Wellness tripping

Be mindful of your meal portions and ensure you’re active, even when on vacation

(Express Illustrations)

Travel is the time when most of our healthy eating habits go for a toss. But it’s as simple as this, do we stop brushing our teeth when we are on a holiday? No! Because that’s a part of our routine. Similarly, healthy eating and exercising shouldn’t be counted as extra work.

Despite this, let’s look at tips that you can follow on your next trip to make sure you are eating healthy, enjoying your travel and keeping your system clean.

• What to eat: When eating out, we tend to choose unhealthy options which are fried or loaded with processed flour, sugar, etc., but these heavy meals can make us feel sluggish. It’s better to go by the GPRS rule when choosing your food while eating at a restaurant. Here, GPRS means choosing food options which are:

G-Grilled

P-Poached

R- Roasted/baked

S-Steamed/stir-fried

This helps you in making healthy food choices, which keeps digestion in check.

• Portion control: If you can’t stick to the GPRS protocol then it’s better to start your meal with cooked salad or soup, which will partially fill you up. Then, you can choose options that may not be so healthy. But at least we will have portion control, which will neither affect the stomach nor make you feel heavy. Focus on slowing down, chewing well, and enjoying your meal.
• Easy swaps: Even during travel it’s important to avoid food that will create an acidic environment in the body and can lead to inflammation. So, a strict no to white processed sugar, white flour, corn flour, etc. Try to choose rice-based or whole grain noodles or pasta or pizza bases over maida.
• Fibre connection: Constipation is a problem that many people face while travelling, and that’s because they load their bodies with processed foods. Try to add a good amount of fibre to your meals in the form of veggies, which could be grilled, sautéed, stir-fried, steamed, etc.
• Hydrate: When we talk about constipation, water plays an important role. People get so engrossed in travelling that they don’t want to take loo breaks. That’s why water intake goes down. But ultimately, lack of water starts affecting one’s stomach health, causing dehydration, and constipation. Make sure that you drink an adequate amount of water while on a trip, to flush out the toxins from your body.
• Keep your body alkaline: Alcohol puts pressure on the liver for its detoxification and stops the liver from performing other functions such as digesting, metabolising, etc. But during travel, it is hard for a few people to stay away from alcohol. In this case, have a glass of lemon water before the drink, between two drinks, and at the end of your last drink to make sure your body stays alkaline.
• Lemon water: Keeping your body alkaline during travel becomes important to improve gut health and that’s why starting your day with a glass of lemon water (if lemon suits you) will be helpful. Lemon is acidic in nature outside of our body but once the juice mixes with our saliva and gets metabolised by the body, it produces alkaline byproducts. Due to this, it has a negative PRAL (Potential Renal Acid Load) and is considered an alkaline food. If you can’t have lemon, have fruits with 3-4 soaked nuts once a day (first half).
• Move your body: Exercise is one thing that nobody wants to do on holiday but when we are travelling, our body needs movement to keep the stress at bay as well as to ensure we digest everything we are eating. Do a 15 minutes quick and effective workout like Tabata, jogging, brisk walking, cycling, or dancing to set the pace of your metabolism.
• Fennel seeds: Carry fennel seeds when travelling because our stomach suffers a lot when you eat outside. Fennel has carminative properties, which help control gas production and contains digestive enzymes. Take a teaspoon of fennel seeds after meals and chew well.
• Sleep right: Whether you are at home or travelling, sleep is an integral part of your health. If one’s sleep gets compromised we feel low on energy, irritable, fatigued, grumpy, etc. If you are having late nights, catch up with your sleep after that and wake up only when your body feels like waking up.

Enjoy your food without guilt and focus on slow eating to control the portion size of meals during your next journey.

My travel essentials

1-2 lemons

Supplements/medication

Cold-pressed coconut oil (for hair and skin)

Healthy snacks

Fennel seeds

Steel water bottle so I can store my water in it, instead of drinking from plastic bottles

Triphala powder. Take one tsp mixed in water at night to avoid constipation

Aloe vera gel for moisturising the skin after a bath

Deepika Rathod
Chief Nutrition Officer, Luke Coutinho Holistic
Healing Systems. The writer is a clinical nutritionist with a focus on healthy lifestyle choices.