Chances are you’re itching to do some traveling this summer. In that case, get in line! Experts are calling it “revenge travel” – millions of people upset over canceling travel plans during the pandemic are now gearing up to go on vacation – come hell or high water!
Even if you’re not driven by a Captain Ahab-like urge to get back at the virus, it’s essential to factor health and wellness into your travel plans. Doing so ensures the best travel experience possible. That’s because – without our health – how can we expect to have a good time?
To drive the point further, here are seven reasons why prioritizing health and wellness while traveling is so important:
More Enjoyable
Getting sick or hurt is a quick way to ruin a vacation. With this in mind, prioritizing health and wellness while traveling is key to making the experience more enjoyable. While you might try soldiering through a bad cold or powering through a regrettable hangover, is that really how you want to spend your vacation? Whether it’s stocking up on sexual wellness products before leaving or staying away from alcohol during your trip, take steps to protect yourself while traveling. Otherwise, you may be too sick, tired, and frustrated to enjoy the experience.
Less Stressful
Generally speaking, better health means less stress. The better we feel physically, the better we feel mentally. With this in mind, prioritizing health and wellness is a critical way to make travel less stressful. Considering the prevailing notion that vacation is a time to throw caution to the wind, it might sound counterintuitive to care about health and wellness while traveling. But doing so will keep aches and pains at bay and consequently make your vacation less stressful.
More Energy
Someone who eats healthily and exercises regularly tends to have sufficient energy throughout the day. Someone who binge eats bad foods and does more sitting than walking tends to have the opposite experience. We’re not saying you shouldn’t indulge on vacation, nor are we saying you need to run five miles at the crack of dawn every day. But if you want to get as much done as possible without feeling ready to collapse by the end of the day, consider making wellness a top priority.
Less Expensive
A vacation jam-packed with drinking, eating, and lounging can be fun. But it can also be expensive. Consider how much you’ll save if you limit yourself to three healthy meals a day and choose to walk as much as possible. Again, we aren’t saying you shouldn’t enjoy good food and good times on vacation. But by making indulgence an occasional aspect of vacation in favor of more outdoor activities, you’ll probably end up saving money.
More Possibilities
Healthy people can walk farther, run faster, and do more physically-demanding activities like hiking, climbing, and swimming. With this in mind, prioritizing your health and wellness on vacation means getting to do more stuff. You might not want to go snorkeling in shark-infested waters, but what about hiking up a mountain for an awesome view? Would you rather be able to do that, or not?
Less Weight
Ignoring daily calorie limits for a week or more can be fun while it lasts. Then we get home, weigh ourselves, and curse the gods for being multiple pounds heavier than we were before our trip. Wouldn’t it be better if you got back and discovered you didn’t gain a single pound? What if you lost weight on vacation? How cool would that be? While weight loss shouldn’t be a goal on vacation, avoiding weight gain should be something to consider so get out there and run, walk, hike, or bike!
More Memorable
Most folks can’t stand to look at photos of themselves where they appear bloated and unhealthy. Since photos are the driving force behind modern vacation memories, it’s not a stretch to assume the healthier we are while traveling, the more fondly we look back on the experience. By making health and wellness a priority, you’re more likely to remember the vacation in a positive light, rather than focus on the bad things that happened.
If you’re desperate to get some traveling done this summer, you aren’t alone. But whether it’s a weekend trip out of state or a month-long adventure overseas, prioritizing yourself will prove essential.
Photo by Felix Rostig on Unsplash
