Healthy Travel !

Dear Friends,

As many of us are preparing to leave Thailand (or other countries) soon for the upcoming holidays, I thought it would be appropriate to share some ideas about how to best survive (& maybe thrive!) during the extremely long flights to your many destinations around the world.

I found this article recently (apologies for some profanity included); and I have used-followed a number of the tips/advice mentioned, specifically:

– refraining from eating any airplane meals (I always bring my own healthy snacks, such as nuts, dried fruit, jerky, etc ….); although I will sometimes eat some fresh fruits served on the plane. Additionally, I will often fast or restrict calories on long flights, while drinking lots of water and green tea, if available.

– no alcohol

– wear compression sleeves on my calves

– move around whenever you can; my “routine” is usually to watch a movie, and then get up, walk around and find a place in the back of the plane where I can do some light exercises-movements (squats, lunges, arm circles, and other simple activation stretches); for about 10-15 minutes. I then go back to my seat, watch another movie, and get up and move, and just repeat several times ….

– As much as possible, I try to schedule my longest flights to arrive at the final destination in the morning; so that I can get outside and take a nice long walk – getting some time in the sun, and also some barefoot time in some nice grass or even better – on a beach!

– I also try to get in some kind of short workout to get a bit sweaty, and helps re-energize after such long periods of sitting on the flights.

– Stay up until normal bedtime in your new time zone. This is very important, and I might also use some melatonin to help adjust my sleep schedule.

Finally, I was able to find a natural, homeopathic product, which I regularly use on all long flights in any direction, to help prevent-reduce the effects of jet lag. I found this in a Whole Foods Market store in the U.S. several years ago, and I have been using it ever since, with wonderful success in helping reduce my jet lag significantly.

OK, that’s all for this week –

GR​OK ON !