Travel Essentials: How to Stay Healthy While on the Go!
A birds-eye view of Rocky Mountain National Park, en route to Steamboat Springs, CO to teach Earthing Yoga at the first annual Steamboat Movement Fest!
Whether for business or pleasure, traveling can take a toll on our health. As I packed for my trip to Colorado, I felt inspired to share with you some of my tools for staying health-aware and getting adequate nutrition while away from home.
Vata dominant by nature (if you have no idea what I mean, brush up on your Ayurveda here), I do everything I can to support my digestive system—which in turn supports me in having more energy (digestion takes a lot of energy). When I travel, this is one of the first things that becomes compromised. When I’m not preparing my usual high-fiber meals and starting my day with a smoothie, my digestive system gets all out of whack.
The second thing that starts to suffer when traveling is my intake of essential nutrients and anti-inflammatory foods. Eating out and relying on someone else’s kitchen shifts my diet, which is usually heavy in leafy greens (one of the best sources of micronutrients), healthy fats, antioxidants, whole grains and raw foods. As I trend away from my whole foods diet and toward a more Standard American Diet—high in convenience foods, processed oils, sugar, pulverized grains and cooked foods—my immune system, blood sugar, and energy levels become compromised.
10 Tips to Stay Energetic & Vibrant While Away from Home Base:
1. Prepare a delicious, nutrient-rich, plant-based meal to take with you or eat before you go. Try spaghetti squash with avocado-arugula pesto, kelp noodle pad thai, or superfood quinoa salad.
2. Drink plenty of water, especially in the morning to support digestion (shoot for ½ you body weight in ounces each day).
3. Drink Tulsi tea 1-2 times daily. Tulsi, or holy basil, is an adaptogenic herb that restores natural balance, adrenal function, hormones and decreases our sensitivity to stress on a cellular level; in other words, adaptogens regulate the body’s response to stress or changing environments. Tulsi helps you cope with internal stressors like anxiety, insomnia and changing hormones, as well as external stressors like toxins in the air. This amazing herb is naturally energizing and calming at the same time.
5. Boost your immune system on a cellular level by taking plenty of vitamin C. You can also stimulate your body’s production of interferon (a critical component of immune function) with an amazing all-natural supplement called Nutriferon.
6. Take omega-3 fatty acids to reduce inflammation.
7. Carry a gentle herbal laxative to encourage mild cleansing and support digestion. Most laxatives sold at drugstores are too harsh on the digestive system, and could potentially do more harm than good.
8. Take a pharmaceutical-grade multivitamin, B-complex, carotenoid and probiotic daily to make sure you’re filling your body’s micronutrient needs.
9. Use two droppers of Chaga tincture daily in water to stimulate and regulate your immune system and get a potent dose of antioxidants.
10. Don’t let your daily mindfulness practice fall by the wayside. Making time for daily awareness is essential to remaining health-aware, grounded and reflective. For me, this is my meditation practice. I’ve found that my meditation practice is often more enlightening when I’m displaced from my normal routine. I am able to see the world through new eyes and am reminded that there are so many other ways to live, to exist, and to thrive.
We can’t always be perfectly health-aware and on track, so we supplement where we can and do our best. Surely, the health benefits of this trip far outweighed the health costs. Health is multi-dimensional: although my diet suffered a bit, I got to reconnect with the Earth and my relationships, spirituality, worldview and career were all enriched.