Want to know my top travel tips for staying happy and healthy on the road? I’ll tell you!
I’ve been investing in lots of education to boost my practice as a practitioner so I can serve my patients better – and that means more travels to different time zones. It also means more nights spent in hotel rooms for conferences.
So how do I manage to stay happy and healthy while I am in different time zones and in different hotels all around the world?
Read below and I’ll let you in on my tricks of the trade.
While these are wonderful tips for life in general, these are especially helpful in your home away from home. Once you try a few of these tips you’ll see lots of incredible benefits, such as brilliant glowing skin.
Here are my top travel tips:
1. Supplement with magnesium.
I take magnesium before I go to bed. I usually take about 400mg and sometimes more. It helps me relax my nervous system and to sleep better. It also minimizes my muscles from stiffness from sitting around all day in conferences or on planes. Sometimes I like to start taking magnesium the day before I start traveling. Magnesium glycinate is my preferred kind, but magnesium citrate is also helpful if you get constipated from traveling.
2. Hydration.
This is essential always, but it is especially important to start increasing your hydration before traveling. By the time you see your lips are dry in the mirror, you are already playing catch up and dealing with a deficit. Stay ahead of the game and drink at least 10 glasses a day. I now carry a lime or a lemon in my carry on, since it’s a sure way to make any water more palatable wherever I go. Plus a splash of lime or lemon helps my kids to drink more water too. (One caveat: Citric acid in lemon is not good for the coating of our teeth, so drink lemon water shortly before or after a meal where your stomach acid is going to be high anyways.)
3. Beauty Sleep.
Anything that can maximize your sleep is key to all benefits! For example a deep sleep promotes better immune response, cell regeneration, effective learning rates, etc. Melatonin certainly promotes sleep and it is also a powerful antioxidant. Here’s a list of what I do to promote beauty sleep:-
- Essential oils.
- I bring my portable ionic diffuser while I am on the road and I also have a bigger one at home next to bedside. My favorite essential oil for travel is On Guard from doTERRA because it helps to boost the immune system. I also enjoy lavender because it promotes relaxation. If you don’t have ionic diffuser, then put a few drops of oil on small face towel and then put that towel on the floor of your shower. The hot water in your shower will help to bring the essential oil into a blissful steam of healing aroma.
- Block out all external distractions.
- Use ear plugs, an eye mask and the blackout curtains in hotels.
- Use blue light blocker glasses.
- I recommend the Twilight Brand and wear these in the evening or during the afternoon.
- Go for a walk in the morning and afternoon to expose yourself to sunlight.
- It is ideal to ground and walk in the grass, dirt, sand, nature, etc to prevent jetlag. The exposure to sunlight helps to stimulate your circadian clock. This in turn will support your body’s release of melatonin at the right time.
- Bring music.
- By listening to peaceful background sounds such white noise or ocean sounds, you can keep the atmosphere of your hotel like your own room at home. This free phone app has white noise sounds and relaxing melodies to help you fall asleep. We are creatures of habit and the closer we create and follow the sleep routine we have established at home, the better it is to fall asleep even if you are jet lagged.
- CBD hemp oil.
- This helps with relaxation and it doesn’t have any components of THC which may cause hallucinations or sensations of excitement. The CBD oil has many benefits such as promoting deep rest and assistance with initiating sleep.
- Bedtime Tea.
- Sleepy Time Tea by Celestial Seasonings is readily available in most locations and is a classic for helping to encourage deep rest. One of my personal favorites is the EveryDay liver detox tea from Traditional Medicinals. This tea helps the body process all of the toxic exposure from air pollution, airplanes, processed foods, and stress from traveling.
- Essential oils.
4. Relax with Inner Balance by HeartMath.
This is an incredible piece of technology that I use this for 5-10 minutes whenever I feel I can’t do my usual meditation routine. I also use it if I wake up in the middle of the night feeling jet lagged. It’s a profound and simple tool that measures my heart rate and gives me immediate feedback on my breathing and relaxation response.
5. Skin Care.
Be sure to put on sunscreen before you go out, but be sure to invest in the safest sunscreen for you and your family. Also, it is a good habit to wash your face well at night. This helps to purify the face from toxins that you may have acquired throughout the day from cosmetics and air pollutants. Air pollutants specifically includes many harmful substances such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from gas fuels, fumes, and cigarette smokes. These harmful exposures are found to be just as damaging to our skin as UV lights.
6. Eat Light.
This is especially important when changing time zones. Did you know that it takes at least a few days to adjust your gut motility pattern? Your gut motility pattern guides your hunger and bowel movements. Thus, I recommend you avoid grains and sweets those first few days of traveling. Instead, focus on greens, a simple protein shake, and MCT oils as your gut takes time to adjust to the new time zone. That ensures that you are not hungry, as you’ll be eating healthy veggies, proteins, and fats. Furthermore your brain will be happy with the MCT oils and all the veggie fibers will keep your bowels moving too.
In essence, there are many strategies you have when it comes to keeping your skin healthy and your body happy while you are on the road.
When you supplement with magnesium, hydrate, sleep deeply, relax, take care of your skin, and eat light – you will be well on your way to traveling like a happy healthy pro. I hope you try at least one of these tips when you go on your next adventure. When you feel physically healthy and radiant from within, your skin AND your aura will glow! Plus as an added bonus, a simple outfit will show your beauty and your suitcase will inevitably be lighter too!
Happy Travels,
Dr. Onna Lo
