6 Ways to Stay Healthy While Traveling Abroad Long Term

Today at justlivejoy.com, we are featuring a collaboration with Lisa Romanov from Cultural Foodies on 6 ways to Stay Healthy While Traveling Abroad Long Term. We are very excited to share her expertise on travel, health, and wellness.

Traveling abroad long-term is one of the most exhilarating, terrifying, exhausting, fascinating and rewarding things you can ever do in your life. As healthy and balanced of a lifestyle you may have in your day-to-day world back home, traveling abroad has a way of throwing a monkey wrench into all your best-laid plans. There are many reasons for your body to get out of synch while traveling; long plane rides can cause bloating, jetlag and time zone changes can cause sluggishness, and you may not have access to a blender to make those daily green smoothies in your Airbnb, hotel or hostel. So how can you stay healthy while traveling in another country, especially for longer durations of time? Here are six ways to keep your body and mind aligned while traveling:

1. Keep a Routine

Admittedly, this was the most difficult thing for us to do when my husband and I took six months off to travel abroad. We did relatively quick travel where we would change accommodation or cities once every one – two weeks, which got exhausting after a while. Though we stayed in one country for anywhere between two – five weeks, we changed cities more frequently throughout the stay, making it difficult to keep a schedule when we were constantly traveling on planes, trains and automobiles. 

One way to keep a solid routine is to maintain a bit of structure to your day and week. Now I’m not saying to throw spontaneity out the window; some people thrive off of not having a set schedule, and that’s completely fine; but after several weeks or months of eating dinner at 11PM, skipping breakfast, or going to bed at 3AM, your body is going to start revolting and shutting down, and that’s a clear path to travel burnout. 

Instead, try to keep all your meals around the same time every day, and do your best to wake up and go to bed around the same time as well. This will keep your circadian rhythm in synch and your gut bacteria healthy. If you’re adjusting to new time zones, melatonin works wonders, and if you’ve got a sensitive stomach to eating and drinking water in foreign countries, probiotics can also help. 

2. Alternate Between City and Nature Stays

In 2017 my (then partner, now husband) and I traveled through nine countries in six months starting in South America and ending in Eastern Europe. In order to keep from going crazy in the cities, we would alternate staying in a metropolis and then staying in the country for a balance and to allow our bodies and minds time to unplug, listen to birds instead of busses, smell flowers and forests instead of car fumes, and swim in seas of saltwater instead of seas of people. For example, we began our trip to Colombia in the capital of Bogota and ended in the coffee country of Salento. It was amazing to physically feel different in each place, and during our country stay feel so refreshed and recharged to continue on to our next destination. 

This was especially refreshing after a one-month stay in Russia where we lived in the city with cold weather and grim faces for a little too long (our next destination was Crete, Greece where we were engaged!)

3. Carve Out At Least Three Times a Week For One Hour Each Day of Exercise

When you travel abroad long term, you’ll quickly meet other folks who are doing the same thing and bond over your love for travel and living the nomadic lifestyle with no agenda. A common joke is that we lose all our muscle when we travel. It’s a little too easy to overeat (no names, Italy), especially when you’re in a new place and trying all the new foods, making new friends, staying with host families, and trying to fit into the local culture.  The good thing is that we did heaps of walking in each country we visited because public transportation was efficient and cities were easily walkable. We would clock between 3 – 10 miles each day, which made us lean and thin, but because the heaviest thing we ever lifted was our 65-liter backpack onto the check in belt at the airport, we lost a lot of muscle. 

A great way to combat muscle loss is to find local parks or workout stations (many cities have these for free, including where we live on Oahu), or check Yelp for the nearest gym and see what the price would be for a drop-in class. If you’ll be staying somewhere for longer than one month, look into a monthly membership. For a more personal and individual approach, you can set an alarm on your phone to go off at a certain time each day, and that’s your cue to stop what you’re doing and perform your exercise (whether it’s 50 jumping jacks, yoga asanas, a simple stretch, 100 sit ups, or some easy calf raises.) On the plane en route to your next destination during your timer alarm? No problem; doing lunges down the aisles will not only get your blood circulation going, it’ll get you a lot of strange looks, and that’s quite alright. 

4. Go Grocery Shopping at Your Favorite Market and Cook for Yourself at Home

Being a foodie, I am highly energized and excited by trying new foods and cultural experiences all over the world. While I love dining out and trying the local dishes of whichever region we are visiting, nothing makes me more happy than going to a local market to purchase my own groceries to cook at home. With so much time on the road and consuming so many foreign ingredients, there’s nothing like cooking your favorite comfort meal using ingredients you know and making a dish you’re familiar with. This is not only a great way to save money while traveling long-term, but it has a way of re-setting your system. Your stomach will say, “ahh, yes, I remember (insert comfort food of choice); I can relax now because you’re not feeding me fish eyeballs.”

5. During Long-Haul Flights or Transit Days When Moving From One Country To Another, Get to the Airport Early and Allow at Least Half an Hour to Meditate Before Flying

Even if meditation is not your thing, there’s nothing more stressful than realizing that your flight is leaving one hour earlier than you thought, or that you didn’t factor in rush hour traffic to your commute from your accommodation to the airport. Allowing extra time to leisurely make your way to the airport, check in and relax before your flight, will set the tone for the next leg of your trip, so be sure to allow yourself enough time so that you don’t feel rushed. 

6. Get a Restful Sleep and Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Comfort

This one is obvious, but it’s amazing when you think about how many factors affect our precious sleep. Some things you can do prior to booking your accommodation are to read thorough reviews of the space, including the bed and mattress; do people complain about a too-hard or too-soft mattress? Also be on the lookout for reviews about noise levels in the area; is it near to a school where an early bell will alarm you each morning at 7AM? Is it in an area with nightclubs that jam out “Despacito” until the wee hours of the morning?

When we visited Kyoto, Japan, the pillows that were provided at our Airbnb were horribly firm and so tall that it caused a crick in our necks. Needless to say, we barely slept on our first night. The next day, we kindly asked our host for a softer pillow, which they brought immediately, and throughout the rest of our stay we slept like babies! Don’t be afraid to ask for something that might make your stay more comfortable (of course, within reason.)

I hope that these six tips help to keep you balanced and healthy on your next travels abroad! Bon voyage and salud!

Note: Lisa can be found at @cultural_foodies on instagram or her website www.culturalfoodies.com. Take the time to follow Lisa and her many travels today. And don’t forget to follow us @justlivejoyblog on instagram, justlivejoy on Facebook, as well as Pinterest and Twitter. Our travel page can be found here. Wishing Lisa, and all of you love, joy, and a safe journey.