4 Ways to Stay Healthy While Traveling
Anyone who travels frequently knows that it can be stressful on your body and overall health. But there are a lot of ways to combat any negative health effects of offset sleep schedules, dehydrating airplane cabins, and unhealthy food. If you make it a priority to make sure you get the things your body needs, you’ll maintain your energy for lots of fun adventures as you enjoy your airline job. There are lots of products and suggestions to give you ideas and make it easier on you. You do not have to spend tons of money to accomplish good health. Keep it simple, be creative, work with what you have, and make it fun.
Sleep
Depending on your travels, your sleep schedule might get out of whack. You could have flights at all kinds of times, in all kinds of time zones. Make sure you get plenty of rest when you can. Sometimes, it’s possible to take a nap on a long flight (obviously not while on the clock!). An eye mask and a good travel pillow will make the sleep that you do get, much higher quality.
- This eye mask has built in contour so it won’t ruin your eye makeup.
- There are a lot of options for travel pillows, you’ll have to try a few and see which works best for you. Here are some suggestions.
Move Your Body
- Choose activities in your destination city that keep you active like surfing, hiking, climbing, kayaking, or walking instead of getting a ride.
- Ask a local for a safe place to jog or a cool studio for a fitness class. This is especially fun when you’re in another country. You’ll learn a lot about cultural fitness.
- Hotel gym or hotel room workouts. You can download a variety of apps for workout routines that you’ll enjoy. You can bring resistance bands, which are lightweight and small so they are easy to pack and get a great workout anywhere.
Hydrate Your Body
High altitudes make the airplane air much dryer than at sea level, this will dehydrate you and leave you feeling sluggish. Make sure you hydrate and replenish.
- Pack a water bottle and use it a lot.
- Electrolytes like Cure, Pedialyte, Ulitma, Nuun, or a variety of other brands can help you stay hydrated.
- Avoid alcohol. I know this might be a tough one, but this habit will dehydrate your body even more. If you do partake, make sure to replenish with water and electrolytes.
Fuel Your Body
Try this very simple rule for eating. Focus on What You’re Putting Into Your Body, Not What You’re Keeping Out. Your goal is to nourish your body so it can take care of you while you’re traveling the world.
Healthy Snacks
You never know when you’ll get stuck somewhere. You do not want to be left to pay for expensive and unhealthy airport food. So here are some ideas for healthy options that will keep you satisfied until your next meal.
- carrots and hummus, oatmeal, yogurt, granola, bananas, peanut butter, protein bars/drinks, fruit (be careful for international trips going through customs and immigration), pickles, olives, apple sauce, nuts, cheese
- Anything you can add hot water to, such as to-go mashed potatoes, oatmeal, rice or soup.
- To-go proteins like tuna, chicken, or beans.
- Here are some ideas for healthier hotel breakfasts
Food Containers
There are a lot of options for food containers. Glass, plastic, silicone, stainless steel, portioned, sizes, etc. Here are basic ideas for food containers; get what suits your needs.
- Rubber Maid – Large Leakproof kit for your cooler
- Collapsible containers like these. Or even a collapsible dog bowl for large salads which you can sometimes find at the dollar store.
- Leak proof squeeze bottles for dressings, condiments or creamers like these OXO containers will also be a good addition to your healthy eating kit.
- Sometimes disposable containers and Ziplocks are great options too, if you won’t have time or location to rinse/wash your dishes.
Cooler Bags
Mojecto Large Cooler Bag – This seems to hold a lot of food for a decent price. The reviews talk a lot about the zipper having issues after a few months, so make sure to be gentle when zipping things up so it lasts longer.
If you’re really serious about meal prepping, ISO bags like this one can be really helpful, since it holds so much for long trips. This comes with ice pack and containers
Or check out these other companies bags fit packer or ebags.
Ice Packs
- Reusable Ice Bags – You can use these to refill with ice from hotels to keep your food cool. Or you can double up on Ziplock bags and fill with ice. Just be careful that they don’t leak.
- Thermos makes reusable bubble mats, you can put into your hotel freezer. Or these Kona Ice Packs that freeze in 25 minutes. They are solid though and can’t be formed to fit into any space like the bubble mats. So just keep that in mind when you’re figuring out what you’ll need.
Reheating bags
- Hot Logic Mini – takes 60-90 minutes to heat your food. It automatically adjusts and keeps your food warm for whenever you’re ready. You just need an outlet to plug in the unit, (it can’t be used in flight). The Hot Logic can be used with most containers, including glass, plastic, Tupperware, or metal.
- The heat box portable mini oven is a more versatile, faster cooking mini oven, but it’s much more expensive.
For more fun ideas on healthy traveling, you can follow people like Kale In The Clouds, Flying Fit Foodie, etc. Just search online for other healthy travelers who you relate to. You’ll get tons of ideas on how to make health one of your goals as you embark on your traveling adventures.