7 Healthy Travel Hacks for Digestion
Traveling is always exciting, but can often disrupt our routines, and, at times, our digestive systems. If you struggle to keep your digestive system regular and feeling good while travelling, or just want to learn some of my favourite tips and hacks for healthy travel, keep reading!
If you missed my blog post on my Top Digestive Tips for Travel, be sure to go read that, as I get into details about how to support digestion with food. Today’s blog will cover some of my favourite non-food related tips for travelling healthy with ease and how you can feel great while travelling.
Incorporate Movement
Getting some movement while on vacation, including during your travel day can go a long way in supporting good digestion! Walking at the airport instead of sitting, doing a quick workout and stretch in the mornings and walking around your destination are all great options. Movement helps relieve fatigue, brain fog, supports immunity and aids constipation.
Practice Deep Breathing for Digestion
Deep breathing is one of the easiest ways to stay grounded, reduce stress and support digestion while travelling. Consider trying box breathing, where you breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, breathe out for 4 seconds and hold for 4 seconds.
Digestive Aids For Travel
Here are some supplements I suggest packing for travel:
Digestive Enzymes: I recommend digestive enzymes during travel to aid digestion and help prevent symptoms like bloating, gas and digestive pain. We can’t always control exactly what’s in our food while travelling, so it’s a great idea to have some additional support.
Probiotics for digestion: Saccharomyces boulardii is a beneficial yeast that can aid in the prevention of traveller’s diarrhea and support recovery, should exposure to a pathogen occur.
Activated charcoal: I always recommend having activated charcoal on hand in case of food poisoning. It helps bind to pathogens to aid their removal and can help alleviate food poisoning-related diarrhea. Take a few times a day between meals for best results.
Magnesium bisglycinate: A high quality magnesium bisglycinate serves to aid regularity, relieve constipation, support sleep, stress and can be helpful for muscle recovery and energy.
Immune Supports: Additionally, you may consider immune supports, such as vitamin D3, probiotics, zinc and vitamin C (Stellar C is my favourite, as it’s a whole-food vitamin C with bioflavonoids for increased bioavailability).
Sleep Support: While magnesium aids sleep, melatonin can also be very helpful for sleep and alleviating jet-lag during and after travel.
Find my Travel Supplements for digestion, immunity & sleep here!
The Importance of Grounding
If you’ve never heard of grounding, it’s simply putting your feet on the earth and connecting to nature. While it may seem like a small, insignificant task, there are numerous benefits to grounding, especially post-travel.
Grounding appears to improve the following:
improves sleep
regulates cortisol patterns
reduces pain
reduces stress
reduces inflammation
supports a rest and digest, parasympathetic state, which is extremely important for digestive function
A simple way to ground after a long travel day is to take your shoes and socks off and spend a few minutes walking on a grassy space or in the ocean if you’re lucky enough to be near one!
Travel With Better Personal Care Products
While not a digestion-specific tip, reduce your toxin exposure by bringing your own soap, shampoo and conditioner. Castile soap is a great multi-purpose soap that can be used for hands, body, dishes and more! I purchased some silicone travel containers years ago and use them for every trip and even for the yoga studio. Consider bringing a non-toxic dish-washing pod or liquid and a small travel container for laundry detergent. I also travel with a small face-cleansing oil that I use in my hair too and some incredibly moisturizing beef tallow body butter.
Consider Reusable Silicone Bags
Reusable silicone bags, such as Stasher Bag, can be useful for packing food, supplements, liquids, wet bathing suits, or even a small natural first aid kit with essential oils, hand sanitizer, bandaids and emergency supplements like activated charcoal and probiotics.
How to Pack Supplements for Travel
I use a pill wallet with individual plastic baggies labeled for each day. I find this to be the most useful tool both at home and while travelling to organize my supplements and ensure I’m staying on track with taking them. It keeps everything super compact, plus there are zero spills, unlike the hard case organizers you often see at drugstores. No bulky pill bottles needed!
What are some of your favourite healthy travel tips? Comment below!
Asher Kleiber
Registered Holistic Nutritionist
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378297/#:~:text=Grounding appears to improve sleep,healing%2C and reduce blood viscosity.
