"The Way of the Happy Woman" author Sara Avant Stover shares healthy and happiness inducing travel tips!
Sara Avant is a motivational speaker, teacher, mentor, and the author of The Way of the Happy Woman: Living the Best Year of Your Life (New World Library). After a cancer scare in her early twenties, Sara moved to Thailand, where she embarked on an extensive healing and spiritual odyssey throughout Asia and served as one of the pioneer Western yoga teachers in that part of the world. She now lives in Boulder, Colorado, and continues to teach women about wellness, spirituality, and lifestyle around the world.
We have a few questions for her on how to travel as healthily and dynamically as possible!
Firestone Sisters:
1. It is so difficult for us to find healthy options when we're traveling. Airports and rest stops are chock full of fast food and other calorie and chemical laden choices. What tips/ideas do you have for making a healthy yet still tasty choice in these scenarios?
Sara:
I bring snacks with me wherever I go so I’m not caught starving somewhere with junk food as my only salvation! Yes, this takes a little bit more forethought, but ultimately it can save you money and from feeling sluggish and run down from a sugar crash.
Here are some of my favorite things to bring with me when I travel:
Hint: combining proteins and fats will give your body a sense of fullness and satisfaction & will help to keep you from grazing on junk food.
- A protein bar. I keep one in my purse at all times! My favorite brand is “Organic Food Bar.” It’s an instant meal.
- An apple/banana/carrots/celery with peanut or almond butter (get individual packets to bring with you from Justin’s Nut Butter)
- A snack bag of almonds or cashews.
- Instant oatmeal. (Put it in a cup and fill it with hot water & add a scoop of whey or brown rice protein powder for a hot breakfast in the airport)
- Dark chocolate-with more than 70% cocoa content (because I always have a little bit with me!)
- A couple of hardboiled eggs
- Greek or goat yogurt
- Green powder (Instant greens to add to juice, water, or coconut juice)
If I need a fuller meal when I’m on the road (or in the air) here’s the #1 way I choose the healthiest options at restaurants:
Choose Asian! At an Asian restaurant or fast food counter you can always get sushi, edamame, miso soup, steamed (or lightly sautéed) veggies, chicken, and brown or white rice (not fried). These are healthy and satisfying meals.
Mexican is the next-best option (chicken or fish, salsa, guacamole, beans, lettuce, and a corn tortilla!)
2. As you discuss in the book, having a morning routine is important to staying happy and healthy. When traveling do you keep your usual routine or tailor it for the road?
I do a little bit of both. It’s ironic, but I find that my morning routine (meditation, journaling, yoga or exercise) is more solid and in tact when I’m on the road than when I’m not. The reason for that is because I need it more! I don’t have my home and my usual schedule to keep me grounded. So my morning routine becomes my anchor and allows me to feel rooted (and clear in my mind, warm in my heart, vibrant in my body), wherever I go. At home I can be more flexible. I always start my day with meditation, but maybe my yoga, exercise, and journaling will come later in the day, before dinner, instead.
3. What do you pack to stay healthy and happy while traveling?
- My yoga mat (I have an extra thin and light one that I only use while travelling)
- My meditation cushion (I have an inflatable one too. You can get these from “Carolina Morning”)
- Daily packets of vitamins and supplements. I have a little plastic bag for each day so they’re easy for me to take when I’m on the road.
- My water bottle and tea mug, plus tea bags.
- Lavender essential oil (for hot baths upon arrival).
- My journal
- Earplugs & eye mask for sound sleeping
- Emergen-C packets, protein bars, protein powder, stevia, green powder as healthy supplements to my meals.
- Inspiring talks, yoga classes & books (on an iphone or ipad)
- P90X CDs (to get my cardio and weight training in when I can’t go to the gym)
- My mini altar (a little envelope of things I can place on a table wherever I am to remind me of what’s important—photos of teachers & loved ones, a candle, some sage to clear the space and bring in fresh energy).
4. Traveling can be stressful. What thoughts do you have on staying centered, calm and happy in the face of hectic airports, traffic, etc?
Meditation is key! If a flight is delayed at the airport I’ll sit in a chair, look at the floor, and meditate with my eyes open or do walking meditation (or listen to a guided meditation on your iphone. I have some available in my “Women’s Meditation Kit” ). This keeps me centered like nothing else can. I also stretch a lot in the airport and in the back of airplanes (and at rest stops when I’m driving). People think I look weird, but who cares—it makes me feel so much better!
A good book (like The Way of the Happy Woman); or using the time to catch up on phone calls/e-mails/work/write snail-mail letters always helps, too. I find sitting around in airports and on airplanes to be a weirdly productive time! Try to make the most of it, because what else can you do? Resisting it will only make it worse. Remember: “This too shall pass.”
5. There are places rumored to be energy vortexes in the world where positive energy is felt more intensely. Have you ever experienced this? If so, where?
Definitely. When I arrive somewhere and feel a sense of ease, contentment, excitement and unexpected “at homeness,” I believe I have arrived in such places. Some of those have been Luang Prabang, Laos; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Lijiang, China; certain areas in Nepal; Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Lenox, Mass.; Boulder, CO; Tulum, Mexico; Vancouver, BC; San Francisco, CA; Santa Fe, New Mexico. I always love to visit New York City (for a few days), and spent a semester in West Africa when I was in college and fell in love with Ghana and Mali!
Get a free sample chapter of my book (text & audio) here: http://www.saraavant.com/freebies.
Travel with Sara!
The Way of the Happy Woman Autumn Retreat| October 14-16, 2011; Shambhala Mountain Center, Colorado
The Way of the Happy Woman Winter Retreat | January 14-21, 2012; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
The Way of the Happy Woman Spring Retreat | May 11-13, 2012; Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
WIN a signed copy of the Sara's book when you leave a comment and "like" her Facebook page!!
Let's all Happy Woman together now, shall we? Don't know about you all but we are certainly ready to live the best year of our lives!! Thank you, Sara! xox