Staying Healthy While Travelling

Confession: my first ever flight was this past February, followed by a series of flights in October. I don't consider myself a travel expert by any means. But as a naturopathic doctor I do have some tricks up my sleeve on how to stay heathy and keep up your immune system. Naturally I adopted those practices when my husband and I took a 3-week trip to Europe.

BOOST IMMUNE SYSTEM

I believe that it's crucial to strengthen your immune system before travelling - no one wants to get sick on vacation (especially in a foreign country). While you won't be able to prevent every virus from coming your way, I like to do a travel prep before I jet off. My routine consists of sleep, managing my adrenal glands, eating fruits and vegetables, and I'll often supplement with Vitamin C and Deep Immune by St. Francis for an extra boost.

EAT WELL

When in Europe, my husband and I would always visit a grocery store in each new city we visited. We stocked up on healthy snacks (ie. nuts and fruit) and water. Our snacks certainly came in handy when visiting various attractions and during those long car and train rides. While I would always try to incorporate fruits and vegetables in my meals, I brought along a bottle of multivitamins to ensure that I was getting all the required vitamins and minerals.

BE ACTIVE

There are plenty of ways to stay active while travelling: using the fitness room at hotels, doing a NTC workout in your room, finding a class in the city you're staying - and my personal favourite: walking. I used my iPhone to track how many kilometers we walked each day, and after walking 25km one day in Berlin we began to make a game out of it.

STAY HYDRATED

Becoming dehydrated is fairly easy to do when travelling (especially in countries famous for their wine) and can lead to fatigue, dizziness and even headaches. A simple solution is to travel with a reusable water bottle (I use a Swell bottle). On our grocery store runs, we'd purchase a few litres of water to refill the bottle during the day, and kept the rest in our hotel room once we finished site-seeing.

STICK TO ROUTINE

As I was packing, I knew that I wanted to stick to my skin care routine. I packed travel-sized bottles of sulfate and paraben-free shampoo and conditioner, a small tub of coconut oil, natural deodorant, toner, and a lip balm. Click to see a few of my favourite brands here.

RELAX & SLEEP

Undeniably I feel that sleep is most important factor in staying healthy while travelling. Oftentimes, we push ourselves to see and do more when we're exploring a new city and we forgo rest. Aim to get at least 7 hours of sleep whenever you can. Also, when you're exploring a city, find a spot, sit and relax. One of my favourite memories from our trip was sitting on a rock in Monterosso while savouring lemon sorbet and watching the water.

BONUS: Wool socks.