Healthy Car Tips. DRIVE Fit and Travel Happy

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Fast food, munchies, and hours of sedentary time in the car are synonymous with the end-of-summer road trip, but like every aspect of life, there is a healthy way to travel! Remember these tips, and enjoy your road trip without reaching for a stale bag of chips from a gas station or feeling gross when you get to your destination. 

Workout Before You Head Out. If I know Im going to be on the road for hours, I make time for movement before I get behind the wheel. Even if its only 20 minutes, a little bit goes a long way and helps me maintain my energy (and sanity) for a long day of driving.The easiest way is to fit in a quick workout before you leave your hotel or home in the morning. That way you get a little bit of focused movement in no matter what the day (or traffic!) has in store for you. I subscribe to several great YouTube channels to make it easy to find a good workout video. One routine or a few put together and Im filled with energy for a day behind the wheel. The videos below are some good options for pre-driving fitness. Turn on your butt, legs, core, and heart and you’ll feel ready to drive in health.

Ten Minute Total Body Workout

Morning Stretching Series for Energy

Workout From Home. 15 minute routine

Stretch At Rest Stops AND once you get to your final destination. A little bit of stretching goes a long way. Use every opportunity you can to move your body and eliminate pain from long hours of sitting. At every bathroom rest stop, work through a few simple total body movements – one stretch is better than none and will go a long way in helping your body feel better. Here are a few of my favorite quick, easy road trip stretches to do.

After Travel Stretching Routine. You can use this video once you reach your destination to come down from a long day of traveling. These exercises are relaxing, restorative, and perfect after a road trip or right before bed.

Plan Strategic Pit Stops. Do a little research before you start your trip. Are there good spots to stop and take a scenic walk or stretch your legs? Any healthy restaurants along the drive? How about yoga studios for a quick refreshing flow or grocery stores to stock up on healthy snacks so you don’t hit up the drive through? A little bit of planning goes a long way and can make your rest stops a powerful make or break healthy choice. The last time I drove from SF to Santa Barbara I asked friends for suggestions on active and nutritious stops. I got more than enough ideas and ended up stopping for both workouts AND healthy bites to eat on my road trip. It made a HUGE difference in how I felt after the long drive and gave me something to look forward to while I was on the road. I even got into an olympic distance pool in Paso Robles…. it made the 6 hour drive MUCH more enjoyable.

Pack Healthy Snacks. This is the easiest solution to the “road trip food problem.” It means you are in control of the food available to you. Pack a cooler with healthy choices before you head out. Whole fresh fruit, trail mix, beef jerky, kale chips, ZICO coconut water, Clearly Kombucha,  and KIND or Lara bars are easy to pack and great snacks to keep you fueled for long driving days. Heres a photo of my last road trip healthy green smoothie (kale, spinach, apple, protein powder, and almond milk) behind the wheel.

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Break out the Yoga Tune Up Balls. Cars were not made for amazing posture. Thats why when you stand up after a long drive you feel achy all over. The muscles get tight and stiff from hours of sitting which can create pain that can potentially distract from the fun when you reach your destination. But theres one small thing you can do to make driving feel much better for you. Yoga Tune Up Balls. These little rubber self-massage  tools are the perfect driving companion to prevent muscular tension. Simply set the balls against the car chair and your lower back, your hamstrings, or against your butt cheeks and let the sustained compression work massage magic on your muscles while driving. Then when you stop at your home or hotel, break out the balls for a more comprehensive total body massage to work out all the kinks from long traveling days. Simple to use and easy to pack, the Yoga Tune Up balls are a free massage therapist you never want to leave home without. Heres a quick video detailing how to use them to ease driving pain. As always,  practice CAUTION while driving!

I honestly can’t rave about Yoga Tune Up Balls enough – Im a HUGE believer in the power of self massage and my home is filled to the brim with several sets of Yoga Tune Up equipment! Buy yours now on amazon – so you can join me in keeping your body feeling good long term.

 

Last but not least, Don’t Detour from being good to YOU. Whats most important is that if you fall off road on your healthy living goals, don’t beat yourself up about it. Giving up on your goal because of one setback is like slashing your other three tires because you got one flat. Drop the guilt and make the next best choice. Pick up where you left off on the journey of being good to yourself and living a healthy, happy life.

On your next road trip or drive to work, challenge yourself to explore new healthy habits. You’ll feel good on the drive and arrive to your destination with energy to thrive 🙂

How do you stay fit and active while you are on the road? Leave your top road trip wellness tip as a comment below. And as always, If you liked this post, please share it with your friends on Facebooktwitter, or email. More great content is headed your way every week to help you live a happy, healthy life! 

With Gratitude,

Caroline

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One Reply to “Healthy Car Tips. DRIVE Fit and Travel Happy”

  1. Very interesting article. I am travel freak. I never thought of traveling like this.Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
    People often have a theme that they base their worldly travels on, but how about a mental mantra for your travel? Out of a cheerleading event that consisted of our family shouting supportive words at our daughter who was attempting to kill a rather monstrous spider that the rest of us were too chicken to get close to, came this great quote, “If you don’t think, and you just do….then it’s done!”

    This quote came back to haunt me when on vacation in Seattle. I thought it would be a great idea to take the kids on the Seattle Great Wheel, the ferris wheel overlooking the ocean, but as we approached it, I realized how high it went and immediately panicked! Just as I had decided to put the kids on it on their own, my daughter says, “Come on dad…If you don’t think, and you just do….then it’s done!” What could I do at that point?! She was telling me to stop thinking and creating more fear about the situation and just get on the thing!

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