Maintaining your physical and mental health while you travel is extremely important, especially if you’re in it for the long run. There’s nothing worse than being in bed with a cold while your hostel buddies are out enjoying attractions, or missing out on breathtaking scenery because you aren’t fit enough to make the hike. Likewise, losing motivation or becoming disillusioned with travel are potential realities too. By keeping up plenty of physical and mental exercise and a decent diet, these issues are easily avoided.
Travel Body
Your body is what’s getting you around the world. You need it to walk, trek, bike, taste and experience this beautiful planet. Treating it well when you’re travelling really maximizes your ability to sense and enjoy every moment to the best possible degree.
The World Is Your Gym
I’ve met several people on my travels who actually purchase gym memberships or attend free gym trials in the city or town they are visiting. This is a great idea but it requires a lot of effort and time. Personally, I’m a huge fan of exercising outside or in a home-like environment – I find the gym a bit stifling. For those who love the gym, however, grabbing free trials or short-term memberships is a good solution (24-hour gyms without lock-in contracts work well for this). If you’re like me, though, and want to constantly keep up your workouts wherever you are, simply treat the world as your gym.
The most obvious and natural way to do this is to walk a lot. Walking through the city streets, going on free walking tours or foregoing public transport in favour of a stroll from one part of town to the other all helps you maintain your health. I also adore hiking so at least once a week I’ll seek out a local hiking route and take a day hike, or plan an extended, multi-day trekking trip. Don’t underestimate the workout you get when you carry all your possessions, food and water over a mountain. Hiking is an excellent way to stay fit while you travel, and depending on the trail and the country is usually a very cheap activity too. If you’re based in a city and want to maintain your cardio levels, you can always go for an occasional run or jog. Running is a great way to explore and experience a place too, especially if you go early in the morning when the city is just waking up.
If you’re concerned about losing muscle tone and strength, bodyweight exercises can suffice as a way of maintaining this to a degree. They are also fun and free of charge. Just go to a park and bust out some push-ups, pull-ups, leg raises, handstands, cartwheels, whatever you like. Mix it up and even go with a friend or fellow traveler to push each other and try new exercises. If you’re lucky enough to have private accommodation, you can exercise indoors if the weather outside isn’t suitable. I find that creating a routine or ‘circuit’ of bodyweight exercises helps me stay consistent.
For Example:
20x push-ups
20x lying leg raises
20x deep squats
1x 1-minute plank
10x pull-ups (if a bar is available)
20x burpees
Repeat for as many sets as you like, resting in between sets, or until you can’t do any more. Of course, as your strength improves you can increase the amount of repetitions of each exercise. The great thing about this little circuit is that it can be done anywhere, anytime. You can even put on your backpack or piggyback a friend to make the squats more challenging.
To maintain your flexibility while travelling it is important to stretch, especially if you are performing bodyweight exercises and hiking now and then. Warm up before a hike or workout by doing some dynamic (moving) stretching such as leg swings, twisting at the waist, windmilling the arms, jogging on the spot etc. After a hike or workout do some static (staying still) stretching, making sure to stretch out all the areas of your body that were engaged in the workout. My personal favourite way to maintain both strength and flexibility is to practice yoga asanas (poses) while I’m travelling. Take a few yoga classes before you leave or while you’re abroad and apply these lessons to your workout. You may even become one of many happy travellers who I’ve met who carry a yoga mat strapped to their backpack.
You Are What You Eat
It may be tempting to eat only the most unhealthy of local delicacies while you’re travelling, and unfortunately these are usually the most delicious, but you can definitely find and eat healthy local food too, wherever you go. Eating healthily will prevent a lot of sicknesses that can plague travelers, and will give you more energy to enjoy your trip. Eating healthily is really a no-brainer nowadays. Just eat whole foods including plenty of fruit and veggies, avoid fast food and processed foods (i.e. ones in a box or bag with multiple ingredients) and try to cook for yourself once in a while. The same goes for drinks – sugary soft drinks and processed juices can wreck your diet.
Eating healthily when you’re moving around frequently can be a challenge, as you will be snacking a lot. That said, you can easily substitute healthy snacks into your travel lunch box, rather than depending on fast food and salty or sugary conveniences. I always make sure that I have some fruit (fresh or dried), a mix of nuts and seeds, carrots or other easy to eat raw veggies to hand, and some meals in containers that I have prepared myself in a hostel kitchen or at a couch surfer’s place if I’m going to be on long bus or train rides.
Getting Sick Sucks, But It Can Be Prevented
If you maintain some sort of exercise regime and eat relatively healthily then the chances of you getting sick while you’re abroad are decreased significantly. However, getting sick while travelling is sometimes unavoidable. That said, there are a few additional preventative measures that you can take to ensure you aren’t sick too often.
Dietary supplements such as a good multivitamin and probiotic are a great way to add some extra nutrients to your system and to maintain a healthy gut. Probiotics are especially important if you’ve been sick recently and have taken antibiotics. Eating fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi and kefir also help to restore and maintain gut health. Just ensure that you buy a probiotic that doesn’t need to be refrigerated as this is impossible when you’re frequently moving from place to place.
Another preventative which is often a mandatory requirement for entry to certain regions is vaccinations. I always ensure that before I visit a region that I’ve never been to, I check the vaccination requirements for that area. Nobody wants to catch something serious like yellow fever or cholera when they are abroad. I also make sure that I have malaria medication handy if I’m in a malaria prone area.
Of course, there are times when you’ll get sick no matter how many preventative measures you put in place. Dengue is almost unavoidable as only one unlucky mosquito bite can cause it if the mosquito is carrying the viral strain. There is no vaccination for dengue and no preventative measures other than sleeping under a mosquito net and applying repellent, so ensure that you do both of these things if you’re in a dengue-prone area. As always, having good travel insurance will lessen the financial impact of unlucky situations such as this.
If you get sick despite all of these measures, don’t let it dishearten you. Even if you were still at home you’d still get sick once in a while. I actually find, surprisingly, that overall I am sick less while I’m abroad than when I’m at home. This will vary from person to person but the pros of travelling in incredible places will far outweigh the cons of getting sick every now and then.
Travel For Health Itself
As time goes by it seems that health-related travel is on the rise and very much on trend, and with good reason. By combining a healthy retreat with a travel experience not only will you be seeing and doing awesome stuff abroad, but staying healthy and learning new things as you go. Two prime examples of this that I have experienced first-hand are extended adventure trips and yoga retreats and ashrams.
No matter which country you visit, except maybe tiny city-covered countries like Monaco, there will always be some kind of beautiful natural environment to explore. By taking a long, multi-day hike, bicycle or rafting trip through such areas not only do you experience the beauty and develop a deep connection with a place, but you also get plenty of fresh air and exercise, two vital ingredients for maintaining good health. All the hiking trips I’ve done in the past I have done independently, but if you aren’t so confident with a map and compass you can book an adventure tour.
Adventure tours can encompass hiking, biking, kayaking, rafting, canoeing or a combination of any of these modes of transport. Countries that are known for adventure travel will have a plethora of tour companies to choose from. Examples of such countries that stand out to me include Nepal, New Zealand, Iceland, USA, Canada, Peru and Chile. You can also use walking or cycling as your primary mode of transport wherever you are travelling.
My first exposure to a yoga retreat was in Spain where, using Help Exchange, I volunteered for five weeks at a retreat in Catalonia. Not only was I provided with free food and accommodation, I also got a free yoga class every day. Such retreats are becoming very popular for travellers as they provide an escape from the material world and enable you to conduct some pretty heavy mental and physical personal development. After being inspired by my experience in Spain, I made sure that when I was in India I stayed in an ashram for a time. Ashram roughly translates to ‘spiritual community’ and they are essentially the original yoga retreats. Once they were firmly the domain of hardcore Indian yogis who were initiated into the fold after years of intense practice, but now many of them have opened their doors to foreign visitors. Staying in an ashram is a cheap and healthy way to have an authentic travel experience, provided that the ashram isn’t overly touristy. Some ashrams have sadly allowed the tourist industry to corrupt many of the traditional values and practices that they would have originally touted. Thankfully, these are obvious and easy to avoid and even so, I believe that yoga practiced in any form, in any environment, can be beneficial for your health.
Healthy or ‘active’ retreats that operate in a similar way to yoga retreats but encompass other forms of nutrition and exercise are also becoming popular and are usually held in gorgeous tropical locations. They are often quite expensive, however, and some even require a base level of fitness before you can attend. That said, any exercise is good exercise.
Travel Mind
The term ‘travel mind’ is something that I use to describe the manner in which your mind has the potential to, and almost always does, change when you travel. You become more receptive to stimuli from all senses. Sights, smells, sounds and tastes are amplified as you are exposed to new and exciting things every single day. The feeling of excitement you get every morning when you wake up in a new place, ready to explore your fascinatingly exotic surroundings is a subconscious manifestation of your travel mind. If you’re planning on travelling long-term, retaining this constant stream of excitement and wonder can be a challenge, and some backpackers even feel it diminish over time. Keeping your mind healthy is just as important as maintaining physical health, and will enable you to make the most of your travels, even if they last a lifetime.
Hitting The Wall
After some time, many long-term travelers start to feel sluggish, their once fine-tuned senses begin to diminish and their patience and tolerance threshold for the extraordinary lowers slowly over time. This is called hitting the wall, and it’s just like going for a jog and getting to that point where you just can’t jog anymore; to go on would feel like the world’s most tedious and difficult chore. Hitting the travel wall isn’t a result of privileged selfishness, as a spoilt Western backpacker ponders: Why me? Why does gallivanting around the world, visiting exotic destinations with inspiring people seem like such a bore? No, it isn’t that at all. Becoming bored or less receptive to a given situation having been exposed to it over a very long period (typically more than two years) is a natural response for many people, and some say it is a deep-seated inclination born from our prehistoric days as wandering nomads. Granted, some people are perfectly happy to do one thing and do it for the rest of their lives, but this is becoming increasingly rare. For many of us, sticking with something for the long run requires a bit more work.
So how to avoid hitting the wall? A simple mindfulness exercise can help, and below is one that I practice almost daily when I’m travelling, whether I’m feeling flat or not.
When you aren’t feeling so hot on travel anymore, but you still have a longer trip planned, step out the door of your tent/hostel/couch surfer’s place and just look around. Really look. Take a few deep breaths and allow your senses to consume all the stimuli that surrounds you. Become aware of sights, sounds and smells as they coalesce around you, drifting on the air and into your own mind. Realize how different this place is from where you grew up, and how full of history and fascinating human stories it must be. Focus on the beauty that surrounds you, and that can be found in everything, from the tiniest street-side flower to the mightiest mountain, and be grateful for the fact that you can be exposed to such beauty. Be grateful for the freedom that travel affords you. No office desk, no deadlines, no studies, no tests, just pure freedom in beautiful places. Allow this sensation to flood your entire being with happiness and gratitude.
This exercise may seem like a lot to remember but when you become familiar with the sensations that it can create, it becomes almost instinctual. Without even thinking about it you’ll feel pure joy every day, no matter where you are, and hitting the wall will be less likely. Maintain a positive, energised and excited travel mind, and you’ll never need to return home.
Stay Smart
When you’re travelling, away from the work environment, study and even the usual amount of reading you are accustomed to, there is a chance that you can start to decline in certain intellectual areas that would otherwise be stimulated and developed at home. Sure, you’ll probably be visiting a bunch of museums and art galleries, and participating in free walking tours, but your brain’s ability to process and record all of this information is dependent on how much you actually use it during various intellectual pursuits. When I’m travelling, I use a variety of resources to keep my brain active, which helps me to remember and be mindful of all the fascinating cultural and historic information that I’m being exposed to.
Coursera is a free university course platform where you can take individual or sequential units from universities all around the world, for free. Of course, you won’t receive a degree for this, but if there is a topic you are particularly interested in and have never had time to explore in depth at home, then Coursera is a good way to fill up some of the spare time you’ll undoubtedly have while travelling. You can study pretty much anything on Coursera, and doing a unit at a time is a nice way to keep the brain active without spending too much time studying. I’ve studied units about archaeology, architecture, classical music, philosophy, history, meditation and more while in the midst of a backpacking trip. Coursera isn’t the only site offering free MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), however. I’m also a big fan of edX and Khan Academy.
Duolingo is an online language learning platform that is fun to use and absolutely free. I find that even doing a few levels in Duolingo of the language of the country I’m visiting is immensely useful for integrating better with the locals. Also, casually exploring other languages is a great way to keep the brain malleable while travelling.
Another way to keep the brain active while travelling is simply to read a lot of books. Long bus rides and quiet nights out camping are perfect opportunities to delve into your favorite tome. I usually use an e-reader like a Kindle because carrying around enough physical books is just too heavy. That being said, quality bookstores, including second-hand ones, can be found everywhere in the world, so grabbing a book and trading it in or donating it later is a good option if you can’t get used to e-readers. Also, most hostels have excellent book swap shelves, where you swap one of your books for one on the shelf which was left there by another traveler.
Keeping the mind and body in decent condition can really enhance your travel experience, making you more able to fully enjoy each and every moment.
