This is part two of the series on maintaining your health while traveling. Part One can be found here. You will find many of the same strategies emphasized as with the cruise vacation, so this post will be a little shorter. This time around, the family and I did a very “Magical” Amusement Park experience for nearly a week.

The following are some of the tips I employed.

Try to keep to as much of your physical routine as possible.

• In order to maximize our experience at the park, we wanted to be there right at opening so we had early morning starts. This combined with the fact that I knew we would be doing a lot of walking each day (easy pace, Zone 2) with the occasional need to carry a tired child, I did not stress the fact that the hotel gym was very bare bones. It had an elliptical machine that I used for 10-20 mins each morning, more to just loosen up and get my body prepped for the day. There were some light dumbbells, so on three of the days I did a very fast paced, light weight, high rep workout that lasted no more than 15 mins. I typically do the majority of my stretching on the floor, however, curiously the hotel did not have any mats available and the towels provided were mere face clothes. No problem, I modified my routine to stretch nearly all the muscles I typically do but from a standing position. All in, I was in and out in around 30 minutes each day. Even if the hotel did not have a gym, I would have done a brisk walk or light jog with some standing stretching every morning to try to keep to my routine and prepare for the day ahead. Again, I knew we were going to be doing a lot of walking, so I was not overly concerned with not following my usual routine to a tee.
• Don’t forget traveling can put different types of stressors on your physical body, like carrying bags etc. Sneak in a little time for stretching here and there when you can, like when you are waiting in a line or waiting for the rest of your traveling party to get ready. The park was regularly playing music while we were waiting in line, so take the opportunity to dance alone or with your kids. This has the added benefit of keeping them occupied while you wait in a line.

Try to keep to as much of your sleep routine as possible. My tips from Part One can be found here.

Surviving the Plane rides.

• On both of my flights I ended up using a packet of Bullet Proof Instamix stirred into black coffee. Once again I was able to go hours of flight time and ground transportation before I was hungry and needed to eat. I will not need to pack snacks for myself anymore for traveling durations of six hours or less. I politely decline the cookies and chips and sugary drinks they serve on the plane. Just sticking to water is important to keep hydrated while flying. I also try and move a little during the flight to keep from getting stiff in those Economy seats.

Try to keep to your eating routine as much as possible.

• It is surprising how a week of decadence can set back your health goals. The key to enjoying yourself while sticking to your eating routine is just a little bit of planning and forethought.
• As you know, I eat and advocate a low inflammatory diet. This means different things to different people, but for me, I eat a higher fat, lower carb diet with minimal sugars and grains. So how did I try and stick to this.
  • I brought cinnamon along with me and purchased a small jar of coconut oil. Minimal weight to travel with and a good addition to my coffee in the morning after my brief workout. This starts the day off right with some healthy fats.
  • Our hotel had breakfast included. It was the typical fare of cereals, yogurt, waffles and other manner of grains. Luckily, they did provide hard boiled eggs every morning and alternated between offering sausages and bacon. In trying to eat as normal as possible I would eat four hard boiled eggs and some sausage and bacon and a couple mornings I splurged on some fruit. A high fat breakfast provides me the satiety to make it until lunch without the need for snacking.
  • Lunch was nearly always in the park. I would bring along with me one can of sardines, a can of oysters, two apples and some mixed nuts and pumpkin seeds. This provides a nice low inflammatory mix of protein, fats and low glycemic carbs. Enough to fuel our adventures until dinner.
  • Dinners ended up being where we ate out at restaurants. A few dinners were in the park, and the park fare has improved a little bit over the years. There was one restaurant that offered up a few different salad choices. Each choice had some great ingredients as well as one or two items that were not ideal. I simply got the attention of the main person in charge of preparing them and asked if I could have one of the options, holding off a few ingredients and subbing for other ingredients that were in one of the other choices, and always hold the dressing. They were happy to oblige, and I got the salad that I wanted to eat. Another night at the park I ordered some Mexican food and simply asked for extra veggies instead of the rice and beans. No problem! While you cannot always control everything with the meal, you can ask for small substitutions to upgrade it. Another night outside the park we went out for ribs. I simply subbed the two sides choices for a double serving of broccoli. Another night we choose to go out for thin crust pizza (who doesn’t like a good thin crust?). I ordered a side of broccoli to get an extra serving of vegetables in and to help curb my appetite.
  • I am not a big dessert guy anyways but there was nothing that looked or sounded appealing to me the entire trip. Easy choice for me, no dessert.

Healthy Snacks are important to travel with.

• To see a list of the snacks I travel with see Part 1 here. My lunches this trip pretty much followed this snack protocol.
• One thing I did utilize more this trip than the last was using a greens powder that I travel with. I did not use this everyday, but on the few days where we left the park and went back to the hotel for a little break I took a scoop and mixed it in a glass of water. I fully admit the consistency is not as great as if it were blended into a smoothie but getting some extra veggies in made me feel better.

With the sleep disruptions, early morning flights and coming back to some cold weather, I did feel a little inflammation once I got home, but it only took a couple days of being back on my regular schedule (exercise, sleeping, and eating) to be 100% back to normal. If I can do it, you can do it too. I hope both parts of this article has given you some ideas and perhaps inspire you to know that you can travel, have a good time and come out the other side with Exceptional Results for the Exceptional You.