All travel enthusiasts can tell you about the difficulties of staying healthy when you are on the road. The commuting, fatigue, and stress of figuring your way around a new environment all impact on your mental and physical health.
After a one-week trip to New York walking around the city, meeting new people and eating junk food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I came home exhausted and couldn’t do anything else but lay in bed. Epic. Downfall.
A couple of trips later, I’ve adopted more healthy habits to be at my best while I explore and not take a week to recover when I get back home.
Here are 6 healthy travel hacks:
Drink water
When you are out and about, it’s so easy to go an entire day without staying hydrated. You have a coffee and maybe a glass of water for breakfast, then you start strolling around the city for the day until dinner time.
My best advice would be to carry your reusable bottle with you. If you’re taking a plane, make sure it’s empty before security-checks, so you can go through without any issues.
Drinking water regularly can also prevent skin breakouts. If your trip involves meeting people, stay hydrated to look your best.
Healthy Snacks
Travelling will upset your meal routine because of the time-zone difference and new food items. It’s easy to go for the sugar-packed food when you’re tired. One of my guilty pleasures to stay awake used to be a warm cinnamon bun. Now, I’m trying to keep it for life-crisis situations.
Instead, I’m bringing my own snacks. I borrowed this hack from a professional poker player, Sara Varela. She travels around the world to attend poker tournaments and stays in shape by bringing healthy snacks, like unprocessed nut butter, raw trail mix, and dried fruits.
Smoothies
I am the kind of traveler that wants to see everything. I am usually out all day, visiting one monument after the other and rarely take a lunch break.
Instead of grabbing a sweet pastry with my coffee, I now stop by smoothie bar. They are the best healthy alternative to having a proper meal, plus you can enjoy them while exploring the city. To optimize the health benefits, I pick the option that contains both vegetables & fruits, like mango-coconut-kale or banana-berries-spinach.
Morning meditation
Health applies to the body and the mind.
Changing time-zones, your routine and surrounding environments can be challenging and you need to give your mind the time to follow through.
Once, I woke up completely disoriented, wondering where I was after I spend a whole month city-hopping – it was very disturbing.
Take ten minutes when you wake up to be present within yourself. If you are having a hard time trying to meditate, start with a guided meditation podcast. I like to listen to “Awakening the mind” by Alan Watts.
No equipment workout
If staying in shape matters to you, you can always add a workout after your morning meditation. Depending on where you stay, you could even have access to a gym.
But, if you want a cost-free option, you could simply turn on your laptop and watch an at-home workout on YouTube. It probably won’t be as effective as your usual gym routine but it will keep you in shape during your trip.
Honestly, with all the walking, you’ll do, don’t worry too much about the number of calories you will burn.
Sleep
The number of studies about how sleeping affects your mindset is countless.
You will be more eager to explore all the corners of a new city if you sleep enough. There’s no point in being irritable because you didn’t take a couple of extra-hours to properly rest. If you are very sensitive to jet-lag, bring sleeping pills or schedule nap times during your day.
I cannot stress enough how sleeping will impact your overall feeling about your trip. What’s the point of being grumpy because of sleep deprivation?
If you are someone who loves routine, traveling can be very challenging for you. Be kind to yourself and be mindful of your health. If you can, add an extra day on your trip to adjust and rest before starting to explore the city.
Happy healthy traveling!
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Thanks for the hacks