My husband and I just came back from weeklong trip to Europe. As exciting as it was to look forward to this trip, our time to get away from everyday hassles and work and just to unwind, sometimes it can be stressful, so I want to share with you tips on how to make the trip enjoyable and stress free.
Packing
If you are anything like me, busy mom, wife, business owner and planner, you will pack more than you need or will use, including the entire kitchen sink. Whenever I packed my suitcase, I would pack enough clothes for a month, because I like options, even if I only ended up wearing or using only one fourth of what I packed. Whenever we do family vacations, I’d tell my husband and kids that we are only brining one large suitcase that we must fit everyone’s belonging in that one suitcase, it never worked out that way, our four kids love to bring a bunch of stuff and most of it is not even clothes, laptops and videogame systems, surf boards, etc. But when the only travel companion you have is your spouse, it’s so much easier to pack.
For this trip, I packed at the last minute and just by taking a couple of things out of my closet and literally just tossing them in my suitcase without worrying about too many options. Why? Because for once in my life, I let that part go and I simply didn’t care. I focused more on enjoying spending quality time with my husband on the beach and going sightseeing in Spain and Portugal and not worrying so much about what all I packed. We also found out really fast especially in Spain that Europeans found clothes to be optional on the beach. Not us of course.
Products
My other focus was to make sure that I packed all my Rowe Casa Organics products in small dark glass jars with bubble wrap and beach towels (talk about OCD, maybe just a little bit) to make sure they would safely arrive to our destination without a drop of product wasted. That means even my RCO sunblock was wrapped in heavy duty bubble wrap because of it being in a glass jar.
Sleep and Jetlag
We knew that sleep might have to be adjusted and supported because there is a 6-hour time difference in Spain and 5-hour difference in Portugal. For that specific purpose we packed RCO sleep support and magnesium gel. Did you know that when you are flying on an airplane, it disturbs different processes in the body from your digestive system to endocrine system to your sleep. Your metabolism greatly slows down, because long flights mean sitting on a plane without much physical movement. Disruption of the digestive system often leads to dehydration and constipation, and it is recommended not to consume too much caffeine or soft drinks due to sugar content which further dehydrates you and causes pressure and tension in your body, it also causes a drop in magnesium that can lead to tense and painful muscles in different parts of the body and headaches and prolonged feeling of being jetlag.
To adjust to time difference and to prevent any sleep disturbances, we had to close the blinds when we got to our hotel in Spain because we were still on Ohio time and our bodies were still giving us all the signs to stick with what was norm for us. Hence the transition was much easier when we followed the basic rules of selfcare to help with sleep and preventing soar and stiff muscles after getting off the plane by applying the magnesium gel through the flight and getting up and moving around every couple of hours especially on a long flight and consuming water. I understand it is not always ideal, especially if it is a completely full flight, but if done, your body will thank you later.
Nutrition and Physical Movement
One of the challenges that a lot of folks find is how to stick to healthy eating while on vacation and how to overcome the fear that having a slice of cake or a glass of wine on vacation is going to ruin your entire diet. Please stop stressing over this. Vacation should not be stressful or fearful, thinking that way creates your reality, so I am going to ask you to please stop. Pack some healthy snacks to take with you so if you do get temped or crave something you have a way out. I am not going to lie when we were in Spain and Portugal, we enjoyed some of their local traditional foods and that included some dessert and some wine and constant movement.
We didn’t have a rental car nor a taxi, so we walked a lot. Now, if you’ve ever been to Portugal their paved roads are a workout, weather you planned on working out on your trip or not you burn calories and detoxify at the same time, so any small guilt feeling you had about had a small glass of wine or eating foods that you normally don’t eat, goes out the window. We didn’t indulge like this every single day because we knew that when we got back to the states, it would be difficult to jump back into our normal healthy eating routine. We still incorporated lots of fruits and vegetables and nuts (healthy fats) while on vacation.
Physical movement is key. On days when it rained and we were not able to get out and do much sightseeing, we traded for a joined workout at the gym. Working out together kept both of us motivated and kept us on track especially on a rainy day when all you want to do is either stay in bed and just watch TV or read a book and snack on comfort foods.
Stress
What’s that? We were on what I would call part work and part vacation and part mission trip. When we got to our Portugal hotel, my husband and I had the hotel staff stop in our room about twenty times the first two days. First, the bathtub in our room was not draining. Then, as my husband attempted to shave his head with a razor he brought, realized fast that the converter was the wrong one, it sparked and blew up, the room smelled like smoke. Then, we tried to figure out buttons all over the room being strategically placed with dots on them and we had no clue which button opened the curtains or which button turns the bathroom lights off to which one turns the tv off. Then, on one of our tour days in Portugal, the bottom of my shoe completely fell off while we were about two hours away walking distance from our hotel.
We just laughed at all these little things and nuances. It’s interesting when you are in a vacation mode, your nervous system seems to simply balance itself and even more so when you are standing barefoot on the beach just soaking it all in, it certainly re-energizes and revitalizes you.
I told a friend of mine that I was bringing my laptop on my trip with me to get some work done by the pool. My laptop sat in my bag the entire trip, part because I didn’t want to miss out on the perfect opportunity to not worry or think about work but also because I didn’t want to attempt to plug in my laptop which had a dead battery, thank goodness for that, especially after my husband tried to use the razor and it sparked. I told myself: “Nope, relax and take it all in”, no electronic devices, nothing, just enjoy your time. So, we did just that.
Self-care
While in Spain, our hotel offered a therapeutic magnesium salt rich pool, oxygen room and sauna. After working out at the gym we took full advantage of these services. When we were in Portugal, although we did not have this option anymore, and we had to attend business dinner meetings nightly, we still stayed physically active. We walked instead of taking a taxi to get around and every night we soaked in RCO detox bath salts for about 30 minutes to an hour which contains things such as Epsom salt, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), bentonite clay and essential oils to help cleanse and restore the body.
Then, we used the lymphatic cream and magnesium gel to help move and excrete any metabolic waste and repair muscles and joints after extensive physical movement and to help maintain great sleeping routine and relaxed digestive and endocrine muscles, which tend to tense up whenever you consume foods that you normally don’t consume and whenever there is a change in environment or stress.
Eating too much and/or eating the wrong things can fire up our inflammatory responses and can contribute to muscle, nerve, or joint pain, shift in mood, sleep, digestion. So, it is important to have resources available and stay on top of these before they escalate and ruin your trip.
We had a great trip, I hope you find this information helpful in preparing for your next trip to keep you organized, motivated and stress-free.
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