I escaped the 13 degree NYC weather to sunny south Florida where the weather here is 80 degrees!!! Absolutely perfect! I have family in Tampa and Miami and since I grew up here…I always have a great time.
I have been traveling my whole life and have figured out the smartest ways to stay healthy when traveling. Here are some cool some tips that help make your journey much easier, check this out…
1) Know Before You Go! Figure out exactly where you can get good food before you get to your destination. Go online, ask your family or friends who live in the area where you are going to. 10 minutes online can save you 20 minutes of stomach aches or an hour of diarrhea after you have been forced to eat at Denny’s because you are starving and don’t know where else to eat! Search out health food stores and decent restaurants or see if your friends and family know where to go. Hotel staff can generally be quite helpful when you want to find out the best eats in town.
2) Airports are now forcing you to buy overpriced bottled waters once you get past security. Avoid Dasani and Aquafiuna (made by Pepsi and Coke) which are nothing more than glorified toilet water. Look for better brands, including European, Icelandic or Fiji. Bring water on your flight!
3) Eat an awesome meal before you head out to the airport. If your flying in the morning, prepare it the night before. If you show up at the airport hungry – you are doomed. There is NOTHING good at airports. They can’t even get nuts and fruits right at the best airports. This is the most important tip I can give you when traveling. Eat before you head out the door!
4) Definitely bring your own food. No, there is NO good food served on airplanes – I dont care how much money Delta (or whoever) spent trying to convince the public that they serve organic meals. Organic iceberg lettuce and cookies or chips are still crap foods and don’t qualify for ‘organic meals’ in my book. Bring your own food. Fruit (apples, bananas), nuts, nut butters, hard boiled eggs, Organic Food Bars (with the yellow wrappers) or LaraBars or even organic deli meats from Applegate farms are good ideas….get a small cooler and
prepare some food to bring with you, especially with longer flights.
5) Hurling yourself though space at 300 mph when your 30,000 feet above the earth is kind of hard on the body. So you can easily get dehydrated and constipated when flying. Expect that this might happen and prepare by bringing water and do some light exercise once you arrive at your destination. Walking, Mind body and restorative exercise like breathing squats or Swiss ball exercises are best in these circumstances. Avoid intervals or heavy weight training until after you have slept a full nights rest.
6) Dress for Success? Hell no. Dress to be comfortable! I didn’t say dress like a slob, but if you are going to be sitting in a chair for several hours, break out the Uggs, flip flops, sweats or jeans and definitely bring a hoodie. Dress for maximum comfortablility (is that a real word?) when flying.
7) Bring flying essentials - toothpaste, earplugs, eye pillow and maybe a saline solution if your eyes get dry. Those funny looking neck rests might be a good idea for you as well. Toothpaste is the bare minimum so you don’t look and feel beat when you arrive.
8 ) Traveling = quality, uninterrupted study time. Bring your laptop, a good book or a journal.
9) In my stress management program, ‘Third Eye of the Storm’, I teach busy people how to maintain inner peace despite outer chaos.Now, I can tell you that not everyone wants inner peace…some people are ADDICTED to chaos and just need to create drama!!! I’m sure you know some of these people.
But if you want to enjoy your life more than most…if you want to reduce stress and radically improve your health…One of the most important lessons I teach is setting realistic expectations. This is because most people have unrealistic expectations about…well, most everything. Unrealistic expectations leads to frustration which stressful. So setting realistic expectations about AIRPORTS and FAMILY will save you from headaches and disappointment.
Many of us left home to follow our dreams in a big city somewhere and we are exposed to many things that most of our families know nothing about…and now we only see our families a few times per year.
If you set unrealistic expectations… like your Grandpa should understand the difference between free range eggs over regular store bought eggs…. or that your Uncle Ralph should have Organic Food Bars or your favorite protein powder ready for YOU so you can make shakes when everyone else is throwin’ down Jack and Cokes…YOU and (possibly them) will end up frustrated.
10) Love your family, no matter how unhealthy and weird they may be. If they are overweight and sick and still eating crap foods and don’t really care about their health…love them no matter what. They most likely think that you are a fanatic and eat weird food because you wont eat canned string beans or something gross, especially since they spent hours preparing it. Set realistic expectations for your experience and no matter what comes your way, embrace it and find the hidden blessing.
If you really want to party tonight…go for it, just don’t get hammered. Dont drink alcohol on an empty stomach. But, if you really want to get healthy, then simply dont do the things that make people sick and fat: Sugar (alcohol, sodas, juices, artificial sweeteners, white sugar), Flour products and Pasteurized Dairy products are the Big Three to avoid.
Ok, I’m getting out of the house now and out in the sun!
Have a great holiday and talk soon!
Antonio
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