10 Tips on How to Stay Healthy While Traveling

Staying healthy while travelling can be quite a challenge, however, the benefits are plenty. Whether you are going on a two-week vacation or are travelling the world, there are a few things you can do to maintain your health.

Here are 10 tips to Stay Healthy while travelling and help you stay on track:

1. Drink Lemon Water

A simple start to these 10 steps to stay healthy while travelling – Drink lemon water. Drinking this mix every morning helps regulate digestion, keeps you hydrated and promotes detoxifying enzymes in your liver. Maintaining hydration and regulating bowel movements not only is important for your overall health but is also important for maintaining a healthy weight. Doing this simple step can make you feel more energized, decrease bloating and give your skin that glow.

2. Take a good probiotic daily

One of the best travel health tips is taking a daily probiotic. It’s a great way to maintain healthy gut flora and a great way to stay healthy while travelling. Studies have shown that healthy gut flora is linked to better weight management and overall health. Not only is taking a probiotic good for your waistline, but it can also help decrease the effect of foodborne illness often experienced while travelling. A healthy gut flora leads to a better immune system and a better protective barrier against unwanted pathogens. If you have ever been sick while travelling, you will understand why you will want to pack a probiotic in your bag for your next trip.

You can also complement the probiotic you take with L-glutamine powder supplements for gut health. It can strengthen your gut with probiotics, so you do not have to contend with a leaky gut while travelling. This can further boost your immune system so you can enjoy your trip without worrying about colds and other illnesses.

3. Stay away from ordering pop or juice

When at a restaurant, try to avoid ordering pop or juice. These are full of sugar and will just lead to bloating and weight gain. Instead, order lemon water or tea. This will make you feel more energized and help you maintain a healthy weight.

4. Look for healthy picks on the menu

A lot of restaurants these days have healthy options guidelines. You can use this as a reference in what to order. When looking at the dish you’re about to order, order something that has a good amount of protein such as lean meat and a large portion of vegetables. To stay healthy while travelling try to avoid heavy pasta dishes as these will often be made with white pasta and little protein. This will raise blood sugar levels leaving you feeling bloated and tired.

5. Pick healthy side dishes

If you want to indulge a bit and order the burger, pick a healthier side dish. To stay healthy while travelling go with the side salad instead of the fries. For salad dressing, choose balsamic instead of the blue cheese dressing. If you are really wanting to indulge that day and order fries, a step better than regular fries is yam fries. Yam fries don’t raise blood sugar as much as potatoes, and therefore don’t cause as much bloating and weight gain.

6. Eat until you are almost full

Often we go to a restaurant and are served larger portions than we need. There seems to be a feeling of “I have to finish everything that is on my plate.” To stay healthy while travelling avoids eating everything in sight and stop eating when you are about 80% full. It takes about 20 minutes for your body to feel full. Wait that time frame and you will be surprised how full you actually feel!

7. Chew your food

It is really important to take smaller bites and to fully chew your food. The beginning of digestion starts with chewing! When you start to chew your food your body begins to produce enzymes necessary for digestion. If you do not chew your food enough, like many of us do, this can lead to gas and bloating due to food not being digested properly. Not properly chewing your food can also lead to overeating and therefore weight gain. Digestion is a rest and digest process. It is important to sit down and calmly eat your meal. Slow down and enjoy each bite. Your digestion and waistline will thank you!

8. Ask for substitutions

Don’t be afraid to ask for substitutions when at the restaurant. Substitute your hash browns for fruit and get a multigrain toast with your eggs. With breakfast meals, they often give a lot of carbohydrates such as 2 pieces of toast and hash browns. If it is on your plate you will have a harder time not eating it. Ask the waitress to hold off on the hash browns and just give you one piece of toast. That is plenty of carb for your breakfast and you honestly shouldn’t need more than that. If you want to splurge and enjoy some hash browns, try splitting it with who you are with, or just eat half.

9. Pack healthy snacks

Whether you are packing snacks for the plane ride or just for in-between meals on your vacation, to stay healthy while travelling choose snacks that hold more nutritional value and will help curb your hunger. Making your own nut mixture can be a great and healthy snack to take on the go. You can also pack fruit and veggies with you depending on what type of travelling you are doing. If you need a bar that is easy to pack, Larabar has all-natural ingredients and can be a good option. Though natural ingredients are good, you don’t want to have bars too often as they are condensed with fruit which means sugar. Too many too often could lead to weight gain.

10. Move your body!

Last up on this list of tips to stay healthy while travelling is all exercise. If this is your week vacation you don’t necessarily have to hit the gym while you are there. You can enjoy this time off. However, it is important to keep moving. This could include walking and enjoying the city you are in or playing beach volleyball. Keeping your body moving and getting that little bit of exercise is important to stay healthy. If you are on a long vacation or you want to maintain your exercise, try adding push-ups to your morning routine. Push-ups are a compounding exercise meaning they use multiple muscle groups. They are great for your core and your arms helping keep you toned. Do as many push-ups as you can in a row until you can’t push up one more time. Take a 30-second to 1-minute break and then repeat. Break again and repeat. Keep count of how many you can do in the first, second and third rounds. Over time you will be able to see your improvement.

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Thoughts on how to Stay Healthy While Traveling?
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For more travel tips see HERE.