Our team members here at Live Better are frequent travelers, both for personal reasons and for business (like our Wellness Retreats!). With travel frequency back on the rise, we thought we’d share some helpful tips to make your travel routines healthy if you’re hitting the road or the skies anytime soon.

One of the challenges that travel presents, despite all its amazing adventures, is lack of access to your normal environment. While a break from the “routine” can be a great kickstart for creativity and relaxation, it also presents difficulties in terms of staying on track with your nutrition, exercise, go-to spots to unwind, and so forth.

Here are a few quick tips (some collected from our clients and community) to help you stay on track and make the most of your business trip or vacation:

Unpack immediately.
The goal here is to set up your space to feel settled. Personally, I love the feel of a hotel room because of its minimalist features, but it can feel “cold” and impersonal for some. Get your fridge stocked, book on the side table, clothes put away in drawers (not crumpled in your suitcase…), and bathroom put the way you want it.

Get coffee, get grounded, get sunshine.
This is a great 1-2-3 combo for resetting your system, especially if you’re going to experience jet lag or a few time zone changes. You can substitute the coffee for any morning beverage, but the goal is to get barefoot in the grass or sand and wake up with the sun the first morning. It will reset your body to the local time and help accelerate your acclimation.

Exercise.
Pre and post flight, we recommend doing something light but still sweat-inducing. It should be a “feel good” workout (which varies for everyone depending on training tolerance, goals, etc) that helps you move your body well after being sedentary while traveling. Spend 15-40 minutes  upon landing or early the next morning after getting sunshine.

Bonus Pro Tip: Do all your scouting in advance to build a full routine. Before you leave, map the nearest grocery stores, health food stores, gyms, coffee spots, and medical needs. Create a full workout and wellness routine before leaving, then fill in the blanks with running paths, workout classes, routines for the hotel gym (which you can search online for pictures of equipment), and nearest places to unwind (like the beach or park). “Look before you leap.”

Our Live Better Wellness Retreats are planned to do all of this work for you, essentially curating a “wellness vacation” that you return from healthier than when you left.

Travel should be an exciting extension of our lives, not something that consistently wears us down. The challenges of travel will always be present, but some advance planning and discipline will help you reset mentally and physically to have a great and successful trip, allowing you to return home on track and better than when you left!

Have the best day ever today.