Wondering Soul Yoga

1. Just don’t do it.
2. Alternative ways to work out on vacation
3. How to run in a new city
4. Best practices for yoga on the go
5. Healthy eating (and drinking) while traveling
6. Better living through chemistry

Just don’t do it.

This may seem counter-intuitive, in a post entitled ‘Healthy habits I keep while traveling’ to open with this hot take. But, what if you give yourself a break from your usual routine (the same workouts, the same, rigid types of meals)? Whether you find down-time in between work events or can unplug for a true vacation, what if you literally did nothing? Lay down and take a nap. Read a book with your phone on airplane mode. Sit still. Then, when you can’t stand it any longer and have to move. Move.

At home, does your daily movement routine involve you running 10 miles followed by an hour of rowing followed by a mile of swimming? (I’m exaggerating here to make a point, people). Maybe don’t. The more time you dedicate to working out while traveling detracts from the trip you paid good money to go on! Each day of your trip, try to do less than an hour of dedicated working out and let the walking, biking, and other active exploration of your new destination ‘count’ as workouts.

Alternative ways to work out on vacation

Whenever I want to stay healthy and active while traveling I find some fun way to move about my destination city. This movement likely looks very different from my usual exercise. For example, I usually run, but I’ll try my hand at a city bike tour to quickly orient myself to the sites and streets of my destination.

My favorite active, healthy habit in a new city is to walk absolutely everywhere. On a given day at home I probably walk 1-2 miles (at most). The rest of the time I’ll drive to places like the grocery store and my moms’ house. What better way to stretch my legs after a long flight and orient myself in a new city than to walk around? If I arrive early in the morning, I will fuel myself with food and caffeine at a breakfast spot or café, refill my water bottle, and go explore. (**Bonus points if you bring a notebook and pen to kick off your vacation with some quiet reflection on your city-wide thoughtful walks.)

How to run in a new city

By now you’ve ascertained that running is one of my favorite healthy habits. I like running because it gets my wiggles out. It focuses my mind on my breath and each subsequent footstep. It’s a mindful practice in many ways and a non-negotiable part of my weekly routine.

I set a steady pace (9-10 minute miles) and go for anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour at one go. On an average week I run 12-15 miles in total.

Here’s how I manage to run when I’m traveling:

• I bring my running shoes, two sets of clothes (sometimes layers for different climates), lots of socks, and a plastic bag to pack my sweaty clothes out when I head home.
• I plan my route in advance and consult apps like Strava or Map My Run to see what common routes runners in that city follow. If I’m running alone I always tell someone (ideally in that city) where I’m going and text when I return. I also wear a fitness watch that could call emergency services if, for example, I sprained my ankle and needed medical attention.
• When I go to bed, I set out my running clothes the night before. The fewer excuses I have to not run, the better! Much like my long-standing daily meditation habit, I want to make the act of getting out the door to run as easy as possible.
• On days that I want to run while traveling, I get up before anyone else (if I’m traveling with others) and fit my run in before the day really starts. That way I don’t hold everyone up at 10 am when I still haven’t finished showering post-run and everyone’s hangry. “Before anyone else” doesn’t have to be 5 am. I try to run by 7:30 am so I have enough time to get in my mileage.

Best practices for yoga on the go

At home I practice yoga every week, multiple times per week. The longer I’m gone on a trip, the more likely I will be to bring my own yoga mat. If I’m out of town for a weekend or long weekend, I will schedule a class at a local yoga studio that offers mat rentals. If I’m gone for a week or longer (like the month I spent in Paris), it’s worth it to me bring my own yoga mat. I have a travel yoga mat that is thinner and lighter than my full-sized yoga mat that I can either carry on in a cross-body bag or fit into my checked luggage.

If you want to practice yoga while you travel, consider joining a yoga retreat like my yoga retreat to Morocco. That way you can weave healthy habits into the fabric of your trip. No squeezing it in, on retreat you make wellness an inherent part of every morning. All you have to do is roll out your mat and join in that morning’s practice of movement and breath!

Healthy eating (and drinking) while traveling

Food

Your mom likely told you to eat your veggies growing up. Well, here we are again. At meal time, I add a veggie side to my order to keep my gut happy and healthy.  I need the fiber to keep everything moving!

Because I become a Hangry Snack Monster™ when I don’t eat every few hours. I pack a bunch of healthy snacks for the plane ride. 3 tiny pretzels and 1 biscoff cookie will simply not sustain me for long-haul travel. I choose snacks like dried fruit, trail mix, roasted almonds, apples (or other fruit with a peel like bananas or oranges) and nutty date bars for flights and keep them all within easy reach. On my return flight home, particularly on international trips, I beeline for the first cheeseburger I see because yum!

Because I firmly believe diets are complete BS concocted by the diet industry to keep you unhappy and paying for their overpriced products, leave your diet at home (or better yet, throw it out altogether). Try a bunch of new foods and relish in the sheer deliciousness that is food and trying new things. 

Drink

Hydrate hydrate hydrate: Travel is dehydrating, particularly flying. I always bring my own water bottle because (like with the snacks) airlines don’t provide enough water to keep even a small baby hydrated. I drink at least one full water bottle per flight. Then, when I arrive at my destination (be it a hotel or Airbnb), I chug two big glasses of water! I cannot get enough water in my body at this point. Water consumption helps me with lethargy and overall exhaustion, not to mention keeps my tummy happy too!

For every cocktail or glass of wine I consume while traveling (and let’s be honest my max is basically two), I toss back 1-2 glasses of water. A hangover is such a bummer to have to deal with while traveling.

Better living through chemistry

Travel can be hard on your body. The stress of an out-of-whack sleep schedule, dehydration, changes to your diet and meal times, and overall exhaustion throws off your digestive tract and in turn can throw off all your usual healthy habits.

Here are my go-to medications to get everything back to normal while traveling:

• Fiber pills: I take one fiber pill per day in countries where I cannot safely consume uncooked salad greens to replace my typical, plant-forward home cooking.
• Imodium: Trust me on this one. Imodium saved my butt (literally) many times when I studied abroad in South India back in 2013. For the uninitiated, Imodium has the opposite effect of fiber pills.
• Your usual medications: As you know from when I got sick in Paris last fall, foreign pharmacies may refuse to give you the medication you can find easily at home or may dole out antibiotics when you don’t really need them. I now bring a stash of medications for coughs, colds, and the flu so that, if I do get sick, I don’t have to navigate a new pharmacy or new medical system in that country. If it gets serious, I always make sure to have saved the contact information for emergency services and for my country’s embassy on my trip-planning documents.

Tell me in the comments: What healthy habits do you make time for while traveling? I want to hear what you’d recommend.

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