How to Stay Sane + Healthy While Traveling

It’s that time of year when many of us are getting ready to travel for the holidays. Staying healthy, sane and pain-free is a challenge when you’re off your routine and don’t have all your normal stuff. As someone with multiple health struggles, travel can really kick my ass. But I love it so I have to make it work for me! This is how - read on. 

Some of these products can be found in my Fullscript practitioner dispensary, listed under the “Travel Products” list.*

Mitigate Sensory Overload: Wear a hat 

Sensory stimulation of any kind (lights, noise, crowds, colors) takes a toll on your nervous system. If you’re prone to sensory overwhelm, you probably already know this. If you’ve ever felt like too much stimuli turns you into a crazy bitch, plan ahead by reducing the stimuli coming in before it becomes a problem. When I travel through crowded, fluorescent-lit airports I wear a baseball cap. It cuts off your field of vision, drastically reducing the number of visual inputs your brain has to process. 

For chronic pain, movement + moderation is key

If you struggle with chronic conditions like Ehlers-Danlos or fibromyalgia, travel presents a unique challenge because scrunching your body up for hours at a time leads to stiffness and pain. This is inevitable no matter how what you do. Plan for it taking it easy the first day or two after travel on both ends to give yourself time to recover. But don’t sit still all day - you need light movement everyday. But don’t overdo it. We have a tendency to go all out as soon as we feel better, which just leads to another crash. Practice moderation in all activities throughout your trip.

For Packed Snacks, Focus on Protein

If you’re trying to figure out what kinds of snacks to pack for travel, I like to prioritize protein. Protein releases the satiety hormone leptin, so if you’re not able to eat a whole meal for awhile, a high quality protein source is going to keep you full longer than a piece of fruit. I’ve also found it to be the macronutrient that’s hardest to get enough of while I travel. I always like to pack plenty of protein bars, protein powders, collagen peptide powders, grassfed beef sticks, and nuts. I might need to eat these in the airport or on the plane, or they might serve as a pre-meal nutrient boosting “appetizer” when I’m visiting with other people and know I’m about to eat a meal that won’t be as nutrient dense as I would like. Some favorites: Equip Prime Protein Bars, Aloha Protein Bars, Chomps beef sticks, Clean Simple Eats and Ka’chava single serving protein powders. 

Stay Hydrated with Electrolytes

Planes are so dehydrating. Not only do you want to make it a point to drink extra fluids the day of a flight, get in some electrolytes during travel and the visit. Hydration isn’t just water; it’s water, sodium, magnesium and potassium (along with others, but those are the mains). How much of each mineral your body needs is individual, but travel is going to increase everyone’s baseline needs to some extent. 

Get Ahead of Digestive Discomfort

You can’t prepare for every outcome, but we tend to fall into patterns when it comes to our digestion, so be sure to pack everything you’re probably going to need. If you’re prone to constipation while traveling, take magnesium citrate everyday of the trip starting with the night before you leave. If you struggle with digestive symptoms after eating, take digestive enzymes with every meal. If you struggle with gluten intolerance, pack a gluten-digestive enzyme that you can take in cases of accidental ingestion. The one I included in the Fullscript list comes in individual travel packs so you can just keep a couple in your purse.

Shore up your immune system

If you’re one of those people who picks up a bug every time you travel, this is another thing you can get ahead of. Instead of waiting for a virus to happen, take immune system supportive nutrients such as Vitamin D, Vitamin C, zinc, quercetin, glutathione, immunoglobulin (IgG) throughout the trip before you come down with anything. An anti-microbial formula like Biocidin throat spray with anti-viral and immune boosting agents like golden seal, garlic, white willow bark, echinacea, and oregano oil can also be used everyday of the trip if you’re really prone to getting sick. 

Regulate your nervous system with boundaries and intentional relaxation

In case you need to hear this: just because you traveled 500 miles to see someone (or they traveled to you) doesn’t mean you don’t need/deserve down time. You don’t need to spend every waking minute with your loved ones (and you shouldn’t). Whatever that looks like for you, take time to rest and be alone. Make time to get outside and move, get sunlight in your eyes, listen to a guided relaxation meditation, practice box breathing, or even just sit and read a novel. 

Wear your night moisturizer for dewy skin

This one is less about the your body’s health and nervous system, but who doesn’t want fresh skin? To help combat the dry airplane air, I put on a heavy moisturizer right before I leave. I would normally wear a lighter moisturizer during the day and a heavier one at night, so for me that just means putting on my night moisturizer for a daytime fight. For a red eye, I would actually do something heavier or even an overnight moisturizing mask. When I land I use this hydrating face mist, which comes in a handy super tiny travel size. This routine helps me arrive relatively fresh faced!