Inspired by the soon-to-be-released The Gypset Recipe Book, which is literally days away from being for sale, I thought I’d answer one of the questions I get asked the most, which is:
How do you stay healthy on the road?
It’s such a good, and important question because travel is quite stressful on the body, which means that we need take extraordinary care of our nutrition and bodies to ensure that we do stay grounded and don’t burn out.
Today I have outlined 6 travel tips on how to stay healthy during transit.
1. RESEARCH
Finding out where you can eat and where you can exercise prior to making your travel plans makes your journey a whole lot more relaxed and healthy. I usually research like crazy before I choose my hotel to make sure it’s near a farmers market, some healthy restaurants or at least a health antibiotics food store or supermarket. I like to go for lots of walks after my flight, and I’ll always look up yoga studios wherever I go and try out a class. They’ll often have a $20 for a week intro offer. Hot yoga especially is great for sweating out any travel toxins.
2. PREPARE
The food on flights is just so bad, packed full of preservatives and then heated in high-powered microwaves which kill every single nutrient that might have been left. On top of that most airplane meals contain 2,000 calories in each, leaving you feeling slug-like at best. Therefore it’s best to be prepared and bring your own food. I travel a lot, and I always bring my own food for the plane. Sometimes I don’t even feel like eating because flying does funny things to my digestion but I always bring a salad and some fresh fruit and snacks just in case. Lately I’ve also been loving my homemade travel trail mix with Brazil nuts, cashews, goji berries, mulberries and cacao bits. Essential oils are a must for staying calm and relaxing en-route, and of course I can’t leave home without my green powders and supplements.
3. HYDRATE
Flying is incredibly dehydrating and with their not-so-new-anymore 100ml liquid laws, you can’t bring water from home. Once I’m through security, I always buy 2 one Litre bottles of water and sip on them throughout the flight. Coconut water is also excellent for hydration so if you can find some, definitely bring it on board. I also always travel with peppermint and chamomile teabags, chamomile for calming and peppermint for soothing any nausea or stomach problems. Then when the flight attendants come around I smile sweetly and just ask for hot water for my cup.
4. SLEEP
Some people say they can’t sleep during flights but I think, next to writing and taking photos of pretty clouds, sleeping is the very best thing to do. I like to spray a little essential lavender mist around me and my neighbor too if they let me, and then settle in for a few hours. On long journeys I always choose the window seat, not only for the lovely view, but also because you can use the side of the seat for comfort and support. I place a pillow between myself and the window and lean my body against it for comfort, softness and to create a sweet sleeping position. Then I either stretch my legs out as far as I can underneath the seat in front of me. Or I tuck my feet into the crevice in the seat in front of me to create a kind of sitting up fetal position. It’s most comfortable! Then I tuck a blanket around me, making sure my seatbelt is fastened around it on the outside so the flight attendants don’t disturb me, and pull my eye mask over my face. Et voila! I’m asleep within moments.
5. SOOTHE
Both your insides and your outsides need soothing because flying is quite upsetting for the whole body. I like to use natural face wipes from time to time throughout the flight to freshen my face up and then follow with a few drops of organic Rosehip Oil to keep the skin on my face moisturised, protected and hydrated. I also use essential oils such as lemon, peppermint and lavender to drop into my water to as well as the spray around me such as the lavender for aromatherapy.
6. DETOX
It’s important to detox your body within 24 hours after your flight. Hot water with fresh lemon or essential lemon oil drops helps. Miso soup is excellent at dispersing the radiation from flying. Hotel saunas are great – I take advantage of them wherever I can. And going for a long walk, yoga and stretching as well as taking a bath will all help with jet lag and the discomfort your body is in after a long flight. I generally give myself a day to detox with a combination of methods, whichever is easiest and at hand before I throw myself with glee into my latest project.
Flying is a common aspect of living a nomadic lifestyle, and while I for one, really appreciate the technology that gives us the possibility to fly from place to place, thereby cutting out weeks and months worth of travel to reach a destination, don’t like flying much. I always feel the radiation in my body after a flight, as well as tend to feel really dehydrated and tired, even though I haven’t actually done so much, in physical terms. This is why it’s essential to know how to heal and detox as quickly as possible, to bring you body back into balance and feeling in top form again.
P.S. I’ve included some of the meals that I make to nix the radiation and relieve stress symptoms and boost my immune system in the Gypset Recipe Book, which is coming out next week!