How To Stay Active And Healthy On A Day Of Air Travel
Here is the run down: Eat well, move and stretch throughout the day = a comfortable plane flight to your family vacation
Traveling is the so much fun, but it can be pretty rough on your body and your sanity… and, even more so if you have little kids lol. We fly to San Diego, California twice a year to see my whole side of the family. So that means about 4, 5-6 hour flights in a year… and sometimes longer if we cannot get a direct flight. Along with an hour drive to and from the airport. Is it worth it?…Totally! However, a more pleasant travel experience is definitely attributed to a lot of planning and preparation… and that includes your food for the day and your traveling movement routine.
So what does one do to keep the body thriving, that blood circulating and those muscles from aching on a long flight?… And yes 5.5 hours isn’t bad compared to some of my clients travels of 12-20 hours! Oh my lanta!
Let me show you how we move and what we eat on our day of travel, which will hopefully give you a few ideas for your next big adventure!
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How we move BEFORE our flight:
So you get to the airport, check your bags, make it through security. You find your gate, then make a quick pit stop at the bathroom. After you fill your empty plastic water bottle you brought along in your carry-on bag, with water from the water fountain and your Airborne Immune Support dissolvable tablet; you walk around a little. If there’s time, you may buy a coffee, smoothie or some lunch for the flight. THEN, this is where most people go sit down and wait for their flight. Right?
Well, I say bad idea. You’re going to be sitting for hours ON your flight! So why sit or stand still waiting to board the plane, just to sit or stand still again?
Instead, find a less busy corner near your gate. This way, you can do some movement and the kids (if you have them) can move and run around and look out the windows at all the airplanes. We enjoy helping our children get out some of their energy as well by playing red light, green light; tickle monster tag; who can jump the furthest; etc. My husband and I also like to stretch and maybe move a little ourselves by doing a few squats, lunges, heal raises, dips, pushups… whatever we can do off the ground … because who wants to get down on those airport floors.🙅♀️ Not me, no thank you!
I’ve learned by experience, that stretching before I get on a plane, definitely makes the flight so much more comfortable! So my words of wisdom to you are… just do it! No matter how silly you may think you look. I bet most people, when they see you stretching, are thinking, oh man that is a great idea, I shoooouuuld be doing that. And It’s probably just those young teenagers or 20 year-olds who look at us like we are crazy… but I don’t care about their opinion anyways, do you? lol So just go for it!
What do you do while your waiting for your flight? ✈️
STRETCH of course!
How we move DURING our flight:
When you are on an airplane with kids, you never sit still anyways, am-I right? There’s always some sort of bending over, head smooshed between legs, reaching under the seat to get snacks or activities out of your bag. 🙇♀️ Along with, passing kids back and forth with your spouse (I have a 3.5 year old and a 16 month old… so there is lots of that happening). Being used as a stationary jungle gym, trying to keep them from banging the seats in front of you or disturbing the people behind you too much… talk about upper body workout! Walking up and down the isles with them to let them move a little and getting up to go to the bathroom… often.
SOOO suffice it to say, you get a lot of movement in that way. However, I still find that I need a good stretch and some focused movement for myself.
You can move in your seat!💺
There is quite a bit you can do right in your seat… especially if you have people you know around you. And if not, well, make some friends and do it together! 🤪 Or just do a few when they get up to go to the bathroom… or when you are in the bathroom 😉 You can do heal raises, toe taps and ankle circles in your seat. Seated marches, lateral bends, hollow and arch movements with your torso. Pelvic tilts with a hold, Kegel’s with a hold, combined them both together. Glute stretch, spinal rotation, forward arm circles, shoulder rolls, neck rotations, mini oblique squeezes and mini seated crunches. Check out a few of these in this short video👇… I forgot a few, but you get the idea!
You can also stretch in the back of the plane or … wait for it… the bathroom!
AWKWARD? 😲😷 Maybe…
Sometimes I get desperate on a long flight and just need to stretch, OUT of my seat! And not all the time is there room in the back of the airplane with the stewardess 👩✈️… nor do they always like me back there stretching in their space 🤷♀️ So, I resort to the tiny bathroom stall… if it is fairly clean.
Here goes the most awkward selfie photo shoot… and you don’t see a glute stretch here because I wasn’t about to sit on the toilet seat, I prefer to do that one in my seat 💺.
Hold each stretch for at least 20 seconds:
1. Hamstring stretch. Foot on CLOSED 🚽 seat. Make sure you keep that back flat… you have a mirror right there to double check your form. Flex your foot for a deeper stretch.
2. Hip flexor stretch. Foot on the toilet seat, press your hips forward and lift your chest up.
3. Hip flexor stretch with psoas opener. Do the same stretch as above, but perform a lateral reach. You should be reaching up and over to the side of your bent knee in order to allow that psoas muscle to open up.
4. Quadriceps stretch. Hold your ankle (not your yucky bathroom shoe 👟) If can’t reach your ankle, place your toe on the seat, press your hips forward and stand up tall (as if you have a choice to not stand tall 😆)
5. Chest, shoulder and neck opener. “Reach your heart to the sky”- Open up your chest and neck and pull down with your hands behind your back.
6. Standing cat stretch. Upper and lower back stretch- whatever is tighter you’ll feel it more in that area. Round your back and pull your arms forward. Tuck your head down slightly.
7. Serratus Anterior, Pectorals and Lattisimus Dorsi opener. Place one hand on that perfectly slanted wall above the 🚽 and press your armpit to the ground. Keep your ribs and core engaged and tucked in, preventing your back from arching, as you push your armpit down.
8. Wall chest stretch. Place one forearm on the wall at 90° (elbow in line with your shoulder), tuck your hips and rib cage under and push your chest forward. Keep your head neutral.
9. Lateral bend. Opens up the waist, lats and chest. Hands on your head. Tuck hips under and lean over to each side. Hold for a good 20 seconds on each side.
What do you think? Too weird or the perfect solution to a problem? 🤷♀️ For me… both, but I always find myself doing it every time we fly!🤪
Yes, we DO keep moving when we get to our destination too!
Maybe its mental or just a long day of travel, but even with all that movement throughout the day, my body craves more when we get to our destination. I have to stretch and roll of some kind before I go to bed after a day of travel. If I do not have a foam roller available to use, I bring a lacrosse ball with me and will roll out my tightest areas on that. I usually do 10-20 min of stretching too, depending on how tired I am 😴. I just have to or I do not get a good sleep because of various body aches. So its worth it to me to put in the time and just get it done. Sitting all day in a cramped space is rough on our bodies, which are made to move and grove throughout the day!
What do we EAT on a day of travel, you may ask?
Ok so now onto the food! We usually start our air travels in the morning between 6-10am. A little nutty, maybe, but it works for us and works with our kids. My kids don’t really sleep on planes, so overnight flights or later in the day flights, are a no go for our family right now.
BREAKFAST:
We normally eat breakfast at home or on the car ride to the airport. Even if our flight is at 6am, we eat at 3/3:30ish am. Why, because it’s the most important meal of the day!
🥣 Oatmeal with chia, hemp and flax seeds in it, along with berries, nuts and raisins is our go to right now. In the past we have done egg sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly bagels. Occasionally, we will also bring greek yogurt and granola or a green smoothie for the car ride.
~ At the airport:
We will sometimes buy a green or all fruit smoothie, if we did not have time to make it at home, and usually coffee too… because YES that is needed for a long flight with kids! I used to not drink any coffee until my second child turned 1 and was still not sleeping well 🤷♀️. I now understand what all the hype is about lol.
SNACKS:
I’m like the snack guru… I’ve learned they help keep my kids more content when we are out and about, so I have a bag completely devoted to snacks… always. Since my kiddos eat, SO MANY SNACKS, I make sure I pack “better for you” options.
Here is what I packed on our last trip… The pictures only have the ones that didn’t get eaten already.
- Fresh fruit (apples, berries- in a solid container so they don’t get smooshed)
- Vegetables (Orange peppers, cucumbers, celery, carrots)
- Dried fruit (apples and bananas- Our last trip mommy by accident grabbed the wrong kind of tired bananas and bought these nasty over-ripe tasting chewy banana snacks instead. 🤮 So not recommended- those are shown in the picture.)
- Healthier lolipops and fruit leathers for treats
- Something salty… salted cashews and celery (grandma brought fritos chips the last trip she came with us… boy that was a hit with my kids lol)
- Laura bars, plus protein bars for mommy and daddy
- All fruit squeezes for the kids
- Rice cakes
- Nut cluster squares with seeds and Golgi berries in them… usually in the bins at health food stores. They are so yummy!
- Beef/ turkey sticks
- Peanut butter and jelly bagels (we did gluten free this last year because of mine and my sons wheat allergy)
- Dry cereal (panda puffs was the winner on this trip)
LUNCH:
So lunch we do different things each time. Sometimes we just make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or turkey sandwiches. Other times we buy something from the airport. My husband likes Chinese food (panda express to be exact lol) and I will usually get that or some sort of chicken or tuna salad. The kids just share with us at this point.
DINNER:
For our back home trips, we have such amazing parents who usually cook something for us on each end. Or we just end up digging something out from their bottomless refrigerator/ freezers. On other trips, well I don’t know, its been a while… ha! We’d probably just go out to eat and choose something green with good protein in it to replenish our bodies. Like a steak/chicken salad or sushi. We usually feel like something healthier with all the snacking on the plane… even though it is healthier in of itself.
Well, that’s it folks!
I hope that helps give you a few ideas of how to keep moving and eat healthier on your air travels! The variations are limitless! Just do what feels good for you. And hey… sometimes I need a good airplane bathroom dance party by myself… 💃 so that happens too.
Yes your on vacation, but feeling good while on your vacation is paramount to me… so thats why I do what I do.
Please let me know what your air travel jam is in the comments below! The more ideas, the better for all of us!
