Welcome to the weekend blog buds!

I have a fair amount of air travel coming up between now and October for business and fun.  I don’t know about you but flying really can work a number on my body.  I thought I’d share a FitFeature with five things to keep in mind when you travel by plane and some of the tips I use to stay healthy and keep my body feeling good.

1. Flying is very dehydrating to the body thanks to the recycled air and reduced oxygen

Focus on getting plenty of hydrating liquids before, during and after your flight.  It’s tempting to not want to drink up so that you don’t have to use the plane’s lavatory, but please don’t make this mistake.  It won’t be worth it in the long run.  Good choices are plain filtered water, coconut water, water with lemon, kombucha tea.  Unfortunately since you can’t bring your own liquids through security you end up needing to buy some bottled water once you are at your gate. I know it’s expensive, but your body will thank you.

Avoid dehydrating drinks like coffee and alcohol. (If you need a coffee, at the very least choose decaf.  Or better yet have herbal tea.)  And unless there is a fresh juice bar in the airport, skip the juice as well.  If it’s bottled it has been pasteurized with high heat so all the goodness of fresh juice is no longer in the bottled juice.  Further, if it’s not organic juice, you could be getting an extra-concentrated dose of pesticide chemicals.

Another thing you can do is bring some prepared water-rich fruits and vegetables along (fortunately food is allowed through security):  cucumber slices, watermelon chunks, grapefruit segments, oranges, salad with plenty of tomato, lemon segments (great for adding to your water once you are on the plane and for squeezing onto your salad as well).

2. The decreased air pressure can cause gas and bloating

Oh boy.  This one gets me every time.  I can FEEL that pressure on my insides and it’s so uncomfortable.  The day before and the day of a flight I really focus on eating foods that are easy to digest:  green smoothies, fresh green juice, green salads, lightly steamed vegetables, water-rich fruits, maybe a little fish and eggs (easier proteins to digest), Greek yogurt if you don’t have any dairy issues.

Things you may want to minimize:  beans, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, heavy/rich foods, meats (harder to digest and stay in your system longer), nuts that haven’t been soaked (they are harder to digest as well).  Pay attention to things in everyday life that cause you to feel bloated or a little ‘gassy’ – these are the things you don’t want to eat the day you fly.  They might be a little different for everyone.

3. Being cooped up with a lot of germs blowing around

I never used to be a germaphobe. Then about 5 years ago when we took a cruise, there was an outbreak of norovirus on our ship.  Thank goodness we didn’t contract it (about 500 unlucky other people did) and the entire staff were walking around in surgical masks, wearing plastic gloves, spraying disinfectant everywhere.  You would have thought it was the plague.   I started pushing the elevator buttons with my elbow (and only if it was covered in clothing!).  It’s shocking to me now when I pay attention in public places how many people are  coughing, sniffling, hacking and I swear they all somehow end up on your plane sitting near you.  One time I wore a bandana around my neck like scarf so that I could cover my face just in case.  True story.  Sounds ridiculous and extreme, but I didn’t get sick!  I rarely use hand antibacterial lotion in everyday life but I definitely do when I fly.  And this year, that’s exactly where I caught that nasty pertussis virus (whooping cough) that took me down for a while.

This is another reason that adding a lot of vegetables and fruits to your diet is helpful.  Increase your intake of all colors of produce to help boost your immune system daily.  If you aren’t a fan of eating all of your fruits/veggies, consider green smoothies, fresh organic green juices(and wheatgrass juice) or even dried greens powders.

I increase my intake of probiotics even more around travel times:  kombucha tea, probiotic tablets (50 billion), kefir, fermented foods like sauerkraut and tempeh.

4. Radiation exposure

There’s not much you can do to minimize your exposure here except for maybe ask for the pat-down in lieu of going through the new big X-ray machines.  However, you can choose some foods wisely to help cleanse some of that radiation.  Best choice?  Seaweed!  I eat seaweed a few times a week anyway, but before and after flying I try to incorporate some extra seaweed into my salads.  Soak arame and then turn it into a marinated seaweed salad.  Or add dulse flakes to more meals (it hides well in most anything cooked).  Look for a Japanese restaurant the next time you travel and order a seaweed salad and some miso soup.

Chlorophyll-rich foods are also helpful in cleansing – which if you are eating lots of dark veggies you’ll be covered.  This is where your fresh green juices, green smoothies, salads and greens powders are helpful.  I also keep a bottle of chlorophyll tablets around for high-travel times as well.

5. Flying really restricts movement

I am not one to get up and walk around much on a plane.  If my flights were longer than 2-3 hours each, I definitely would make an effort walk the aisleways to keep my leg muscles moving (this is especially important for minimizing the risk of DVT, deep vein thrombosis). 

While I know some folks like to be productive when hanging out at the gate waiting for a flight, this is the time to get your body moving.  I won’t ask you to do something crazy like wall squats or lunges in public (although you can do some hover squats in the privacy of a restroom stall if you’d like!) but definitely WALK AROUND.  Don’t take the escalator/elevator if there is an option for stairs, and don’t take those moving sidewalks.  Move as much as you can before/after the flight.  And walk on over to the restroom right before boarding!

Move around while you are waiting for your bags to arrive at baggage claim.  This is also a great time to do some stretching – reach down and touch your toes, do a few side bends, put your arms overhead and stretch up onto your toes like you just got out of bed.  And if you feel like people are watching you, don’t worry – there are plenty of odder things going on at the airport for people to look at!

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The bottom line for minimizing the physical impact of air travel:  hydrate, load up on fruits/veggies, increase your sea vegetable and probiotic intake, and move your bod! Avoid the tempting prepackaged foods and fast food restaurants because all those things will do is weigh you down further, make you more dehydrated, zap your energy, and increase the toxic load on your body.  That’s no way to start your trip – especially if it’s for something fun! 

(Hmmm… that sounds a lot like what you hear me spouting for daily living here at FitFeat!) 

Do you have any favorite tips/tricks/home remedies for keeping the body happy and healthy when traveling?  Please share with us!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: Blended Salad, green juice, Green Smoothie, healthy eating on vacation, Kombucha, probiotics, salad