Thoughtful Thursday…5 tips for beating jet lag

Welcome to Thoughtful Thursday. This GreenNote Fitness newsletter mindfully gathers and distills useful information that is supportive to our journey. It is my mission to educate, inspire, and propel you into action that moves you towards your goals and life of purpose. Take control of your journey today.

As we reached a cruising altitude of 40,000 feet above the Earth, I listened to the captain’s voice saying that the fasten seatbelt sign was turned off and we were free to get up. Adjusting my compression socks and earplugs, I settled back in my seat to read, knowing that our final destination would be reached 22 hours later. Excited for the adventure ahead, knowing this will be one doozy of jet lag...or will it...? Whether you are traveling to the other side of the world, or across one or two timezones, jet lag is a real deal. No one likes feeling sluggish, irritable, or having brain fog the size of Texas. Today, we will look at five tips to send jet lag to the curb and feel like a million bucks wherever your final destination may be. So sit back (or stand), relax, and get ready to place these gems in your health tool-kit. Let’s put jet lag into perspective with no sugar-coating. When you are in a plane, you are in a tiny metal tube completely disconnected from the Earth’s natural magnetic field, bombarded by solar radiation, with EMF’s (electromagnetic field) and stale air filled with pathogens and germs. When we fly there is loss of fitness, cellular oxidation, dehydration, and total body damage. No wonder flying feels like a combat sport! If you are on your way to an important meeting or just want to enjoy a well-deserved vacation, you don’t have time to suffer through these negative effects. What to do? Let’s look at five things you can begin doing on your next trip to help you hit the ground running. Tip #1.) Grounding or Earthing This involves exposing your body to the natural magnetic frequencies released by the Earth. When you are traveling in that metal tube, you are disconnected completely from the Earth. You aren’t able to discharge all the positive ions that build up via cellular metabolism, you aren’t able to absorb the negative ions you’d normally get if you were touching the ground. This ion imbalance decreases the natural electrochemical gradient across your cell membranes, so you get disrupted cellular metabolism and inflammation. Ideally, shortly after landing, you want to come in contact with the ground - think barefoot in a park, beach, or behind the hotel. If that isn’t possible, an alternative is wearing a shoe or sandal that have carbon plugs in them that allow for ground without being barefoot. Examples are Pluggz and Earth Runners. Tip #2.) Exercise Studies show that exercise can regulate circadian rhythms (24-hour patterns of biological activity that regulate the sleep-wake cycle). As unappealing as it may sound, the sooner you can vigorously move after arriving at your final destination, the sooner you’ll bounce back from jet lag and normalize your circadian rhythm and sleep. After arriving at our final destination and after traveling for a day (literally, an entire day), even though it was close to midnight, instead of going to bed, we went for a very long walk outside. That helped immensely. Depending on the time of day and where you land, other things that would be beneficial include walking barefoot in the sand or in the park, swimming in cool water, or yoga (preferably barefoot outside). At the very least, consider doing air squats. Tip #3.) Water It should come as no surprise that you lose more water due to the dehydration that occurs while flying in the dry air at altitude so you need to drink more water to stay hydrated and beat jet lag. Try drinking 12-ounces of water each hour. This may mean additional trips to the bathroom but that’s a good way to get a nice stretch and possibly do some air squats at the back of the plane. Tip #4.) Curcumin Curcumin (found in the spice turmeric), is a powerful antioxidant that helps tremendously when taken on an empty stomach both before and after flying. It is a potent brain anti-inflammatory and may also boost testosterone and growth hormone due to its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and shut down inflammatory cytokines in neural tissue. I use a highly absorbable source. Tip #5.) Cold Showers I know, I know, not something most of us want to hear. Some of us literally shutter at the thought of turning that shower handle to the area colored blue. Before you cast this tip aside, hear me out. Cold showers decrease inflammatory cytokines, assist with the activation of brown adipose tissue for fat burning, and cause a rebound hormone response in the form of a release of adrenaline. Consider taking a quick cold shower in the airline lounge if you have a long layover or when you get to your hotel, take a 2-5 minute cold shower. And now a bit of tough love - if you are serious about your performance, wanting to feel great and be pleasant to be around, then consider a temporary bit of discomfort for long-term gain. You can do it! There you have it, 5 tips to beat jet lag. Looking at these tips, you can start to understand how travel creates an inflammatory effect on the body. If you address that, you can feel so much better. Don’t be a victim of modern day travel; instead, get after it and implement these tips in your travel regiment. Let me know how these have worked for you. Do you have other tips that you find help when you travel? Share that with the GreenNote Fitness community here in the comment section or over on Facebook. Enjoy your journey, Lisa Schaffer GreenNote Fitness You wouldn’t happen to know just one person that would benefit from this information? Please forward it to them! Did you miss last week’s newsletter on 5 tips to increase brain performance……? P.S. Check out my Facebook page for inspiration. P.P.S. Discover GreenNote Fitness recommendations for books, podcasts, and more on body, mind, and spirit.