The key reasons why we tend to put on weight while travelling are: disruption of the Circadian rhythm, imbalance of our gut bacteria and of course, unplanned meals and junk food.

Circadian clock

Circadian clock or circadian rhythm is more often called our “body clock.” This internal clock, which is present in almost all living organisms, is responsible for regulating sleep and wake cycles, hunger and satiety, hormone balance, and behaviour. It is driven by a master clock located in our brain which is connected to other “peripheral” clocks located in different organs like the liver, the gut and so on. This master clock runs on a 24-hour schedule by receiving cues from our environment, such as light, darkness and food.

Gut bacteria

Gut bacteria are the trillions of bacteria that reside in our intestine/gut. They have their own clock which sends signals to the master clock in the brain. These bacteria play a critical role in our metabolism, mood, health of our brain and heart and how our body absorbs nutrients from food.

When the gut bacteria and our circadian clock are not in sync, our health starts spiralling downward. Travel, even if it’s domestic travel and does not involve different time zones, could send our body rhythm out of balance.

Three things that affect gut bacteria

• What we eat
• When we eat
• Our sleep-wake cycle

Apart from this, the geographical location also makes a difference, though studies in this area are at early stages.

The reason why we feel tired and sluggish at the end of a road or rail trip [even if we just read or slept during the travel] is because we spend our time doing something that is out of our normal pattern. This also disrupts the body clock and gut bacteria.

The travel fatigue that we feel after a long day of travel within the same timezone should go away with one night of sound sleep, hydration, nourishing food and a warm shower. The recovery is not so smooth and quick if you are travelling international or across more than two time zones and that’s what we call a jetlag. Jetlag doesn’t go away with one night’s sleep and hydration because the circadian clock is not synchronised with the location and external environment.

It takes time to realign our biological clock. Our body needs approximately 2/3^rd the number of days as the time zones we have crossed to adjust itself.

Tips to avoid weight gain during travel

Whether it’s a fun domestic trip or an international trip for work, if we plan the travel carefully, we can avoid putting on weight, feeling bloated or having water retention at the end of the travel. Some of the things that we could do are:

1. Carry your own food. This ensures that you are in better control of what you eat [and what you don’t end up eating]. People tend to give in to temptation when they are hungry and don’t have much choice
2. Avoid alcohol, packaged juices, refined foods and desserts during the journey. Travel by itself is dehydrating, especially flight travel. Sugar, alcohol and juices [which are a concentrated source of sugar with almost no fibre] will only worsen it
3. Avoid refined, fried, salty and ultra processed food
4. Carry fruits, nuts, cooked rice, beans, nut balls, sandwiches etc. These will make it through most security systems and are less messy to pack and carry
5. Keep sipping water through the journey. This will keep you hydrated
6. Move around more, walk as much as you can
7. Use ginger to your fatigue rescue. Have ginger tea, or dry sweetened ginger or ginger chews once you reach the destination to help you get rid of bloating and get back your appetite and digestion.

How to adjust your body clock quickly after travel

1. 1. Use light and dark to set your biological clock. If it’s morning when you reach your destination, get exposed to sunlight often through the day and that will keep you awake too. If you reach your destination at nighttime, reduce the lighting indoors and any light emitting devices [including phones, tablets and TV]
   2. Change your meal and sleeptime according to the destination timezone from the moment you start your travel, through the journey
   3. If it’s nighttime at your destination and you are not sleepy, have a glass of warm milk with a pinch of turmeric powder and nutmeg powder. That will help you fall asleep and improve your immunity that’s disturbed by the travel
   4. Workout first thing in the morning once you reach your destination. A few rounds of suryanamaskar or a light jog or run in the fresh crisp morning air for 20-25 minutes is enough to awaken your senses and make you feel fresh and ready for the day.

With the current lifestyle it is not possible to avoid travel. Following these tips will help you enjoy the travel and reduce the impact of travel on your waistline, mood and overall health.

The post How to avoid weight gain during frequent travel appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

The drive to sleep is strong enough to override the drive to stay awake and the result is that napping becomes a possibility. Food can be an added pro-nap factor. Eating a large or heavy meal at lunchtime causes an insulin response that leads to a temporary drop in blood glucose. This, in turn, promotes drowsiness. However, the primary reason that siestas are both attractive and possible is clearly circadian. Even someone who skips lunch can end up wanting a nap because of accumulated sleep pressure combined with low levels of wakefulness signals.

The pros of napping

Is taking a siesta a good idea? Quite a lot of people have thought so, including Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Winston Churchill. And lab studies back them up. After a nap, people are more alert and productive, less tired, and more positive in their mood. Their logical reasoning and decision-making skills improve, and if they have been learning something new or practising a new skill, they retain it better after a nap. There is even research suggesting that regular napping reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes and obesity. What’s not to like?

It turns out that alertness and cognitive skills improve after as little as 10 minutes of napping

The cons of napping

Still, some cautions are in order. It matters when we nap and how long we nap. Studies in which people were encouraged to take naps at different times of day confirm what most of us probably already suspect. For adults with a normal sleep-wake pattern, the best time to nap is in the early afternoon, about halfway between morning wake-up time and evening bedtime.

Napping later in the day, however, may have an unfortunate impact in the evening or night. Naps deplete sleep pressure, and the later that happens, the less time there is for sleep pressure to build up again by bedtime. Sleep pressure and the circadian cycle have gotten temporarily out of sync, and until they get back in harmony, you will have trouble falling asleep.

How long a nap is best?

Researchers have also studied the effects of varying the length of naps. Surprisingly, it turns out that alertness and cognitive skills improve after as little as 10 minutes of napping. That is enough time to relieve fatigue, too. Naps of 20 minutes or half an hour do not provide any greater benefits, and they are also more likely to set off a period of grogginess or sleep inertia. Those who take longer naps, of an hour or more, build up even more sleep inertia. There may be other gains from their deeper sleep, such as more creative problem solving, but it takes them even more time to return to full alertness and effectiveness.

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