Traveling can be a stressful process. Between getting to the airport, making it to your gate on time, making it to the hotel, navigating a new city and getting prepared for the unpredictable, traveling can be really anxiety inducing. All that anxiety can also be an open door to emotional eating, stress weight gain and poor digestion.
Among all that, throw in the goal of losing or maintaining weight and you're in for higher stress levels than normal during times of travel. I personally struggle with travel anxiety, so over the years I have compiled some tips that have helped me stay healthy on the go. It is my hope that these tips help you stay fit while traveling and also low stress. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me which is your favorite tip!
Tip 1: Pack wholesome, healthy snacks. My favorites are rice cakes, peanut butter packets, baby carrots, apples, pretzels, beef or turkey jerky, granola, protein bars, protein powder, oatmeal packets and 100 calorie almond packets. I measure out my portions ahead of time to ensure I stick to smart portion sizes and don't get too many calories from one type of food. Keep in mind you can fly with food as long as it is not yogurt/pudding consistency.
Tip 2: Pack resistance bands and a jump rope. You never know what the hotel gym actually looks like or if the equipment even works, and many times I have found myself in a dinky little gym with a broken treadmill, creeky elliptical and dirty free weights set. Having your own, light equipment with you while traveling provides you a no-excuses workout from the comfort of your hotel room. Brush up on body weight exercises and resistance band workouts before you depart.
Tip 3: Remain calm. Start your day with a few deep breaths and meditative moments and reincorporate them into your day as much as needed. Stress levels typically raise for Type A personalities when you can't control everything that happens on a trip. High cortisol levels are caused by stress, and contributes to belly fat storage around the belly button. Tensing up also causes poor digestion.
Tip 4: Take a Brita filtered water bottle. I recommend traveling with your own filtering water bottle for many reasons. First, the water in the airport is ridiculously expensive for water, which is free. Second, you have no idea how many people have touched the water fountain spouts, therefore transferring germs. Third, you need to stay hydrated and that's not going to happen if you're only drinking water when it's served with a meal. Our bodies are about 70% watere and we NEED water to function, think, be strong and have regular digestion.
Tip 5: Be aware of portion sizes. Remember that your palm is about 4 oz for protein and carbohydrates and your thumb is about 2 tbs of a healthy fat source. I personally don't limit my veggies, especially on vacation so I eat them in abundance without worry. Try not to ruin your vacation by whipping out the food scale or measuring cups, it's a real party-pooper from my personal experience.
I hope those tips help you next time you hit the road for a short or long trip. The best tip of all I can give you is to HAVE FUN and enjoy yourself! Vacation is not a time to be restricting your portions and dieting, you only get to do a specific vacation once, so soak and eat it up!
Let me know what your favorite tip is and if you have another tip to add!
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Sincerely,
Leah Peters