Earlier, I was traveling to Bali (more to follow), and being in airports and hotels made me realise how challenging it can be to travel healthily.
Many of you may be traveling quite a bit, be it for work or vacation. While you may have cultivated your top health habits, flying can be challenging for all of us. Plane rides can be intense on your physical health, moods, and sleep patterns.
Being in the air for an extended period of time can expose you to more free radical damage (i.e. aging), and dehydration. Did I mention that you might also get constipated?
This is why I’m rewriting this travel post to share my 9 travel tips that help you stay healthy on the road.
9 HEALTHY TRAVEL TIPS
#1: Take Digestive Enzymes Before Your Meals
Digestion is key to health. If you don’t have a good digestive system, you’ll have drag and accumulate toxins in your body. When you’re traveling, your digestive system may be disrupted due to dehydration, change in sleep patterns, and stress.
Because elimination is critical to detoxification and overall health, it’s ideal to take additional measures to promote regular elimination during travel.
Our digestive organs produce digestive enzymes, which break down food into forms that nourish your body. Digestive enzymes can help clean the toxic sludge in our system that, zap our energy, dull our complexion and lead to premature aging.
By taking digestive enzymes supplements, we can potentially replenish and preserve our enzymes. I highly recommend taking Rainbow Light Enzymes.
#2: Eat Fruit and Starchy Vegetables
When we’re traveling, we’re likely to be stressed. When our body is stressed, we are likely to crave sugar. Sugar, researchers found, can diminish physiological responses normally produced in the brain and body during stressful situations.
When we’re deprived of glucose, our body will become obsessed with getting it from a different source such as a sugary treat, white bread, or pasta. What your body is actually longing for is glucose from fruits and vegetables.
If you’re hungry and craving for sugar on the airplane, you’re likely to succumb to the temptation of the cookies and sugary treats they offer on the flight. And if you continuously grab for the wrong kind of sugar when you’re feeling stressed, you’re most likely glucose deficient in the brain and other vital organs.
It is important to realise that your body is desperately seeking out the natural sugar found in fresh fruits and starchy vegetables.
So fly prepared – order fruit before your flight, or bring fruit on the flight to snack on.
Ones that are easy to carry include avocados, banana, apples, and oranges. Or bring your tropical fruit 🙂
I also love dried fruit (without artificial sugars). They are easy to carry and great to munch on. My favorite brand is Made in Nature.
#3: Try To Incorporate Food with Glutathione
Flying exposes us to radiation, and creates oxidative damage that requires antioxidants to repair. Glutathione, the master antioxidant in the body, helps flush waste and toxins out of your system, including effects of radiation, pesticides and heavy metals.
When we fly, we are likely to have experienced sleep deficit the night before, are under excessive stress. And if you aren’t watching what you eat on the plane, you’d probably had foods with high amounts of additives and preservatives, caffeine, alcoholic drinks.
This means that amount of free radicals ingested or produced are already at higher than normal levels on the flight. Adding to this, we are also exposed to radiation while flying, so our body need glutathione.
You can find glutathione in asparagus, avocado, spinach, broccoli.
And certain foods and spices are known to contribute to glutathione production in the body. They are garlic, cauliflower, beets, cabbage, parsley.
#4: Hydrate
Drink plenty of water as the flight dehydrates you. Hydrate. A lot. Being on the plane dehydrates you given high altitude levels.
If you have access to freshly squeezed green juice on flight, all the better!
#5: Limit alcohol and smoking.
Alcohol and smoke dehydrate you when you’re traveling. If you really need to drink, pace your drinking .
#6: Limit caffeine.
As much as we all love our organic coffee, caffeine can disrupt our sleeping schedule make us more jet-lagged and dehydrate us. Unless you’re on a different time zone and are planning to stay up the whole day to fix your schedule (because you’d otherwise be sleeping in your hometown), limit caffeine intake.
#7: Eat Light Before the Flight
Try not to eat a heavy, protein/fat rich meal the night before, which can keep you feeling super heavy before going into the flight. This may lead to indigestion and more fatigue during your travels.
#8: Moisturize
Moisturise! Otherwise, your skin can get very dry in the air. Also, antioxidant serum can help you fight off free radical and keep you hydrated.
#9: Prepare in advance
Call your airline, hotel and/or travel agent ahead of time to see if you can choose a healthier meal on flight, and determine what options are available for restaurants nearby and kitchen appliances available during your stay.
#10: Work it out!
Before you fly: Since you’ll be sitting on the flight for a day or so, get in some big workouts before you fly. Maybe that means a heavy duty weight lifting session, or extra cardio. You may not have the time to workout overseas, so getting your groves on before you fly maybe a great idea to stay healthy.
If you can pack light equipment like workout resistance bands, they can help aid your workouts and keep you accountable for staying on track.
During your travels: Perhaps you can plan a trip out where you can do outdoor activities like surfing, kitesurfing, trekking. This way, you can spice up your workout routine in a new environment and enjoy what the new place has to offer!
And you can always download fitness apps or even use fitness wearables like Fitbit to track your progress.
