Finding a Healthy Balance When Travelling
Healthy living while travelling can be achieved. Stressing about an impending blowing out and undoing healthy habits during a holiday defeats the whole purpose of a vacation. Incorporating some pre-thought healthy tools and doing the best you can while travelling helps to find a balance between feeling good and enjoying yourself while travelling.
1. Being prepared
Depending on your personality type you may want to intensely research the country/city you are travelling to or wing it. Googling restaurants, local health food stores or gym/exercise studios nearby to your accommodation can help keep you inspired to try/have a healthy to-do list. Healthy Cow is my favourite app for travelling. You can look up cities before departing or use it as an 'around me' for healthy options cafes, restaurants, juice bars and health food stores. Having some meals planned that you know will be healthy and having hits of greens can allow you to enjoy the indulgent outings without guilt. I like to travel with and have a stock of foods such as nuts, fresh fruit and cucumbers while flying, in transit and to have as snacks on day trips/on hand (cucumbers are the best hydrating snack for flights).
2. Supplements For Thought
Consulting with a health-care professional for a good travelling probiotic can help maintain good gut bacteria and acclimatise your stomach to a new environment. Other great travel supplements to explore are spirulina for energy, ginger tablets for travel sickness or nausea, magnesium for sleep/constipation and Vitamin C to support your immune system. I also enjoy finding nearby health food stores and purchasing the local kombucha, tonics or fermented foods to help acclimatise.
3. Staying Hydrated
Hydration is especially important while travelling. Constantly being on the move can leave you very dehydrated. Keeping on top of your water intake helps to increase your energy levels, support digestion and all bodily functions (preventing fatigue, constipation and headaches). Taking a BPA free reusable water bottle and aiming for 2+ litres of water a day will assist you well. I also travel with herbal teas in my suitcase for every ailment: peppermint or ginger to aid digestion/upset stomach and chamomile or valerian for night time.
4. Find incidental exercise
Exploring by foot is one of the best ways to experience a new city and means you don't have to worry about formal exercise. Hours and hundreds of steps will pass as you take in a new culture. For those wanting a little more the very cost effective; classpass.com has over 10,000 studios and gyms globally to choose from.
5. Enjoy Yourself
Holidays are for relaxing, de-stressing and enjoying yourself. Stress levels and how you eat can be more important than what you eat. So relax and mindfully experience a different culture’s food, because being in a relaxed state is best for digestion. Eat and drink what your body wants within moderation as depriving yourself only adds stress. If you do splurge, forgive yourself and move on. Guilt is a waste of precious time. Commit to wholefoods being included in your next meal. On the last night of my holiday in Bali recently I was with my friend/former personal trainer when I noticed the time was getting away and told her I had planned to be bed already so I could do a yoga class before the airport. So she beautifully said: “%#@$ yoga” in the kindest way possible. I didn’t go to yoga in the morning and enjoyed my last night on vacation with friends.