choose a hotel with an onsite gym - an increasing number of hotels are luring guests with gyms and exercise facilities that include everything from yoga classes to Pilates machines. • Ask if your room will include a VCR or DVD player. Then pack up a selection of fitness videos or DVDs, and exercise in the comfort of your room.