Stomach Problems During & After Travel? Here’s What You Need to Know to Soothe Your Digestion
Travel can be exciting - but long flights, road trips and changes to our daily routine can leave us feeling drained and may even trigger flares in digestive symptoms. From less control over meals to changes in sleep patterns, travel can throw our bodies out of whack! With spring break upon us, we’re sharing our top tips to keep you feeling your best and your gut happy, even if your schedule is unpredictable.
Travel can throw off even the strongest of digestive systems. For many people travel can flare constipation, especially if you are prone to not having a full bowel movement everyday even at home. This is a major symptom we find so many of our female clients struggling with. While others can struggle with loose stools and even more can get bogged down with bloating, gas and inflammation from their travel adventures.
We are here to help guide you with some of our tried and true strategies that work for our clients without requiring them to miss out on any of the travel fun…just less digestive disruptions!
Step One: stick to a schedule
Travel can disrupt our usual meal routine, which can throw off our digestion, energy and overall feeling vibrant in our bodies. Sticking to a consistent schedule of eating is one of the greatest strategies we work on with clients. It is also one of the major ways that travel can throw off our GI system.
Regular meal timing is what helps to maintain regular gut motility for both slow or fast gut issues. Our digestive system loves consistency and travel is anything but that. So the more we can try to maintain regular meal timings the more consistent our gut is going to be. This means avoiding eating too frequently like travel days where we snack and graze all day long or conversely days where we go hours and hours without eating only to have a big meal just once or twice per day. Both extremes can flare discomfort.
Stress from going too long between meals or pushing breakfast off too far into the morning can trigger a higher stress response. This is due to the body increasing cortisol to free energy or blood sugar from the liver. Unfortunately though, this can kick our bodies into a stress and inflammation roller coaster due to disrupted blood sugar. This can trigger loose stools or “travelers diarrhea” for some. While on the other hand too frequent snacking, grazing or not eating full meals can lead to constipation or lack of full voided bowel movements that often get accompanied by bloating, gas and feeling overall sluggish.
What to do instead:
Meal timing
Aim to eat a meal or a protein + carb snack every 3-4 hours. This strategy aims to keep blood sugar balanced and helps to avoid triggering a stress response or eating too frequently leading to digestive issues.
Snack Stack
Our travel days can be culprits for snacking or grazing all day long resulting in GI discomfort that either kicks off our trip on a not great note or we come home in mahor need of recovery.
Instead of grazing or constantly snack on your travel snacks aim to eat them in one cohesive sitting mimicking the fuller intake of a meal or as we like to call it a “snack stack”. This can help you to feel more full and satisfied from your snacks without the need to eat every hour.
Hotel Room Staples:
Plan ahead by packing readily available snacks like nuts, meat sticks, seeds, protein bar, fruit or protein shake to have on hand in a pinch. Aim to eat a protein + carbohydrate pairing as your snack - we share snack ideas below!
Give these strategies a try and let us know how they work! And if you’re someone who already does all these strategies and more but you continue to struggle with gut symptom flares while traveling or even when you're living your regularly programmed life at home there can be deeper root causes at play that need to be addressed to finally get you longterm relief! It’s time to book a strategy call if this is you, we can help.
Step two: Follow the Balanced Plate Roadmap Even While Traveling
The best part of the balanced plate model is that it's conducive to any restaurant, airport, travel situation just by being aware of what key categories to make sure are joined together at your meal. The balanced plate isn’t the sexiest travel tool but we assure you it makes a huge positive impact on how you feel and your gut symptoms while you travel.
The balanced plate model is about using food as a team to better support blood sugar, reduce inflammation, feed the gut microbiome, support digestion and ensure there is both macronutrient and micronutrient variety. But this tool doesn’t require a perfect approach, its more about making sure we have variety in food types.
Here is how Balance Plate Roadmap works:
½ of your plate with non-starchy vegetables (think leafy greens, broccoli, peppers, cucumbers, cauliflower, tomatoes)
¼ of your plate for protein, aiming for 30g or more per meal (from sources like chicken, fish, steak, turkey, eggs, Greek yogurt, smoothies with protein powder, lentils)
¼ of your plate with starchy plants (think sweet potatoes, squash, potatoes, whole grains, legumes and fruit)
Healthy fats often naturally slip into meals, from things like salad dressings, nuts, seeds, or the healthy fat in animal proteins but can also be avocado, chia seeds, hemp hearts, nut & seeds
If you eating at a restaurant here are some Balance Plate Roadmaps Tips
Choose 1-2 apps that are protein forward like grilled shrimp, oysters, meat balls or chicken skewers to start your meal off with blood sugar balancing protein
Explore the veggie options to load up on fiber to help keep a happy gut and don’t miss looking at the sides as options too for simple grilled, roasted or sauteed veggie options
Emphasize a protein main, the goal is to get at least your palm size of protein throughout your meal
Enjoy the items you really want by sharing a dish or ordering one as an appetizer like a rich pasta or a shared dessert
Snack stack! If you find yourself in a pinch, and not able to sit down for a full meal, pair together several snacks to create a balanced plate. Fruit is one of our favorite snack stack ingredients because it SO beneficial for healthy 💩while traveling!
Paleovalley meat sticks + apple + trail mix
Hard boiled eggs + banana + nut butter
Chicken salad + crackers + orange
Koia protein drink + kiwi + almonds
Greek yogurt + banana + granola
Starbucks egg bites + kind bar
Think of the Balance Plate Roadmap as more of encouraging variety but not saying no to anything - there is always room but we might be playing more with amount and crowding in more of the proteins and fibers to help your gut and energy get the benefit. If this feels overwhelming, we guide clients in customizing their nutrition approach based on their labs not only to address the specific root causes of their symptoms but to also learn how to practice this approach and feel good for the long term! If this is you, it’s time to book a strategy call. We would love to help you!
Step three: Circadian Rhythm
Your circadian rhythm is central to a healthy, symptom free digestive system. When you travel across time zones, your circadian rhythm can become misaligned. Circadian rhythm is your body’s internal clock that governs numerous bodily functions, including digestion, as the gut microbiome operates on a circadian schedule and governs the bodies cortisol and melatonin cycles throughout the day. Supporting your circadian rhythm while traveling is essential to maintain optimal digestion, support the immune system, regulate mood and help to support energy.
When you travel, circadian rhythms get thrown off either from traveling to different time zones but also just from changes in your regular sleep and wake routine. These changes can be a culprit it what can impact digestive symptoms such as changes to bowel movements, bloating and GI discomfort.
The good thing is that helping your body adjust to changes in your circadian rhythm while traveling are very similar to the practices we preach to align circadian rhythms in your everyday life!
Here are our strategies to strengthen your circadian rhythm when you travel:
Morning light: Natural morning light within an hour of waking stimulates our bodies natural cortisol surge that sets the tone for energy and immune health and it is also what helps to mobilize a morning bowel movement.
Aim to get natural light exposure within 1 hour of waking. Our favorite way to do this is by getting outside for a 15 minute walk or sit by a window with natural light exposure and enjoy your favorite morning beverage.
A great excuse to take a morning walk to get coffee from a local shop, stroll the beach or walk around a new neighborhood to get some gentle gut supportive movement and natural light.
Eat Breakfast! When you eat is another way to support circadian rhythm and maintain the natural rhythm of gut motility.
Breakfast within 1-2 hours of waking helps to signal to your circadian cells that its morning, aids in healthy gut motility and helps to prevent digestive symptoms like bloating, gas, loose stools or constipation.
Evening light: Dim the lights and limit screen time at least an hour before bed to reduce blue light stimulating cortisol while helps to encourage melatonin production. Melatonin is known as our sleep hormone but its also a major anti-inflammatory in the gut too.
We like using amber colored glasses from BonCharge before bed to help reduce the stimulation from blue light and we love to pack an eye mask and earplugs to create a restful environment anywhere! (BonCharge discount code; AboveHealth)
Also a great reason to watch sunset as this is natural red light that helps to educate our brain that it's transitioning to night and supports your circadian rhythm!
Our motto in the work we do with clients when healing the gut is that its not only food that impacts the gut - circadian rhythm is a perfect example. If you are looking to learn more about the foundations for gut health check out our Nourished Gut Guide which is a self-paced course to guide you in why and how to implement foundations for a healthy, symptom free gut!
step Four: Hydration & Minerals
Traveling is dehydrating. From air travel to less overall water intake and changes in routine, travel can lead us to feel pretty dehydrated. This can lead to symptoms of constipation, low energy, headaches, and even mood. When traveling, maintaining proper hydration and mineral balance is essential for staying energized, and keeping gut symptoms at bay.
Hydration is not just about water, it is also about ensuring we are getting adequate minerals. Traveling can disrupt our routine leading to increased activity, unfamiliar foods, and changes in weather—all of which can deplete essential minerals. The big minerals we focus on are magnesium, potassium, and sodium which are all crucial for feeling vitality and optimal digestion. By replenishing your body with water and mineral-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, and also using an electrolyte supplement, you can help your body to adapt to the demands of travel, ensuring your gut feels its best.
Our tips for staying hydrated during travel:
Carry a reusable water bottle made of glass or stainless steel to ensure you have regular water available.
Aim for half of your body weight in ounces of water for optimal water intake
Aim to enjoy 2 servings of fruit daily while traveling to get natural potassium minerals from fruit.
Add in an electrolyte powder like our favorite Remonds Lytle for an extra boost of minerals.
These small adjustments will support a healthy gut as well as better energy production so you can continue to enjoy your trip.
As we shared in the introduction, travel can throw off even the strongest of digestive systems. If you are looking for more targeted support while you travel, supplements can be great tools to utilize and have on hand. The best supplements for travel are based on your unique digestive symptoms and goals. Check out our Supplement Guide for Gut Healing which will guide you through our best recommendations for specific supplements to help remedy your most common digestive symptom struggles while traveling.
If you are ready for more 1:1 support, we can help you identify your root causes and customize your solutions based on your unique body - which will make future travel a breeze. Book a strategy call, it's finally time to get to the root of your chronic symptoms!
