Taking off Travel blog

As you know, I’ll soon be heading off on my travels soon. This year, I’ve got one issue to handle that I haven’t dealt with before – how to stick to the diet I’m following while I travel. Usually, when I go on vacation, I put the diet on vacation too, but I’ve made such good progress on the slow carb diet (from the Four Hour Body) that I don’t want to risk losing momentum. Here’s how I plan to handle it.

The day before I travel, I’ll hard boil a couple of eggs, so I can have those when I am ready for breakfast. I’m taking the red-eye, which is ages before my usual breakfast time. I’ll also keep a bag of my snack of choice – pumpkin seeds (dry roasted and spicy – yum!) – in my carry on. Once I’ve cleared security, I’ll collect a salad from one of the food shops to eat on the plane, as well as a large bottle of water. That should get me through to JFK without any hassle. I’ll be spending a couple of days with a relative, so I’ve sent a shopping list with the must have items so I can make my own meals.

For road trips, I’ll take a small container of allowed foods, as my meal cycle is now different from everyone else’s. Then when we make a stop, I’ll have whatever is closest to the diet sheet – probably fish and a salad. And for the hotel portion, I’ll combine those two approaches. Most people pack on a couple of pounds on vacation, but with this diet and regular exercise (does walking to the shops count?) I should keep any gain to a manageable amount.

How do you handle sticking to your diet when you travel?

Image: Rawich / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s relatively easy to look good in a temperate climate. However, if you’re used to moderate or chilly temperatures and travel to a hot, humid city, the heat can really pack a punch. A woollen suit that looks sharp at home will just make you sweat uncontrollably and sag in the heat. White shirts can go transparent when they get wet, which is embarrassing for anyone. Here are a few tips to help make sure tropical weather doesn’t tarnish your ability to impress:

-Choose loose, light clothing. Avoid synthetic fabrics (they are often less breathable) and choose cotton or linen. If that means dressing a little less formally than you otherwise might, so be it. Better to be cool, calm, and comfortable in casual dress than hot, sweaty, and dishevelled in conservative business attire. You may find that business wear is less formal than you would expect at home anyway.

-Plan for the rain. Most tropical countries divide their year into just two seasons- the wet and the dry. If you’re arriving in the wet season, be prepared for rain and lots of it. In warm conditions a normal waterproof jacket will feel hot and make you sweat inside. They aren’t a big help. Cheap plastic ponchos do a better job. They allow plenty of airflow and they’re long enough to keep you dry to the knees even in a downpour. Of course, they’re not terribly stylish, but they only cost a few dollars and can easily be cast aside at your destination. You’ll arrive dry and as cool as possible, ready for action. Read more »

Have you entered Recyclebank’s Green Your Vacation contest yet? The company offers rewards for going green in everyday life. There are a couple of weeks left to enter the contest to win some great prizes. Prizes include a 10 night cruise, a 5 day, 4  night stay at a luxury resort (Four Seasons Costa Rica), 10 grab bags of travel goodies (really good stuff!) and some gift cards and Recyclebank points. Read the rules and find out the details here and check out this video:

Recyclebank’s Green Your Vacation Contest! from Ali Kalis on Vimeo.

Recyclebank has provided some tips on greener vacations:

• Leave the extra pair of shoes at home:  When packing your bags, consider scaling back and only packing the essentials. That extra pair of shoes will make the plane just a bit heavier, increase fuel consumption, and lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions. Multiply that pair of shoes by one thousand summer travelers, and we’ve just made a huge impact. Alaska Airlines actually found that they could save $10,000 per year in fuel costs just by removing five magazines per plane. Packing a lighter bag is better for your back, and for the fuel usage.
• Take the scenic route by train or bus: Sit back, relax and enjoy the view from a train or bus this summer vacation. Train and bus travel leads to fewer emissions per passenger than traveling alone in a car or by plane, and it is often cheaper! Per passenger mile carbon emissions by plane: 0.48 kg. By train: 0.21 kg. By bus: 0.056 kg. Reducing your environmental impact while on vacation: priceless. (Data on carbon emissions sourced from Amtrak and American Bus Association.)
• Bring a reusable water bottle: Did you know 86 percent of plastic water bottles in the U.S. are still NOT recycled? This year, instead of buying a case for your road trip, take a stainless steel, aluminum or bio-plastic reusable bottle; you never know when you will have easy access to a recycle bin on the road. Also, there is no need to toss your bottle before going through airport security—just empty it out and refill it inside!
• Rent your gear: Americans spend $289 billion on outdoor gear activities every year. Packaging, shipping and transporting the gear to your vacation destination all add up to a significant impact on the environment. Consider renting your surfboards and snorkeling gear instead of buying it this year. Rentals can be cheaper and better for the environment!
• Give your appliances a vacation: By turning off your hardworking, energy-sucking devices while you are gone, you will be helping your energy bill and the environment. Electronics with digital displays, instant-on features or remote controls consume energy even while not in use, so give them a rest!  Remember to unplug TVs, cable boxes, DVD players, computers, printers, digital clocks, etc. when you leave home.

Happy 4th of July!

I was interested to read this article on Avoiding Jetlag and Beyond — Business Travel Tips for the Mature Global Sourcing Globetrotter by Jason Busch on Spend Matters.  His tips for coping with long haul travel include getting straight in the gym when you land, eating breakfast, avoiding sleeping pills and watching your diet. All great tips, and the full article is worth a read, especially if you’re a business traveler who’s not as young as you used to be (like me!)

My prescriptions for keeping jet lag at bay when making those transatlantic flights? As well as drinking plenty of water in-flight, I use melatonin, power naps and staying awake – in that order.  Let me explain.

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone which has been synthesized and is used to treat sleep disorders. It also works, to put it in layman’s terms, to reset your sleep clock. When I’m on a night flight, I take one tablet before I go to sleep, and usually wake feeling refreshed and in tune with the time zone I’m in.

If my flight is during the day, I take a different approach. I have a longish power nap when I arrive (30-60 minutes), then stay awake till as close to a normal sleeping time as possible. Then I take the melatonin at night.

Since I’m using it once every now and then I don’t have to worry about side effects, which go away when you stop taking the pill anyway.

What do you use to counter jet lag?

On the Road is the name of one of novelist Jack Kerouac’s most notable works. A largely autobiographical work, On the Road is heavily based upon Kerouac’s real life road trips that he and his friends took across the United States in the 1950s. The two most important characters in the book, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, are based upon Jack Kerouac and his good friend Neal Cassady respectively.

Many people have read On the Road and have been greatly inspired by it to take their own road trips. You may go so far as to base your road trip on the book, taking destinations and trip ideas from Sal and Dean. However, there’s no need to go all the way – Sal and Dean aren’t exactly the greatest role models all the time. Here are some tips on how to choose your road trip inspiration from On the Road carefully.

One thing that you definitely want to snag from the book is the enthusiasm for the road trip. Wanderlust is the name of the game and Dean’s definitely got the right attitude when he says, “I just wanta ride, man! I gotta go!” Your motivation for taking a road trip should stem from a desire to travel and see the world, to stretch out restless legs and spread your wings. You should not be embarking upon a road trip like Dean because you stole five hundred cars and desperately need to get out of town.

As Sal and Dean discover, a great way to save money on a road trip is to drive a car cross country for another person. In the book, that’s how Sal and Dean come to drive a ’47 Cadillac limousine from Denver to Chicago. However, let that be the extent of your inspiration – Sal and Dean mess up the Cadillac so badly that by the time they arrive at their destination, the car cannot be recognized by its owner.

Unless you want to drive on an empty stomach, you’ll need to stock up on food for your road trip. A law abiding individual will pay for said food, while people like Sal grab the food and run out the grocery store door while the owners are looking the other way. Maybe Sal could get away with that sort of thing in the 1950s, but today everything would be captured on closed-circuit cameras and the odds of you making a clean getaway are slim.

Even if you’re in the middle of nowhere, it’s a good idea to maintain a legal speed. First of all, you never know where a cop may be lurking, just waiting to give you a ticket. More importantly, keeping to posted speed limits will increase your chances of coming out of this road trip alive. Dean chose to live on the wild side and drive so fast that he ended up driving into a ditch and wrecking his fender.

Tom Calver is from the website Car Rental Express. Book a cheap car rental with CarRentalExpress.com today.