healthy travel

It's coming: holiday travel will be here before you know it. Braving long lines and cramped seating situations can take a toll on your health. Come armed and ready to fight germs and stress-causing situations by traveling with these essentials.

1. A reusable water bottle: Traveling, especially if you're flying, is dehydrating. Don't let it compromise your immune system; travel with a leak-proof reusable water bottle, and fill up at any water fountain while you're on the go.
2. Healthy snacks: A grumbling stomach can talk you into an unhealthy eating decision, so keep your energy up and your diet on track by carrying a few healthy snacks, like an all-natural granola bar or a container of hummus and veggies. Get more healthy snack ideas here.
3. Green tea bags: Green tea has been shown to help boost your immune system, so keep it handy while you're braving travel germs. Bringing your own green tea bags makes it easy for you to enjoy a cup on the go; just request a cup of hot water while you're on the plane or stopped at a gas station.
4. Running shoes: Exercise relieves stress, boosts immunity, and helps counteract that heaping Thanksgiving plate. Bringing running shoes wherever you go means you can go for a walk, run, or hike whenever the mood strikes.

Staying healthy is tough enough, especially at the height of cold and flu season. But when heading out for holiday travel, the immune system needs to have the best support possible. I chatted with naturopath practitioner Dr. Holly Lucille about the important steps we should all take to keep germs at bay, and our bodies at their best.

Take Preventative Measures
Dr. Lucille's first piece of advice for cold and flu season? Don't get sick. By taking healthy precautions now, you're putting your body in the best position to stay healthy later. While vitamin C is "a sort of pedestrian vitamin that doesn’t have a lot of crazy bells, whistles, or claims," study after study has shown that it works. As a general recommendation, Dr. Lucille has her patients increase their vitamin C intake to 500 mg, twice daily. While Dr. Lucille believes in the power of cultured foods, she's also a proponent of taking a high-quality probiotic supplement since "89 percent of our immune system is driven by having good microflora in your gut."

Pack Right
Airplane travel and jet lag can wreak havoc on our systems. "People might look at you like you have the Bubonic plague," but if you're going to fly with a compromised immune system during cold and flu season, Dr. Lucille suggests wearing a surgical mask. Although it may seem a little silly, she said that those masks successfully "offer protection from people around you." If the mask is too much, staying hydrated is key to helping your body fight off germs in the recycled air. Dr. Lucille also explained that "the only time she ever uses melatonin is if someone is flying over time zones . . . small doses, even a milligram, can really help establish normal sleep patterns earlier."

Keep reading for one more of Dr. Lucille's tips to stay healthy this holiday season.

It's nearly one of the most tumultuous times of the year: holiday travel season. While it's still a few weeks out, setting specific intentions and making good habits before a trip can help things go more smoothly than you could have imagined. While studies have shown that meditation lowers stress and improves attention, I chatted with Manhattan-based yoga teacher and meditation specialist April Martucci of FireDragon Yoga about specific tips to take into the holidays.

Consistency Over Intensity
April explains, "Even if someone does it [meditation] for five minutes a day, it’s better than doing it for one hour once a month." Like any other activity or healing art, you're going to have to show up for yourself and commit. Luckily, a few minutes a day is all it takes in the beginning, and recognizing that a practice takes time to develop. Committing to regular meditation now will help you stay centered once the craziness of the holidays set in.

Press Pause
When I asked April about what meditation brings to the table other than sheer relaxation, she took a minute to collect her thoughts and explained that "meditation teaches us to pause. You’re learning how to refrain. So many times our biological impulses are on overdrive and we’re doing things without any consciousness." When issues arise, April herself uses a specific technique to calm down. She takes a "simple mudra (sacred hand symbol): left hand on your heart, right hand on your belly." Not only is this mudra very nurturing, but you're also physically holding yourself back from reacting. Take a few deep breaths here, and you'll feel better in no time. Taking a step back helps to better look at the situation — and not fly off the handle — when things don't go according to plan.

Keep reading for one more meditation tip for stressful family gatherings.

All it takes is a wrench in your daily routine to make it that much harder to stick to your regular routine. So you can be forgiven if something fun — like a weekend road trip — makes you lax about sticking to a healthy eating plan. But making the smarter decision will help save calories, and you can do it with little effort at all. Here are four ways to make healthier food choices while you're on the go.

Diner meals: Stopping for a break on the road? Never-ending stacks of pancakes or chicken-fried anything may sound tempting, but a plate full of fried foods mixed with hours spent in a car does not make for a healthy day. Instead of ordering the fries and the milkshake, swap one out for a side salad and feel better about your indulgences. Find out more healthy diner swaps here.

Drive-through: If you've got to do it, make sure you know which fast-food options are the best for your waistline. Most fast-food restaurants post calorie counts, so read carefully to make a healthy choice. To make things easier, here are healthy menu options from top fast-food chains. Or use this tip from Hungry Girl: don't be afraid to mix and match menu items to get the high-protein, low-calorie meal you need: "I’ll order the chicken sandwich and then I pull the chicken out and put it on a salad."

More tips after the break!

You're on the road and you've already polished off the healthy snacks you stashed in your bag. Hunger pains are moving in, and since fast food is not an option, you head to the nearest gas station/convenience store. Guess what? They aren't just filled with soda and Snickers. Here are some nutritious snacks you can feel good picking up while filling up.

• Cheese sticks: These tasty sticks are only 80 calories and offer eight grams of filling protein.
• Triscuits: Made with whole wheat, oil, and salt, six crackers have only 120 calories.
• Yogurt: Greek is best because it's so high in protein, but if you can't find that, look for nonfat yogurt made without artificial ingredients.
• Nuts: Try to find unsalted packages, and check out this visual of what 100 calories of nuts looks like so you don't go overboard.
• Dried fruit: Raisins, dried cranberries, apple rings, and even bags of mixed fruit are often next to the nuts. A quarter-cup serving ranges from 80 to 150 calories.
• Fresh fruit: You probably won't find organic, but at least it's fresh. Many convenience stores sell apples, oranges, and bananas.
• Tortilla chips: Skip the flavored Doritos and opt for plain old Tostitos. Made with corn, oil, and salt, a one-ounce serving (about seven Restaurant-Style chips) contains 140 calories, 115 mg of sodium, one gram of fiber, and two grams of protein. Not the healthiest snack on the planet, but certainly not the worst.
• Popchips: A newer chip on the block, neither fried nor baked, these potato chips are popped and lightly seasoned, so a three-ounce serving is only 120 calories.
• Popcorn: Look for plain popcorn rather than cheddar-flavored or kettlecorn.
• Orange juice: Go for the real deal (not from concentrate) for a boost of vitamin C.
• Milk: It's a protein-packed beverage that's much healthier than a bottle of cream and sugar-loaded coffee drink.
• Fruit-flavored seltzer: Calorie-free and so refreshing, flavored seltzer is a little more exciting than plain old water.

Source: Flickr user Casey Serin

With London footing a $15-billion price tag to host the Summer Olympics, citizens and visitors will be reaping the rewards from this expense long after the Olympics say its adieu in August. This is especially true if you love fitness, being active, or the word sports has a way of getting you excited. If London wasn't on your list of must-see cities in the near future, you may want to reconsider.

• London is begging you to bike: Make no mistake, navigating around London during the games is going to be tricky, but city planners have been anticipating what could very well be a logistical nightmare even before they won the bid. If all goes as expected, people will be walking and biking their way to events as part of the Olympics Active Travel program: $50 million of new cycling and walking paths have been established in the last few years, as well as a new citywide bike-sharing program. Residents of London are already taking advantage of this new bike-friendly attitude; on major commuter roads, cyclists now outnumber cars.
• It's not all falling down, my fair lady: While temporary structures are a mainstay of any Olympics, several of the buildings constructed for the games are permanent. Here's what active London residents and visitors can look forward to: a public aquatics center, miles of new running paths, a velodrome and BMX track, and a new indoor arena designated for community use, athlete training, and events. Existing sports locations like Weymouth and Portland and Wimbledon are being improved upon, leaving state-of-the-art facilities for future use.

Source: Flickr User EG Focus