Airport Travel Tips

Because I’m in the middle of prepping for my trip, I thought it would be a good time to share some healthy airport travel tips.  Vacations and traveling are not an excuse to leave healthy eating and exercise routines back at home and to overindulge.  You will return feeling bloated and possibly sick from not keeping your immune system built up.  Look at vacations and time away from home as a chance to try new healthy foods and workouts.  Here are some ways to stay healthy while you travel:

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1. Pack you own snacks.  First, check the TSA website to make sure they aren’t going to confiscate your yummy snacks.  I like to pack bananas, apples, little packets of almond butter, LaraBars, single-servings of Trader Joe’s trail mix and bite-size dark chocolate squares.  These snacks will keep you satisfied and away from the millions of junk-food options that airports are famous for.

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2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. This one is a little trickier with all the TSA liquid rules, but we can make it work.  If you can’t smuggle your water bottle through the check-point, purchase the largest bottle that you can find while you’re shopping for magazines.  Remember to drink this throughout your day and refill it whenever possible.  When the flight attendant asks what you would like to drink, your automatic response should be, “water, please.”  If they have a lemon wedge to squeeze into it, even better.  The lemon juice acts as a natural diuretic that can prevent the bloating that comes along with flying.

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3. Get up and MOVE. When you are on the airplane, you’re basically stuck in your seat besides taking trips to the bathroom.  When you are at the airport waiting for your flight, you should be up and walking around.  See how many laps you can do before they start to board the flight.  Find some stairs to climb, over, and over, and over until you’re almost sweating.  Do some lunges and squats while keeping your bags in sight.  Do whatever you want – besides sitting!

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4. Create a healthy meal. If you are enduring one of those all-day, 3 lay-over types of travel days, remember that you are in charge of what you eat.  I would avoid the frozen, processed airplane meal they serve onboard and try to find a restaurant at the airport instead.  When ordering your meal focus on healthy protein (chicken, fish, tofu, lean beef, beans) and veggies (salad, steamed or stir-fried vegetables.)  This way you have some wiggle room in your diet for a treat or dark chocolate. If you are packing a meal to take on the flight, a salad with 1/2 the amount of dressing is usually a great choice.

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5. Don’t even think about alcohol. I know, some of you are so anxious about flying that you’d like to black out until landing. There are books and meditation techniques for that.  If a healthy diet consists of a few alcoholic beverages per week, wouldn’t you rather enjoy these drinks while on the beach during your vacation or out at night with your friends?  Alcohol will leave you dehydrated and groggy for your trip.

I hope that these tips can help make your next flying experience a little healthier so you can feel great during and after your trip!

On another note, I’ve been having tons of fun with my workouts lately.  I found out that I was going to Palm Springs exactly two weeks ago.  That meant that I had 14 days to get my scrubs-wearing, winter-weight body into my “not-embarrassed to be seen in a two-piece” body.  I do not believe in get-thin-quick gimmicks and rely on effective gym workouts and smart meal choices.

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The workouts that I followed were by the lovely “Tone It Up” Ladies, Karena & Katrina.  I had a blast working out to their two workout DVDs, One Day Fat Blast & Jane Fonda’s Tone & Sculpt and printed out some of their strength training circuits to take with me to the gym.  I highly recommend their workouts and would love to meet them someday!

I’m off to finish packing and get a good nights rest.  Take care!