7 Tips for a Great Summer Vacation
Plane tickets, rental cars, itineraries, childcare, and budgeting all can make for your upcoming trip to be more stressful than exciting.
Getting ready for your summer vacation doesn’t have to be totally stressful.
You don’t have to worry about fitting into your favorite bathing suit or that you won’t know which foods to eat without getting sick.
Follow the tips we have here and you’ll be set to have your best vacation yet!
Avoid the Dreaded Traveler’s Diarrhea
Trying new foods in new places allows you to share a huge part of the culture that you’d never authentically experience anywhere else. It always adds to the adventure.
However, there are definitely some precautions you should take to avoid making your most frequented place the bathroom.
The main causes for traveler’s diarrhea (TD) include different species of bacteria, viruses, or parasites.
The most common bacteria that travelers come into contact with is enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC).
Typically people get this from undercooked foods or foods that haven’t been properly cleaned. Making sure you are getting good quality food will help to prevent this.
ETEC along with Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella, and Shigella are the main bacterial species that can be contracted through food or water.
The main viruses that cause TD are rotavirus and Norwalk virus.
The parasites that will cause TD include Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium parvum, Cyclospora cayetanensis, and Entamoeba histolytica.
To prevent yourself from getting this there are quite a few things you can do:
- Start taking prebiotics at least a week before your trip and continue throughout your trip. Supporting your digestive system makes it less susceptible to invaders
- Wash hands with soap and warm water frequently
- Make sure foods are cleaned and prepared properly
- Avoid foods that are a high risk of these pathogens (uncooked and unclean foods and large fish)
If you do end up with TD, make sure to stay hydrated and watch out for the signs of severe dehydration:
- Sunken eyes
- Decreased urine output
- Dark yellow/orange urine
- Bloody stools
- Fever
- Vomiting
If you or a loved one are experiencing these symptoms and you/they are unable to keep fluids in, seek professional medical help immediately.
Drink Half Your Bodyweight in Clean Water
When you find out that 60% of your body is composed of water, it sort of puts into perspective how important water really is to your well-being.
Even though some of us know this fact, we still have a tendency to not drink enough water.
Water helps your body in numerous ways, but the main ways water helps you the most are:
- Helps your body to regulate its temperature
- Keeps your joints lubricated
- Maintains healthy and hydrated cells
- Assists your muscles and organs to function properly
- Has recently been found to help prevent cancer
- Reduces bloating
Your body naturally loses water throughout the day through urine, sweat, breath, and feces.
If you’re exercising or are in a hot/more humid climate then you should definitely be taking in more water.
If you end up with traveler’s diarrhea or any form of sickness, water is the best way to replenish what your body has lost.
If you are traveling to countries that don’t have fresh, clean water available to you, try getting bottled water or natural fruit juices.
Make sure the bottled water is properly sealed before you drink it so you know that it’s clean.
If bottled water is not available, a hand-held purifier may be something you want to pack for your trip.
Also, boiling or using water cleansing agents like iodine or chlorine may be another option for avoiding ingesting bacteria, viruses, or parasites.
Snack Smart
Just because you’re on vacation doesn’t mean your healthy ways of eating need to go out the window.
It’s so easy to get caught up in planning everything that you forget about feeding your body, but this should be a priority on your list.
Grab some of these healthy snacks to keep with you so you don’t pig out and cause your hard work to go to waste.
- Nuts
- Berries
- Yogurt
- Healthy granola bars
- Seeds
Keeping any of these on hand will keep your hangry-ness in check and it won’t derail your healthy eating.
Use Polyphenols for Everything
When we say everything, we mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.
Polyphenols not only help to prevent cancer and oxidative stress but they also help you to avoid sunburn.
Studies have been done and found that polyphenols have skin-protective effects from UVA and UVB rays. Using them topically or ingesting them can help to prevent sunburn.
This isn’t to say you should ditch your sunscreen (as long as it isn’t full of harmful chemicals) but it will definitely help to prevent some skin damage you can get while working on your tan.
If you’re looking for ways to increase your polyphenol consumption try some of the ideas suggested in this article or just add Atrantil into your daily routine.
Load Up Prebiotics to Boost Immunity Prior to Traveling
Not only will prebiotics help you to prevent TD, but they will also help to boost your immune system.
Since most of your immune system is comprised in your gut, making sure it is strong and impenetrable is extremely important to your overall health.
Prebiotics help to strengthen your digestive tract which helps prevent intestinal permeability (leaky gut) and creates a barrier that is hard for pathogens to enter.
Fasting to Prevent Jet Lag
Believe it or not, you can actually try to acclimate your body to the time change before you get to that time zone!
While this isn’t totally foolproof, it can help you adjust easier.
Fasting is the best way to reset your guts circadian rhythms.
Your body will follow suit based on when you are eating to know when it should be expending energy versus saving energy.
This can help you to change your body’s clock and prepare for the road ahead.
Use Atrantil to Avoid Bloating
If you want to look like a total knockout in your bathing suit this vacation, you’ll want to take your Atrantil.
Atrantil was specifically designed to help attack the gases that your body naturally creates when fermenting the foods you eat.
The polyphenols in Atrantil get rid of the bacteria, which cause the gases that make you bloat, so your tummy no longer looks expanded.
You don’t want to leave your house in a bathing suit without it!
Taking Atrantil will kill your bloat, boost your polyphenol levels, and supply you with a prebiotic to protect your digestive tract (that’s 3/7 of these tips with one product — you’d be crazy not to take it).
Before your next trip keep some of these tips in mind and let us know how they work out for you.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2791431/
https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article/24/5/tax057/4085921
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17298915
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5037798/#sec5-ijms-17-01521title
