This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Summertime Travel Healthy Habits

Tips and tricks to staying on a healthy track during this summer travel season

With the summer upon us, our regular schedules often are interrupted by travel. If you are a creature of habit this may cause a complete disruption of your lifestyle. If your habits just recently started to include regular exercise and healthy eating habits, the changes to your environment, schedule, and activities may throw you into a downward spiral to old bad habits.

So a good way to stay on track is to plan ahead. As you are planning your trek across the United States, or the trek to the shore, a part of the planning should include ways to keep on track with your exercise.

Finding a local gym or recreation center in the areas you are visiting can help you stay on track when the weather is not conducive to outdoor activities. If you are staying in a hotel, you may have a fitness facility accessible to you, or if you find the fitness facility limited in your hotel, either ask the front desk for a list of local fitness clubs or a you can check listings via the internet.  

If you are looking for a specific gym you can check their websites or you can check a website that lists more than one type gym in the area you are visiting, www.healthclubs.com. However this website is limited to the gyms that choose to pay to be on their site, so all the gyms in the area may not be listed.

Find out what's happening in Phoenixvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

If you are unable to find a facility, you can always utilize your hotel room or if you are renting a house, a couple jugs of water. a long hallway and some stairs. A gallon of water weighs approximately 8.3 lbs, so grab a few jugs of water and add it to a total body workout.  

When the weather is good and you have access to a park, beach, or playground you can utilize your own bodyweight to create a total body workout as well. The key is to plan ahead and have a plan for your workouts. Every exercise plan should include resistance training, which could be your own body weight, weights at the gym or gallons of water. And of course adding an active day trip that includes hiking, learning how to surf, kayaking–anything that includes you moving your body–is also a fantastic way to implement your exercise program.

If you are traveling by air and plan on spending large amounts of time near the airport waiting for flights, here is a link to find gyms near major airports. If you cannot leave the airport, and you have a long wait in the airport, walking the distance of an airport is a great way to get in some exercise. If you take your luggage with you it will add the resistance needed to make your walk a little more challenging. There is no need to sit for hours at the gate, walking from gate to gate can make the time go by faster as well as get you an awesome workout. Be sure to bypass all the unhealthy food options as well and walk to the nearest healthy food options.

As well as finding healthy food options in the airport, another great way to stay on track is finding locally grown healthy foods that can help you stay on track. Summer time allows for a great variety of produce, finding a local farmer’s market via Local Harvest can be helpful in filling in the gaps during the day. So you will not be lured into splurging on restaurant fare that may be a little more fattening. Having a small cooler or refrigerator so you can stock and store the fresh produce, as well as other quick healthy items, will help you stay on a healthy eating path.

Another trap we can fall into while traveling is failing to eat on a regular basis, which can lead to overeating and eating just to fill in the gaps. If you don’t want to spend six months after your vacation working off the splurges that occurred, make smart choices and prepare for the unexpected. While you are packing your bags be sure to include items that can sustain temperature changes and be easily accessible in case you are stuck without a decent food choice for miles. Along with your camera and sunscreen, carrying healthy snacks with you at all times should be a priority, just in case you get stuck without any food options. Eating a healthy breakfast on a daily basis will help you keep you on track as well.  

These are just a few suggestions to make your travel a part of your healthy lifestyle. There is no need to take a vacation from staying healthy. And of course, some relaxation and well needed rest should also be included in your vacation.  

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?