While traveling, we never forget about the basics of self-care. Always take a shower after a long day outside. Always wear sunscreen even if the sun is not at its highest.
But there are many aspects to self-care that easily slip past our minds when we’re traveling. These are the things that we should always remember even if we’re not at home. After all, even if we’re traveling, it’s still very important to maintain a sense of routine — at least, when it comes to self-care.
Eyecare for Contact Lenses-wearers
This may seem a bit unorthodox for a self-care guide while traveling. But perhaps that’s precisely why people tend to forget about this all the time. For people who are unfortunately struggling with terrible eyesight, contact lenses or eyeglasses are the solutions. For those who are using eyeglasses, eye care while traveling is not really a problem. But, for the wearers of contact lenses, it’s another story.
We all know the risks when it comes to wearing contact lenses. An irritation could easily lead to an infection. But the stakes are higher when we’re traveling because we’re getting exposed to many things such as dirty water while swimming at the beach. Who knows? We might end up in need of meibomian gland dysfunction or MGD treatment when we get back home.
Always make sure to have enough stock of backup contact lenses so we could replace them as needed. Never wear them if we’re going swimming. Always use a fresh solution to clean it. This one, though, may be tricky. It’s because the transportation security administration (TSA) at the airport might confiscate our solution if the bottle is too big. If that happens, quickly look for a contact lens solution in your travel destination.
Regular Exercise
When we’re traveling as tourists, many people often forgo their exercise routine. We might argue that we don’t need to stay active while traveling. With all of the walking that we do as tourists, that’s already enough physical exertion for the day. That may be true. But that doesn’t mean we can just forget at all about our exercise routine, especially so if we’re on a long-term trip.
The best way to maintain our physical fitness while traveling is to go on regular runs. That way, we’re doing our regular exercise and taking in the sights of the city. It will be a good experience for us because we’d get to join the locals on their own morning routine. We could easily fit in with the other joggers in the park or down the street.
Another way is to do a few sets of squats, lifts, push-ups, and whatnot in our hotel rooms. Before we go out of our rooms and face a long day of being a tourist, it would be good to finish our exercise routine first. Besides, if we maintain our routine, then we won’t feel as guilty about all of the food that we’re indulging in.
Being Mindful of Our Allergies
Speaking of food, it’s one of the things that we love to indulge in while traveling. If we’re in Italy, it would almost feel like a crime if we don’t eat as much pasta as we want. If we’re in Japan, it would be very hard to avoid ramen and sushi. Because we’re in such places for a limited amount of time, trying out all of these authentic foods is basically one of the cardinal rules of traveling.
But, underneath all of this excitement about food are the health risks — specifically, our allergies. Because we’re new to the cuisines, admittedly, we don’t know much about them. We often don’t know what they’re made from. We don’t know about the ingredients that the chefs used. These are very serious risks. But they don’t mean that we shouldn’t enjoy their food at all. We just need to take a few extra precautions.
First, let’s try to know more about the food as much as we can. Ask the chefs or servers. Carefully read the menu. Next, we have to always keep track of our allergies and medications. Lastly, even if we don’t have any allergies, it would still be good to carry medication just in case.
When we travel for leisure, we’re usually juggling a lot of things in our minds. We make sure that everything’s in order with regard to our lodging. We ensure that we never lose our phones. Otherwise, we’d lose our easiest means of communication, map guide, and whatnot. And, of course, we never forget to have fun as we take in the sights, taste new cuisines, and visit places that we used to only dream of seeing. As we do these things, there is one thing that we often forget. And that is self-care. So it would be best to remember all of these things.