The challenge to stay healthy when you travel is real. It can be easy to make wrong choices for convenience, but with a little planning and determination, you can make right ones, stay healthy and omit the guilt trip at the end of your trip, whether traveling with family or for business.
Stay healthy when you travel
With what goes in your mouth:
- Eat healthy. Snack healthy. It is possible to make good food choices when you travel. Even if it means packing dried fruit, nuts, cheese sticks or the gluten free, non GMO KIND bars before you leave home. And for fellow gluten free-ers, be sure to check out this post for great gluten free restaurant suggestions.
- Take your vitamins. Don't take a vacation from your vitamins. With a different schedule and new experiences and foods, your body needs them more than ever. I love getting some of mine through NingXia Red, and they have 2 oz. personal serving packets especially for those travel days.
- Skip the carbonated beverages and drink purified water. I read somewhere that the amount of sugar in 1 liter of Coca-cola is enough to compromise your immune system for up to 5 hours! No wonder people get sick on planes! Sit down, have a coke, and breathe everyone else germs for the next hour and a half!
- Use a straw to avoid putting your mouth on the edge of the can/cup and any germs that might be there from storage and service.
- Wipe your utensils off on your napkin prior to eating. Don't assume that because it looks clean, it is. This is a small thing and can be done discretely, but it highly recommended.
- Brush your teeth in purified water.
With what goes on your body:
- Carry hand sanitizer and use it often. We love the Young Living Thieves Spray for it's affectiveness in killing germs.
- Wear a diffusing necklace or bracelet with Thieves oil in it. Click here to read our review of Diffusing Mamas diffusing jewelry.
- Wear closed shoes. The skin's pores are largest on your feet. Keep the dirt and germs at bay by wearing closed shoes.
- Keep a light sweater or jacket handy for air conditioned spaces or an unexpected change in weather.
- Use a natural ingredient sunscreen if you'll be exposed to sun often or for extended periods of time.
With a healthy environment:
- Use a USB diffuser in your car. You can purify the air and support your immune system by diffusing Thieves, Purification or other oils in your car. (If it's an older car you can plug a USB converter into the cigarette lighter.)
- Use a cleaning wipe to wipe down door handles, remotes, faucets and switches in your hotel room.
- Use a portable diffuser in your hotel room.
With a healthy mind and emotions:
- Get some physical exercise. Use the hotel gymn, pool, fitness center. Take the stairs. Take a walk. We suggest easy swivel wheel rolling carryons so you can walk the terminal and it's not any effort to pull the carryon. (The Samsonite spinner luggage is our favorite.) Exercise can do wonders for mental clarity, especially after long stints of sitting on planes, in cars, in meetings, etc.
- Exercise your mind. Don't veg with movies. Use the travel time to read, listen to podcasts or audio books etc. Use the extra time away from your routine to learn something new.
- Get enough rest. This is really important to stay healthy when you travel.
- Keep your routine – as much as possible. When your routine lapses it's easy for the body to become over-tired and affect your whole performance. If you always take a walk in the morning, if you always work out at night, if you always read your Bible before bed, if you always record that video or make that phone call on Tuesdays, try to do these things when you travel too.
- Bless someone else. There is the old saying, it's more blessed to give than to receive. The actual physical endorphin rush of laughter and pleasing others gives us pleasure. As you travel look for ways to bless another person. It's good for you.
Do you have other ways you stay healthy when you travel? I'd love to hear what you do. Leave me a comment!