When you travel, it’s not easy to stay on your diet. Friends are inviting you out to eat as part of the fun. The airlines don’t really serve anything that’s edible, and the airport food sucks. Never the less, the body and mind hunger for nutrition.
I usually bring a few healthy snacks, but traveling is a changeling as far as diet.
Practice and staying on your exercise program is a different story. Although my hosts insisted on bringing me to all the hot spots for food and sightseeing, I found that getting up early and beginning my meditation and Qigong practices kept me healthy and full of energy every day.
Most people like to stay up late and sleep even more during vacation. If they do get up early, I invite them to join me for morning meditation and Qigong practices. But for the most part – I’m the only one to start my day with a punch of energy.
My first few days were in the country on a large cork and olive farm located in southern Portugal. The weather was perfect: 60s in the morning and low 80s the rest of the day. Perfect weather for my practices. Although the family liked to stay up late, I was usually asleep by 10 pm and up at 5:30 am. This gave me a good three hours before the family started getting up. And as far as they were concerned, I was up and ready to play when they were.
The trip was like a whirl wind, an adventure of a lifetime. We traveled from the tip of Southern Portugal to the northern tip. I didn’t go as a tourist. I was invited and was treated as part of a local family that has been in the wine business for 8 generations.
I had the honor of stepping on the grapes to make wine. I tasted and drank the best Portuguese wines and really got to know the culture, the food and customs of Portugal. You would think that people would be much heavier as you see in America. But, every day, we walked at least 10 miles: up and down the hills. People are in very good shape. Although they eat bread and cheese daily and drink lots of wine, none of them are genetically modified or sprayed with glyphosate like is common in the US.
The family I stayed with has chickens, ducks and geese on their property. There are also olive trees, plumbs, apple, pears, a wide variety of wine grapes and two varieties of eating grapes. It was a blessing to be treated as part of the family and see the city as a local.
I had the opportunity to go to a homeopathic farm in Lisbon that had everything you could imagine in homeopathic medicine. Dr. Teresa who invited me to Portugal, is a medical qigong doctor like me and is also certified in ayurvedic medicine.
I worked on her family and friends and see some of her clients. In general, I find the Portuguese people in very good shape physically.
My suggestion when you travel either locally or to a foreign land, is to always find time for your own practice. It makes no difference if it’s early in the morning or late at night. Make the time for yourself, and you can stay healthy, young and vibrant.
I wish you the best in your health, wealth and happiness.
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