Your Health & Safety Are Your Top Concerns!

I violated my cardinal Rule of the Road, and have paid for it.  Whoops!  Always maintain healthy habits, take your vitamins, keep up your strength.  Well, I blew that big-time.  Ran out of vitamins, above all vitamin C, as well as echinacea, which boosts the immune system, and neglected to restock promptly.  In fact, let it go for a couple of months.  Busy-busy-busy.  Then ran into a friend, stopped to chat, and she had bronchitis.

After two courses of antibiotics, weeks of fever - ailing - fatique, I'm back.  And vow to help you keep the bugs away!  Worse than being sick at home is being sick on the road, or in temporary digs, or living the Road Warrioress life.

So, here are some tips I've followed (and those I've failed to follow).  The difference is staying healthy and keeping up with travel's rigors and demands, or not.

1.  Maintain high standards of hygiene and health maintenance.  Shower, brush teeth, scrub hands with soap instead of using that goopy alcohol sanitizer, keep everything clean - clean - clean.

2.  Drink only bottled (distilled or reverse-osmosis deionized - also called "purified") water.  Minerals can vary from one type of spring water to another, and goof up your system.  Lots of those minerals are salts, and salt is not particularly useful.  And drink plenty of water, too!  Eight 8-ounce glasses a day is about two liters or two quarts or half a gallon.

3.  Take your vitamins, minerals, herbal supplements.  Choose your vitamin regimen that works best for you and stick to it!  Keep up your resistance, keep your immune system well revved up.

4.  Hanging around an area for awhile?  Expats share info on their favorite docs and dentists, not just where to find lightbulbs or American pantyhose or British-favorite teas.  Make quick notes of resources in a small notebook by country and city.  Or keep a little pack of index cards in a plastic box.

5.  Get sick in a strange place, or fracture a tooth?  Call the nearest consulate representing your country of citizenship, ask for Citizen Services, and see who they put on the list for your country's diplomatic services personnel.  Often they select professionals trained in your country, or speak your native language, or at least speak English as well as the local lingo.  Since English is the world's most widely spoken language (when you count native speakers plus second-language), that's the "default language of choice." 

American consulates are generally well equipped with lists of American-trained doctors, dentists, veterinarians, and assorted healthcare professionals since so many foreigners go to university, med school, etc. in the US.  UK and Canada are very much up to snuff.  Australia is particularly good in the Asia-Pacific region.  From my experience and reports from other expats and PTs, these four really surf the local turf for top-notch people, and often have the longest lists to choose from.

The French and Germans, according to contacts in those expat communities, are very particular, very diligent.  They might not have a large array to choose from, but even if there's only one, that's the one!

6.  Travel is stressful.  Exercise is the antidote.  Find a way to go for a walk everyday, even if you cannot get into some sort of health club, hotel exercise room.  Or learn some basic exercises you can do in a small space (like a hotel room).  Jog in place, stretch and bend, do some quick isometrics for the mid-section at your desk or in your plane seat!  Do something religiously, even it is only for ten or fifteen minutes a day.

Stay healthy!  You really don't want to get sick, spoil your trip, or wallow in self-pity and fevered sheets ten thousand miles from home.

May your road rise to meet you - in good health!
Ann

Beat Jet Lag!

Changing time zones is one of the most difficult adjustments for the Road Warrior.  And nothing is more hazardous to your health, no less your career, than that brain-dead jet-lagged nodding out in a business meeting or mission-critical event.  But a few simple steps help you lick it and stay on top of travel-induced fatique.

1.  Start taking Echinacea.  It boosts your immune system.  Before you head for the airport, pop three of them.  Take three more with your last sips of water or beverage just before landing.  Take three on arising your first morning.  Otherwise, one or two a day will do it.

2.  Landing early in the morning “their time”?  Eat a high-protein breakfast promptly.  Eggs with ham, bacon, sausage; cottage cheese; drink a glass or two of milk instead of fruit juice.  This is your occasion for a ham & cheese omelet.  Skip the hash browns, cereal, muffins, or other carbohydrates – limit one slice of toast without jam on the carbs.

3.  Make lunch light.  Cottage cheese, salad with grilled chicken breast – stick to fresh salads and other veggies and protein.  Skip the carbs again.

4.  Make dinner carbohydrate rich.  Spaghetti, Singapore noodles, fried rice, baked potato, even a pile of pancakes.  Carbs set you up for sleep!  Feel free to indulge in a high-carb dessert like cake on your first night in your new time zone.

You probably need another day on this protein early, carbs later plan to more fully adjust.  Especially if your switch is three or more time zones.  Just remember, protein helps you stay awake, carbs help you sleep.  Monitoring your diet will help you keep your head from crashing into your PowerPoint presentation and wrecking your trip.

May your road rise up to meet you!

Ann