Ep 417 | On the Road? 9 Things You MUST Do to Maintain Your Health and Energy

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Before we dive in, I just want to take a moment and thank everybody that has been on this journey with us, 400+ episodes or so. So appreciate your support, your feedback, the fact that you're sharing this with others. It's been a really, really fun time for us over the past almost couple of years now, building our content and building our audience. And I just, I just want to personally thank everybody that, that does listen and in fact shares the episodes of ours that, that you really enjoy. Thank you very much for that. Let's get into today's topic. It's actually a review of a topic we've covered at least once before. It may not be the exact same, uh, content that I provided last time we covered this, but it's one I've been thinking about a lot because here we are getting into the holiday months, and with the holiday months comes travel. Not only that, the seasons are changing, and as the seasons change, the potential for us To get sick, well, call it what it is, it's, it's there. So what I want to talk about are the things that you can or should be considering or doing when in fact you're on the road, when you're traveling somewhere. And again, this may be with, you know, to visit family or to experience different things throughout the holidays. In a lot of industries right now, we're kind of in the midst of like convention season as well. So there's just a lot going on, a lot of us getting on planes and showing up at different places. And again, the weather's different. Keep in mind the likelihood of catching a cold or getting sick, it actually tends to rise in the fall and winter months. This is because of cooler temperatures, right? It weakens immune system. It's because of lower humidity, like drier air inside and outside can have an impact on your nasal passages. You're indoors more often as it gets colder, and people that stay— like, tend to stay indoors, uh, well, they're usually in close quarters with others, and that's, you know, potential for virus spread. And then lastly, I think there's just overall less sunlight, shorter days, less exposure to sunlight, and this leads to lower vitamin D levels and other things that impact our immune health. So let's talk about what we could or should be doing on the road to protect ourselves and maintain our energy levels. I want to give a quick shout out. The individual that first turned me on to most all of these, these strategies is my buddy, Dr. John Thoma, who many of you have either heard from or I've quoted here on the podcast, or maybe you've seen him speak in person at one of our events. So, Dr. John put these must-dos together. And shared them with me a handful of years ago, and here I am sharing them with you. So what are the must-do things we need to incorporate when traveling if we want to stay healthy, rested, and focused? Number 1, John would always tell me, he would say, do 4th grade arm circles. And what he's talking about, he'd say, remember when you were in PE and you used to do PE in elementary school and used to do those really big arm circles? As a warm-up. I'm doing them right now. Like, started doing them right now. Most of you are not watching this on YouTube, but you remember those huge arm circles you used to do to warm up? John would say do the same thing. Do hip circles as well. If you're on a flight, stand up and move around and stroll up and down the aisle. Get some arm circles and some hip circles in. As a matter of fact, if you're on a plane, try to stand up every hour. If you're in the middle seat or the window seat, John would tell you to be that passenger. He would say, "Have the biggest arm and hip circles of anyone on the flight and do them slowly to make sure that you feel it throughout all of the unique areas and crevices within your shoulders and your hips." The idea here is movement. Movement helps with respect to boosting your immune system on travel. I'm sorry, on a plane when you're traveling. Being stagnant, sitting there, letting, you know, blood accumulate, that has the opposite effect. So number 1, when traveling, move. Do arm circles, do hip circles. Number 2, now this might be extreme for some of you, but John would say when you're on a flight, do your best to cover your body and your eyes from artificial light. I know not all of you are gonna wear like red tinted glasses, but there's lots of cool glasses you can wear that limit artificial light. Wear clothes that protect you from the stress and the aging of the result that comes as a result of the lights that are used on a plane. So, light on the skin and in your eyes, it's a major controller of your circadian rhythm. And your circadian rhythm dictates many of your bodily functions, which include hormone production and, of course, immune system activation. So, cover your body, cover your eyes. Number 3, since we mentioned circadian rhythm, obey it. Travel when the sun— if you could travel when the sun is up, do it. If you could land while the sun is still up, do it. If you're traveling to the east, for example, try to avoid the afternoon and evening flights if you can. Those flights that get you in after sunset. Especially during this time of year, avoid red-eye flights like the plague, John would say. Your circadian rhythm can really get jacked up as, uh, with travel. So, manage the time in which you're traveling accordingly. Next, when you get to your destination, find a grassy area to ground. We talked about grounding here. I'm a huge fan of it. I think many of you are as well. Not everybody's bought into this, but I want you to give it a try. When you get to your destination, go stick your feet in the grass. Search on Yelp for park in the zip code of your destination. Even if you're in a big city, there's usually some grassy area nearby. I've, I've stood in the grass in front of hotels. I found a patch of grass in the most random of areas. Most places though have some park not too far from you. And get barefoot and go stand in that grass. Because grounding, especially after a flight, is essential for your cells because of all of the EMF, all the man-made EMF exposure that occurred during that flight. You're in a giant metal tube. Everyone on that metal tube is using a phone or a computer. You can't argue there's probably a little bit more exposure there than most places. So go ground, go offset to the greatest extent you can. It will boost your immune system. Next, after your flight, John would encourage you to fast, to not eat, especially if you land after sunset. You gotta fast because fasting is a, a way to create the healthy process, the healthy cell process you need to get rid of what John would say are the sick mitochondria, the part of your cell that uses the light energy to turn your food into usable energy. That would be the mitochondria. Bottom line, we don't have to know all the technical science, but John would encourage you after you land to in fact fast, especially if it's after sunset. Next, catch sunrise the next morning after you travel, especially if you're changing, uh, time zones. Make sure you catch the next morning sunrise. Light is such a major controller of circadian rhythm. So as your breakfast is cooking, watch the sunrise, go ground, go do breathwork as a bonus. You've got to go watch the sunrise and it will change your energy, I guarantee it. And it will aid you in minimizing the impacts of, of jet lag. I do this all the time. I've tested it. I don't do all of these things perfectly, but the one that I absolutely do do, the two I do, are in fact watch the sunrise the next morning and get my feet in the grass. I am just avid about those things. Next, if you can, before you, before you fly, search for a Whole Foods where you're going or a local health food store near your destination. Because when you land, where you get where you're going, you want to do the best you can to get to have food for your next day, that's not all this fast food or restaurant food or all that. I get for a lot of us traveling, like, you gotta have restaurant meals, maybe you've got business meetings, whatever it may be. But to the extent that you can minimize your processed or restaurant-based food and you have your own meals in your room or at your Airbnb, uh, it will definitely aid you in your recovery and lower the chances of you, you know, not feeling great. So head to the grocery store after, after your grounding at night and get some food for the next day. Which leads me to the next bit of guidance. If in fact you can stay in an Airbnb with a kitchen or a hotel with a kitchen, do it. Do it. If you're visiting family or friends, take over their kitchen. Again, eating out's gonna destroy your health. Most restaurants use good food, maybe substandard food. They certainly use oils in their cooking that are not the best oils for you. Even the healthy restaurants use oils loaded, that are loaded with poor quality fats and things like that. So, to the extent you can control your meals, you definitely wanna do so. Lastly, go ahead and have the occasional cheat food, but just be careful not to overindulge. Remember, John would tell you your cells are up against the ropes because there's less sun, because sleep's all messed up, because of EMF, because of all these things. You're gonna again cheat a little bit, but don't overindulge. For me, what that means is, for whatever reason, when I travel and I have a business dinner or meeting, I never order dessert, but for some reason, at those meet— at those types of meetings, dessert always comes about. It's kind of unnecessary. I get you get to cheat now and again, but just be aware. Be aware of how different you're eating on the road than you'd be eating at home. That's going to send your system into a bit of a shock. It's no surprise why you don't feel awesome. So, to wrap this up, this is something we've talked about in the past. Rather than just replaying an old episode, I thought it'd be important to talk to you about it today. Many of you are about to hit the road, you're about to be traveling, you want to maximize those opportunities. You, of course, have to be healthy, feeling great, have high energy to do that. Here's a few steps so that that can happen for you. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.