Staying healthy and happy on your summer holidays

If you are going away on a summer holiday this year and your thoughts are turning to sun and sea and sand, or to more active adventures, you may be asking yourself some important questions. How can I stay healthy? What are the best health tips for traveling? What can I do to stay on track with my nutrition and lifestyle? I have just come back from a holiday in Spain and I have the answers to some of those questions from my own recent experience!

Travelling

Going on a plane is exciting but it can also be very stressful and taxing on the body, especially long haul flights. There are lots of little things you can do to reduce stress while travelling such as leaving yourself enough time and making a checklist of all you need to do beforehand. If you are  monitoring blood sugar levels, make sure to bring healthy snacks with you so you don’t have big spikes in blood sugar through excessive hunger and wrong choice of sugary snacks at the airport. I like to take a bag of nuts with me, but I am aware some fellow-travelers have nut allergies so listen out for requests not to eat nuts on the plane and eat them before/after your flight!

Staying hydrated is so important because of the dry pressure of the plane cabins. Make sure you keep hydrated by drinking water with additional electrolytes and try to keep your eyes and nasal passages from drying out as well. Some people on long-haul flights tape their mouth shut (with invisible tape) as a way to protect respiratory health and prevent dryness. I think this is a very practical way to avoid picking up extra bugs and viruses but my flight to Spain was so short I did not need it this time!

Sunshine

While we may dream of sunny days at the beach or exploring new locations, we can often forget how powerful a foreign sun is on English skin! Either we end up getting sunburnt or we slather on massive amounts of sunscreen. I do not encourage either extreme and my best advice is to work out how to protect yourself from the sun without exposing yourself to too many potentially harmful chemicals in shop-bought sunscreen.

If you check the list of ingredients in sunscreen (and also in many other skin care products) you will notice quite a long list of things you probably don’t want going on your skin or in your body. The skin is the largest organ in the body and many harmful chemicals enter the body via the skin. To avoid using too much sunscreen and to avoid sunburn I suggest using a hat and light clothing in the heat of the day. When the sun is at its highest and you are most likely to be burnt, try to stay in the shade and cover up, or have that holiday siesta instead! A useful app to check whether your sunscreen is toxic is the Yuka app. This app will also tell you better alternatives. When I first downloaded this app, I scanned the sunscreen I planned to buy in the shop.

At other times of the day, when the sun’s rays are not so intense, it is a very good idea to enjoy the natural, healing warmth of the sun. Sunlight is essential for Vitamin D synthesis and Vitamin D is vital in supporting our immune system, and it contributes to calcium metabolism and bone health. You might like to take it easy and gradually build up with ten or fifteen minutes in the sun to allow yourself to acclimatize. You will notice how well you feel once you enjoy the sun without getting sunburnt.

Enjoy the great outdoors

Holidays are for relaxing and refreshing and also for energizing! Spending time walking around outdoors and swimming in the sea are great forms of exercise and actually don’t feel like a chore at all. Spending the day barefoot is also a great holiday treat which is also very good for you as it allows you to connect with nature on a whole new level and you feel amazing at the end of the day. I recently watched a fantastic documentary called ‘The Earthing Movie‘.

Taking long walks on the beach or hiking along coastal paths allows you to breath in the fresh air and immerse yourself in the natural beauty of God’s world. Cycling, running and swimming will give you more of a workout and you may want to explore new sports like paddle boarding or water skiing. Enjoying nature and giving thanks for its beauty and blessings is an easy thing to do while on holiday!

Healthy food

I’m sure we are all very good at finding wonderful new places to eat while on holiday and many interesting new food to try! Remember that you will also feel wonderful if you take the less processed and more natural options. Meat, fish and fresh vegetables or salads taste amazing while eaten alfresco or in a picnic and they are also the most healthy. Make sure you opt for grilled or baked meat as opposed to fried or processed if you have the choice!

In terms of supplements, the best supplements I can suggest to cover your holiday needs are listed below:

• A probiotic
  • Saccharomyces Boulardii – for travelling diarrhoea
  • Bifido & Fibre by Optibac – for constipation
  • Travel Abroad by Optibac – general probiotic
• A multinutrient
  • ProGreens – particularly if lack of vegetables and fruit
• Immune support
  • Vitamin C and zinc – for immune support

Sleep

We need sleep for deep healing and restoration so don’t be ashamed to catch up on any lack of sleep. Sometimes when we are on holiday we don’t want to miss a single day in beautiful new locations, but don’t forget to take a nap when you need to! Sleep is so important for overall physical and mental well-being. Good quality sleep is able to restore, repair, and rebuild your body as well as help combat stress, improve memory and strengthen your immune system. You can read my previous blogs about the health benefits of quality sleep here. 

Thankfulness

Last but not least, thankfulness! Being in a thankful state of mind is not hard to do when we are on holiday enjoying ourselves…but sometimes holidays have their own particular stresses. Staying thankful allows us to cope with all of the little stressful moments and it enlarges our capacity for enjoying all the special moments a holiday can bring. You can read more about this in another of my previous blogs here.

Finally, if you are worried about ‘holiday symptoms’ occurring, perhaps listen to Jen Johnson’s ‘Thought by Thought Healing’ podcast on ‘3 Tips to prevent holiday symptoms‘. I wish you all a very happy summer holiday wherever you may be!

With every blessing,

Emma

Emma Maitland-Carew – Registered Nutritional Therapist

Dip.ION, mBANT, CHNC Registered Practitioner, ILM Accredited Wellbeing Coach

Certified Live and Dried Blood Analysis, Metabolic Balance® Coach, HeartMath Coach, Accredited Wellbeing Coach