Season 4, Episode 4: How Do I Manage IBS While I Travel?
Do you struggle to manage your IBS while traveling? If so, this episode is for you! I’ll share tips and tricks to manage IBS while traveling AND I’m going to walk you through my personal support kit too. You may not realize that setting yourself up for success starts with a pre-travel routine that reduces stress and overwhelm.
We’ll move from organizing your pre-travel days to your actual travel day to your entire vacation. My hope is that after listening to this episode you will be more confident in your ability to travel with ease. These recommendations have helped me so much over the years and I know they can help you too! BON VOYAGE!
In this episode we cover:
Pre-travel and the travel day tips
How stress plays a role in pre-travel preparation
What to consider so that your body is best prepped for travel
How to prep for travel if you deal with constipation or diarrhea
How to set yourself up for success on the travel day
My favorite trick for getting rid of gas buildup
Why you should use your normal routines on vacation to set yourself up for success
The importance of hydration and how to have good bowel movements when traveling
How does clothing affect your IBS symptoms?
What MY personal support kit looks like!
What if you could develop vital skills to help manage intrusive IBS symptoms in only 10 minutes a day? How would your life change? Today’s episode is sponsored by Mahana, an app that teaches you skills to manage your IBS and decrease symptom severity. Through the app, you’ll get short daily lessons and experiment with new skills, unlock tools to support your symptom management, and learn to make small changes to improve everyday patterns. Get started now and download the app at mahanatx.com/TheGutShow.
Don’t forget to connect to others in The GUT Community, a Facebook group for those with IBS and digestive disorders to support one another and dive deeper into each episode together.
Today's episode is a highly requested one and something that I talk about often on Instagram, especially around this time of the year, and that is managing IBS while you travel. We're going to talk all things travel and digestion, what goes wrong, as well as how you can manage it. I'm also going to show you some of my personal support kits because I get asked about that often, so I can show you a visual of what that looks like or talk you through it if you're listening on the podcast versus watching over on YouTube. If you are on the podcast, you may jump over to YouTube around that time of the show so that you can see a visual of what I'm talking about and what it can look like.
The short answer to how do you manage IBS while you travel is to stick to your routines as much as you can and have your supports in place. That's as basic as it can get. But what that actually looks like, on a practical level, is going to be different for each person. So I'm going to talk about all the different things that you want to think about.
What I want you to do as I'm talking is to think about your trips and think about travel. And if you haven't, if you're not able to kind of pull back from your memory bank here, think about this next time you travel and just take note of some of the different things you notice in your body because it's easy to see the worst of symptoms when we travel or even the fears of symptoms when we travel, but sometimes it's better to think about the exact details of when symptoms actually happen, what leads up to them, what other things are going on, kind of your fallbacks are your habits when you travel, all of those things are going to make a difference because that will influence where you make shifts, and that will also influence what may be going on. So think about that as I'm talking. If some of these things are not present for you, then they may not be part of your travel plan, but if they are present in your life, and you notice that these things do connect, then you may decide that you shift and alter your travel plan to accommodate for these different things.
First, we're going to talk about pre-travel and the travel day, because oftentimes, we think so much about the travel itself, but we don't necessarily think about leading up to a trip or travel and how that can impact your gut. Honestly, pre-travel habits, pre travel events can impact your gut even more than the trip itself. And that can set you up for not necessarily failure, but set you up to have more of a roadblock as you're going into a trip which can create more anxiety, more fear and put you in this spiral that can really ruin your trip, which is not what we want.
Leading up to travel, there's a few different pieces here. We're going to talk about your stress and the gut brain connection, your routines, and how you're set up to kind of go into that trip, as well as your motility.
So looking at stress, everyone is different with how they plan for trips and how they go into a travel day, holidays, whatever it may be, but the goal is to try and reduce stress tied to the trip as much as possible. There are going to be some stressors that are completely out of your control, including changed flights or different barriers that you encounter on your trip. And all of those things are going to happen.
What we want to do is think about your stress as a stress bucket. If you know that that bucket is going to be filled with things out of your control, let's think about the things that we can take out of the bucket in your control. One of them is organization for the trip. One of the worst things that can happen with a trip is for all these last minute details to start piling on top of you and fall apart. Or then you're not getting any sleep, you're overwhelmed, you're trying to rush, you're in a hurry. This will impact your gut because your gut is going to sense that stress due to the gut brain connection.
One of the best things that you can do is organize and plan ahead. That may look like printing things out or having things saved on your phone, taking some time to create a packing list and packing early. Create yourself a checklist of things you want to get done maybe around your house or what needs to happen before you leave. Do this early, not the day before but maybe the week leading up to.
What you can also do with your organization in your planning is think about the different stressors and the possible situations that you may be in that are going to cause fear. Many times fear and the anxiety of the unknown is what causes flares and can cause your gut to be in kind of disarray and in chaos. But whenever we're able to really sit down and think about what are those possible scenarios, what are the things that could happen? What are the things that are already in their mind that I might be trying to stuff back, but they're impacting me and causing this fear and anxiety? Let's put it on paper and actually address it early, not the day of, but in advance.
Whenever you do this, what you're able to do is actually plan ahead for those things. So you may see, okay, what happens if my flight gets delayed, and I don't know what I'm going to eat, or I don't know what to do if I'm stuck at the airport, it's like, okay, great, I need to pack more snacks, like really come prepared, or I'm gonna grab some food at the airport early on, and just have it with me in case I need it, things like that.
You may come up to a scenario where like, well, what if I have diarrhea on the plane, we're gonna get to your support kit, which is going to be part of that. But that's where you may say, you know what, this helps me in those situations on a normal basis, so that's something that I can take. And then what that's going to help you do is identify the scenarios that you don't feel prepared for, and give you time to actually create some preparation and planning for it, which might be with your doctor, I do this a lot with my clients as their dietitian, and maybe with your friends, your support group, whoever it is, you'll have some time to really dive into that possible scenario that's causing you fear and anxiety and come up with a strategy for it so that you feel more prepared.
Confidence in knowing that you can handle situations that are in front of you will bring down that anxiety and stress load significantly. And so that's something that I really encourage you to do whether you are an organized type of person or not, make it a habit to create some organization both on a checklist and getting things done standpoint so you're not rushing and overwhelmed, but also on a navigating potential scenarios standpoint, so that you are prepared and just knowing you're prepared will bring down that stress and even help prevent symptoms.
What this is going to do is just make it easier on you. So anytime we can make things simpler, we can make things easier, we can kind of create some ease to it like meal prepping for a week so that you have lunches and maybe dinners already prepared versus having to come up with ideas every single day, those are going to help you on stay true to the habits that you're trying to create and create margin in your day, in your mind and your emotions to deal with the things that are outside of your control or need your attention right away. Or even just making memories, which is what we really want to do on vacation or during holidays.
Another thing is your routines and how you're actually set up going into your trip. I talked about this a little bit with the organization side and that stress bucket because you don't want to go into your trip fully stressed, you also don't want to go into your trip feeling in total chaos and not well rested, or even poorly hydrated or poorly nourished.
What you want to do leading up to your trip, and part of that comes with your organization so you're not overwhelmed, is you want to make sure you're getting quality sleep, that you're eating nourishing meals, if you know what your food triggers are maybe decreasing those leading up and doing less kind of risky foods, knowing that you're probably going to be eating out more and going kind of getting those triggers a bit more during the trip itself. Hydrating well, this might not be the time to drink a lot of alcohol, increase your caffeine, all those things that you normally don't do, it would be better to like stick to really high quality hydration throughout that week, so that you go into the trip feeling nourished, rested and hydrated, which is going to help you have more success in the trip.
Sleep can impact your symptoms significantly and that's something I see happening during trips a lot, but I see it more in the days before and even the day before. If you are planning a flight, it can be helpful to think about that piece of maybe not planning the 6am flight that you're gonna have to wake up really early and not get as good of sleep as normal or not have your normal routines that really help you out, all of those things can make such a big difference and that's something you can control with the timing and how you plan things out. If you're traveling with someone else, or it's a family trip, communicate that to them and why that matters to you. Honestly everyone will probably benefit from feeling that way versus feeling irritable and angry and on edge and all those things going into a trip that is meant to be enjoyable, fun and restful.
Another thing to think about is your motility. So with motility, for those who deal with constipation predominantly, you know that travel tends to make constipation worse. Bowels do not like changes in routine and so they tend to get a little bit shy and kind of locked up a bit when you travel. One thing that you can do is actually support your motility a bit more leading up to your trip so that things are already moving and you're less likely to get backed up. So that might be an over the counter laxative like MiraLAX or something like that, maybe magnesium citrate, whatever you use to help your gut move. It might be kiwi, it may be more hydration, more fiber like fiber supplements and flaxseed, chia seeds, anything that helps your gut move, really focus on that two days or the day before the trip so that on your travel day and that next day, your gut has already been moving and has been supported versus feeling more sluggish going into it and then getting even more backed up where you're going to deal with pain and discomfort.
From a motility standpoint on the diarrhea side, you can kind of think of it the same way. Usually with diarrhea we have to think about stress, we have to think about actual triggers, so thinking about food triggers, paring back on those irritants, like really high spicy foods, caffeine, coffee, even decaf coffee, alcohol, anything that's going to irritate your gut and cause more loose stool. Even considering maybe using very low doses of something like an Imodium if that's what you need to help prevent that diarrhea, cramping, the pain, all of those symptoms as you're going into your trip.
So don't just think about supporting it on your travel day, think about supporting your motility leading up to your travel day for a day or two or so. And that will help you be more prepared, that will also help you feel better because your motility will be more solid as you're going into that day, which might not be as ideal or perfect.
Now on your travel day, what you need to think about? If you've been organized, you have all your things kind of prepared, you're ready for any scenarios that you encounter, you're going to feel more confident on your travel day, but there are a few things you can think about on the day itself to feel your best. One is, I kind of hinted to it earlier with the sleep scenario, is have your your usual morning routine and try to have a really good solid bowel movement before you leave.
Now I have this joke, it's very relatable joke that I've experienced and many of my clients have experienced, and that's if you are telling your body that you need to have a bowel movement and you deal with constipation, you're likely not going to have a bowel movement, the body does not have really support that, so you may need some extra support here. Make sure you get enough sleep, you wake up and you have some relaxation, maybe you've already planned ahead, you're not rushing, you have time to kind of rest and relax. If you normally drink coffee and that helps you, drink your cup of coffee, drink your water, have a nourishing breakfast, do some stretches, maybe a little movement, whatever helps to help you feel grounded, to help your body relax and to help you have a bowel movement, that is going to be supportive for the rest of the day ahead of you.
Especially if you deal with constipation, that even if you deal with diarrhea, if you're trying to hold it in, hold it in, hold it in, then you might have more issues then if you were to just give yourself time to like evacuate, go do your thing at home where you feel most comfortable, that can be such a game changer!
Now on the day itself after you leave your house, how to set yourself up for success will be around making sure you have what you need through the day. So that could be supplements and medications and things like that, which we'll talk about later with specifics, but the big two things that you want to think about are your food and your water.
Make sure that you pack plenty of snacks and pack snacks that are balanced like maybe a trail mix. If you eat meat, like a meat steak or some fruit that you can easily carry with you it's not going to go bad like berries or something maybe do like an orange that you can peel or banana or something like that. Bars are really great for this, think about things that can be replacements for certain meals and like actually give you some calories if you don't find things that are going to make you feel good during the travel day.
Don't rely on just finding things at the airport or if you're on a road trip, just finding stuff at a gas station, it's helpful to know that those things are available, but it also helps to know that you have snacks just in case so that you can feel more confident in how your body's gonna respond to the food that you're eating, which can make a big difference.
One of the worst things that you can do is not eat and just skip meals because that will actually backfire and cause more symptoms, it can also leave you again feeling irritable, it can leave you feeling malnourished as you go into the next day which is your actual like full travel experience in the trip and all the fun things that you want to do. So think about supporting your body and snacks is a great way to do that.
Another thing is your hydration. Don't rely on there being water always available. If you are in a car what I do, I call it my water bag where I fill multiple bottles of water so I have all the water I need for the entire day in the car with me so I don't even have to worry about refilling or anything like that. If you're flying, take an empty water bottle with you. Hydrate that morning so you've had some good hydration, which can make such a big difference. Refill that water bottle as soon as you get to the airport and keep refilling it. If you got there early, fill it up, drink it a little bit, go refill it before you get on the plane so that you know you have water if they're coming through with drinks, ask for water and make sure that you're getting plenty of water and that you're being intentional with it. And even during your trip, like having a water bottle that can fit into like a bag, easy to carry, that can be so helpful to make sure that you have water on you and you're not dehydrated, which is one of the top causes of symptoms and something that can happen often when we travel.
And then specifically to a plane, even in a car if you're sitting for a long time, but in a plane, whenever you go to higher elevations, gas buildup in the gut is very normal and expected, that happens. And when you're sitting all day, especially if you're wearing like tighter pants, like you may notice that you have more gas buildup, which can be really painful for those with IBS, so if you do experience this, my hack is the Simethicone which is the active ingredient in Gas-X, you can also find it not as Gas-X but just as Simethicone, which is what you want, mixed with ginger tea. So you can grab your own tea bags, go to a coffee shop at the airport and ask for hot water or on the plane just ask for hot water when they come through with drinks and put your tea bag in there. Taking the Simethicone and drinking the ginger tea early on in the flight and if it's a very long international flight, like every few hours, that will help break up those gas bubbles. Ideally, you do want to pass them when you have opportunities, but that will help prevent trapped gas which is going to be very painful. So that's a little trick that you can use that will help support you during that travel!
All right, now let's get into the trip itself and the actual travel habits or whatever we want to call them, past the travel day. So now we want to talk about your routines, your food and some other things that you want to be thinking about.
With your routines, your body loves routine. If you've listened to some of our past episodes on like sleep and circadian rhythms, and even stress management and movement, our bodies love routine and habit. And that all goes back to our body's kind of clock system, which are referred to as like our circadian rhythms. And our body's meant to kind of function in that way. So that's why we tend to have a bowel movement around the same time every day, hunger and fullness cues, hunger cues specifically tend to come up at certain times of the day, we're best if we sleep at certain times of the day like we are more awake and more sleepy during certain times. Whenever you have solid routines and your body is running like a clock, it's able to function with more ease.
When we have irregular routines in our daily lives, that is going to lead to more chaos in how our body functions, including hormonal systems, other communication pathways, mood regulation, how we sleep and quality of sleep as well as digestion. This can also happen when we disrupt our routines very drastically during travel. What I want you to do is think about your normal routines, if you have them established, if not, you want to start there, but if you have routines established think about what they are, and how can you keep those as consistent as possible when you travel.
It doesn't have to be perfect, but even keeping like if you relax in the morning and have like a warm beverage and you know read a book or whatever and that helps you like have a great bowel movement, that's what you want to note to like keep consistent. If you go to bed around a certain time every night, try to kind of plan for that where you sort of sleep around the same time, wake up sort of close to the same time, it's a bit of a window, because that will help your body be a more smooth machine, if you will.
So the two big ones there that you can think about with travel are sleeping and meals. So with your sleep, you want to think about quantity. So you definitely want to get enough sleep. It's easy to just want to like stay up all night, wake up early, do all the things especially if you're in a new place that you're excited about, but if you are under slept and you are not sleeping well your mood is going to be different, so you're not even going to be as excited and happy, your energy levels will drop and your digestion will be impacted. So you might be even more vulnerable to symptoms that you may not normally be vulnerable to, so pack that on with more triggers that are present in all these changes and that can lead to a lot of issues.
So really prioritize sleep quantity as much as you can, and in addition to that, prioritize sleep quality. Some of the things that might shift whenever you travel versus when you're at home and as you sleep, would be the sound, the light and your calming routines and how you kind of decompress in the day.
So what you can do for that is, you can't always determine what the sound is going to be like where you travel, you can look up those reviews if you want to and try to plan for that, but an easy way is to bring earplugs where you can block out sound and sleep well. Another thing for light, you know, you can try to close blinds, you can use those little clips on the hangers to like close curtains together to like block any light coming through the window, you can also bring an eye mask, I travel with the sleep mask and earplugs at all times, they stay in my suitcase, but that's an easy way to block out that extra light and help your body get the best quality sleep possible.
Then for calming routines, build in a little bit of time at the end of the day to decompress. If you normally watch a TV show, maybe watch a short TV show, for me, it's drinking a tea, so it's like making a cup of tea in the hotel room and drinking tea, having a conversation, reading your book journaling about your day, whatever it needs to be, even if it's only five minutes, that will help your body stay in that rhythm of okay, now we're relaxing, it's time to sleep, let's decompress, we're ready to go. And that will be really helpful for you. So think about those little pieces that you normally have and what works and try to pull that into your travel experience.
Now if you are dealing with jetlag, so if you're going on an international trip or there's a significant time difference between where you are now and where you're traveling, you do want to try to get on that schedule early. So even like the day or two before that slowly shifting towards that schedule to help your body adjust to it and then using those hacks of you know, staying up the first day and trying to get on that schedule as much as possible will be helpful, because that will impact you because there is a huge shift in what your body specs versus where you are. So do your best to get on that schedule early as much as you can, maybe on the flight or whatever you need.
If you are having trouble sleeping, whether it is on the flight, trying to sleep to get on the schedule of where you're going to avoid jetlag, or just on the trip itself, you feel uneasy, you're not relaxing like you normally do, then you could use supports like there's ashwagandha, or GABA, some people respond to CBD, you may also benefit from melatonin, which is probably one of the easiest to use and most effective for most people around one to three milligrams, and you can talk to your doctor about that to see if it would be appropriate for you.
Now with meals and routine, like I mentioned on your travel day, you really want to avoid skipping meals or going really long periods without eating, that will not set you up for success. What you can do instead is make sure you have snacks packed. Maybe if breakfast isn't something that you are normally that excited about going out for you can have like little oatmeal packets that you can make in your hotel room or use the continental breakfast if that's an option. Really stick to some of your patterns with eating in meals where you can and that will help with some of the things that are outside of your norm. Really do a good job of not skipping meals and try to keep a consistent routine with meals, so if you eat like three main meals a day, kind of keep that routine while you travel as much as you can and be mindful of that.
Also be mindful of timing of meals later in the day. So it's common that you know eating really, really late like when your digestive system again, and the circadian rhythms is starting to slow down, getting ready to sleep and rest and rejuvenate, sometimes those later meals, especially if they're heavier than your normal meals, those might lead to more GI issues, especially the next morning, so just be mindful about that if you are someone who travels and tends to eat much later than you do on a normal week, just be mindful of the portions and that timing, maybe move around after, again, allow that decompression, support your gut with maybe some ginger tea or something that's going to help aid that digestive process and just be careful with that because that could cause more symptoms.
Now more about food, specifically with food and travel, like you have autonomy in what you decide to do. And I really like to talk about this from that angle because it is important to know and have the confidence of knowing what triggers your symptoms and how allows you to make decisions for yourself. You may decide when you travel that you're going to eat whatever you want, whenever you want and do whatever you want and that is fine, your body will likely need more supports for that and so it's helpful to know how your body may respond, work through that scenario, and put that support in place so that you can do that without having that ruin your trip, right?
If you're someone who decides, you know what, I don't want to do that and I do want to work around my triggers, that is also okay. It's okay to do the research. It's okay to like ask for substitutions, it's okay to have more control there. Whatever you need to do is what you need to do and you have the choice. I don't want you to feel like you have no choice or that you have to do it a certain way on vacation and not enjoy yourself because that's not what it's about, we're all different, so I do want to give you some ideas of things that you can try and things you can think about, remember, you're in charge and you get to decide!
One thing that can happen is fiber intake will shift during travel. For some people they eat more fiber when they travel because that's the type of food they go for, for some they eat no fiber when they travel, when they normally eat consistent fiber sources like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, things like that. I see this a lot someone eats like a really high fiber breakfast normally, but then on vacation they're eating like doughnuts or muffins, or things that just aren't as high in fiber naturally, because those are things that they enjoy going out for, so their fiber is going to drop.
So one thing that you want to think about is one making sure that you do get enough fiber overall, so finding little ways to bring fiber in, like a side of fruit with the doughnut or adding a fiber supplement in or whatever you need. But you also want to make sure you're spreading that fiber out throughout the day as much as you can. So if you do utilize a fiber supplement as an extra support when you travel for your fiber quantity, put it in the place where it makes the most sense. So if your dinners have a lot of fiber, because you do have like side salad, or you add veggies or you go for more whole grains or things like that, maybe your fiber supplement would be in the morning when you normally have like the doughnuts or the pastries or whatever you want that part of the day. So kind of think through that and try to spread it out where you can. That is a bit of an art, but it's something that you'll learn as you kind of do this more frequently, and you're thinking about it.
Think about different portion sizes. Often, you know, on vacation, it's like we're indulging in all of these things, which is awesome and you should definitely do that, but know that if you are going past fullness, and you're having very large portion sizes, that's more of your normal meal, so it's a lot of work for your digestive system to do each meal, but it's also going to increase any of those triggers that are present. And so really focusing on mindfulness and fullness and satisfaction with meals can be so beneficial and help with digestion, because you're not overloading the system with either just overall food that it has to process or triggers.
Now we don't want to eat so little that you're not satisfied, you do want to make sure you do reach fullness and satisfaction, really leaning into that and mindfully enjoying it can be such a benefit for your digestive system. The speed of eating goes along with that. So if you are someone who typically eats really, really fast and then on vacation, you know eat even faster because you're just enjoying it, it's so good and flavors you normally don't have, then really focus on slowing down. As you slow down, one you're going to be able to enjoy and savor which is nice, but you'll also be able to notice your fullness earlier and you're more likely to chew your food well, which is only going to increase your digestive capacity and help you digest that food better. So think about your speed of eating.
Now if you go extra slow on vacation, then that's something that you may also be aware of, and just mindful of, because if you don't have spacing between meals, so if you're the opposite, where you just eat these long drawn out meals, you graze all day, then you may have more symptoms, because you're not giving your gut time to process what it had. So think about the speed and the timing of eating overall, especially compared to your norm.
And then your trigger loads is something that you may want to be aware of. If you don't know your triggers, this can be more difficult, so this is where there is benefit to really spending time figuring out what your triggers are and what you can expect with them. Because it is okay to like work around that and understand where you might be loading up on more triggers and look at how you can reduce that load in a meal or even throughout the day, throughout the weekend, the week, whatever your trip looks like to have better digestion and fewer symptoms.
When it comes to triggers, it's rarely about whether the trigger is there or not. And so there is this mentality of the kind of like screw it mentality of like, well, I can't avoid garlic and onion, which might be your triggers, so I'm just going to not think about it at all, I’m just going to eat all the things with garlic and onion. The opposite of that would be okay, I know that too much of this is going to contribute to symptoms, so what I'm going to do is be mindful of where it is and try to reduce the amounts at a time and take out what I can and try to work around it. So you might still eat garlic and onion that the amount is lower and so you're not overdoing that tolerance load, just like our stress bucket, it looks the same way with your triggers are there is a bucket and our buckets are all different sizes which is our individual tolerance. So screw it mentality is you're just overloading the bucket and then full flare. The thinking about the do what you can mentality is you might fill the bucket up a little bit, let it empty a little bit more, fill it up a little bit more and you may never get to that overload which will help you feel good enjoy the flavors and enjoy yourself without your trip being ruined by a flare. So there's some things that you can think about.
Now with food we cannot talk about it without talking about hydration, which I did talk about earlier. It is so easy for water to drop whenever you are traveling, and that can be either due to drinking less, or having more dehydrating activities, whether that's more coffee, for me personally, I love coffee shops, so I do drink more coffee whenever I travel, so I have higher water needs because of that. Maybe more alcohol which can be more dehydrating, maybe you're in the heat, and so you're walking around and you're sweating more, and so your hydration needs are increased. So think about it from both ways, that you may actually need more water than normal, so even if you're kind of checking off your normal amount, you still might be in a place of dehydration. It's super easy for that to drop.
With that in mind, think about what you can do. So bringing a water bottle and filling it as you go is a really easy way to work around this. If you have a backpack or a bag where that water bottle can stay or are you holding it, that's a great way to accomplish that. If you're not able to do this, or in addition to that, if you're not able to refill it as often, one easy thing to do is hydrate well before you leave your hotel room. And so downing water first thing in the morning and really getting that in early, you may have to pee more and so you have to be mindful about that, but it is a way to make sure you get in good hydration before you leave when it's in your control and then hydrating again when you get back.
Another thing is that whenever you do have water in front of you at a restaurant or wherever you're at, finish the glasses of water that are given to you. So you can even get it refilled whenever you know you're about to leave and really work on finishing that full glass of water. Take advantage of it when it is in front of you and kind of go above what you would normally do to help fill in the gaps between meals and while you're out that you may normally have water available for.
Take advantage of water breaks when they're available. So if it's like a water station, or whatever may be available to you really think about that and if you see water available, take advantage of it, drink a cup of water. You will only benefit so it's something to just be thoughtful about and be intentional with. And then be thoughtful about your other drinks throughout the day that might be causing a bit more dehydration like alcohol and coffee.
So this is a lot, it is a lot about travel. This is why this is such a hard topic to really hit on even on social media, because there's so much information that we could go over, but I do want to talk a bit more about bowel movements, because in addition to your routines, and your food and your water, really thinking about supporting your bowel movements and having good bowel movements while you travel is important. And you may not think about this as much on the day to day because having those solid routines and some of the things that you normally do maybe helps you regulate bowel movements more easily or you're not as worried about them because you're not away, or you know, touring somewhere that you're not sure where there's a bathroom or whatever may be coming up during travel. But when you travel, your body may need some more support and having really good quality bowel movements during a trip can be difficult, so here's some tips for that specifically.
Whether you are constipation or diarrhea prone, it is a good idea to try and have a good bowel movement at the start of the day. If you can plan your day with that, where you have some relaxation, again, all those things that I talked about before, that is going to help. Having a good quality breakfast or a snack even so maybe you do hydrate in the hotel, have a small snack, if you normally drink little coffee, do that or drink some hot tea, think about relaxation, move your body a little bit and then try to sit on the toilet and have a bowel movement because if you don't go when you normally do, that's going to only make things worse, right, and so try to have that bowel movement early.
It can help to add and maybe some stretches to relax your pelvic floor and wake up your body. You could even do a workout in the hotel gym or walk on a treadmill if you have time for that, but those are all things that may help that you normally may not have to do but might be beneficial whenever you are traveling.
Another thing that can really help is a travel toilet stool. So if you normally use like a squatty potty or something to help you have good posture, you can also do this whenever you travel to help you evacuate stool more easily. So a lot of times if you normally have good posture because of those supports, now you don't have them, that can throw the body off. So you can either carry your own and I'll show you the one that I use a bit later, but you can also take toilet paper rolls, stick them on the floor, anything you can find the trash can in the hotel room, anything you can find that you can put your feet on, get your knees above your hips, and give your body better posture and then using some of those hacks and tricks to help pass stool.
And then if you have an urge to go, do not ignore it. Ideally, when the urge hits, find a reason to go. It's worth it to like buy a bottle of water somewhere or a pastry or something that you share with people that you're traveling with to use a bathroom and go. Ignoring the urge to go especially if you're constipated, this is only going to make other symptoms worse like, because you're going to have a backup of stool. So if you have constipation, that's going to lead to more pain, or cramping, and probably even so much of a backup that it's hard to pass the stool.
Now if you have diarrhea and you're ignoring the urge, this could lead to more cramping and more urgency and might even lead to an accident, which is worst case scenario. So if you feel the urge to go, don't ignore it, and go! That can be something if you're traveling with other people that you may have a conversation about earlier on, as you're planning the trip and just kind of be honest with them, be a bit vulnerable before the situation hits and say, you know, sometimes I have an urge to go to the bathroom and like, I can't really ignore it so I may have to slip away or like, divert for a moment, take a break to go to the bathroom. If that happens, whenever we're out, it would be the best option for me to do that and what I would love for you is just support without you asking questions or getting frustrated, because it's something that I'm embarrassed about or insecure about, and I really don't want to have to do. And so it helps kind of set the scene so that whenever that moment does hit you, you don't have to worry about explaining yourself or having that conversation when you're already in a panic, right, you want to have that conversation early. And that can be helpful!
Okay, so something else that I like to think about with travel, and those are all the high level things. So those are some of the big, big things. But something else that's really important to think about and this is something I've just learned more personally, is clothing. So tight clothes, they can increase symptoms. Especially high waisted, really tight clothes, they're going to put pressure on your abdomen, and that's going to cause more bloating or pain, or maybe even more gas like trapped gas, that's not going to be comfortable. One thing to think about is your clothing when you travel, but also while you're traveling and if that's your go to to wear, like really high waisted super tight clothes, or like shapewear or anything like that, that might increase your symptoms, so be mindful about that.
Something else to think about with clothing is that if you know that you may be more bloated or have more abdominal distension later on in your trip, think about your clothing plans with that in mind, because one of the worst things is being on a trip and you're dealing with those symptoms and then the clothes you brought don't fit or you don't feel comfortable and then that just exacerbates your symptoms more, creates more panic and anxiety and now it feels like the trip is ruined. Think about that in advance. If you are going to wear more fitted clothing or clothing that's a bit tighter, maybe plan that for earlier in the trip and pick out some like really comfortable, maybe looser clothes, or the clothes that feel the best when you are more bloated for later in your trip. That's only going to help you feel more confident because you know that okay, I might be a little bit bloated but I have this outfit that I feel really good in and it makes me happy and it's comfortable and I know that it will be okay for that day. Versus I have these shorts that are really tight and uncomfortable and I'm going to be miserable all day, right? You want to think about how what you wear will even make you feel which will impact your overall comfort, and even how your brain and gut are interacting throughout the day. So think about your clothes, don't overlook it!
Now let's talk about actual supports and different supports that are options. Now I'm not going to be able to cover everything but I do want to share some things that are options and things to start thinking abouta nd then you may fill in the blanks with specifics that you may use and then I can show you my own supports that I take with me and how I take them.
So one option is medication. That might be Imodium or antispasmodics, maybe some Zofran if you deal with nausea, maybe constipation medications that really help you go that whether you use them on a day to day basis or not, take them. It can be easy to kind of shame yourself as like, you know, I don't want to have to take this or I don't want to do that. You may not need to use it, but having it on you for that worst case scenario can be helpful. I know some people deal with panic attacks and anxiety which impacts our gut and so they may take some sort of medication to help with that, like a Xanax or something like that. So think about what you may need from a medication standpoint.
Like that supplements can be extremely helpful. So that might look like over the counter laxatives, stool softeners, maybe magnesium citrate for constipation, IBGuard, those peppermint capsules for pain, Tums or other like acid reducers. If you deal with acid reflux, you may choose to bring like enzymes for meals. I personally do travel with enzymes, they're not guaranteed to work but even if it's a placebo, to me that's worth it so it's something that I do. Fiber supplements if you know that your fiber might drop, whatever supplements may help you, pack them. And again, I'll show you kind of how I do it to show like how easy that can be to carry it with you.
And then think about what else you might need in a worst case scenario. So for some people, it's wet wipes, because if things are kind of messy, like you want to be sure that you can clean yourself up, that can be helpful to take with you, maybe an extra pair of underwear in like a discreet place that you know, you can grab it, if something were to happen, what do you feel like you may need in a worst case scenario, and then bring it so that you feel good.
Alright, so I'm going to show you what mine look like. So first off, it's have a little bag or something that you can keep your toolkit in. And this is great that you can kind of keep in your purse at all times, stick in your suitcase at all times. I keep mine like in a pantry, but it's something that I always grab and like readjust whenever I'm going on a trip. And so keep a little bag. Mine is not super discreet, it is a regular girl bag and so it is fiber but you can also do one that's like extra discreet and doesn't even look like anything health related if you want to.
So what that looks like inside, I love these little like pill containers, I use these normally, and so it has like my day and night and then it has this middle like day time slot. And so I always build this and I take these little individual containers for each day I'll be gone and I fill them up with my normal like daytime supplements, my evening supplements and then in the middle section, I put extras. So I'll put like melatonin, I'll put extra magnesium citrate, some of the things that I might double up on or add to maybe some IBgard there that I'll have in the hotel room for me whenever I need them. So that's something that I keep in my little bag, you can put like these little travel MiraLAX things, I rarely ever use this, this has been in here for probably like a year, I need to make sure it's not expired, but it's here if I need it. So I've got those in there, I do the single serving fiber packs, so these are the sun fiber, I also like regular girl, so I always travel with those and I do use these every time so I always have to restock those. I have this as a stool softener, which is great so I have that in case I need it.
Band aids because you know, other health needs as well. I do have some Sena the Smooth Move tea, so if I'm very constipated and not going I know that I have that. I do carry this FDguard but it's like IBgard, so I've got those, any other supplements I need, ginger tea always, so I usually start a stock up to have at least enough for the whole trip in there. And then I think this is a nasal decongestion, so if I'm dealing with allergies or anything like that, I like to have that in there. So I think about what do I need that I will typically have at home like in a medicine cabinet that I can grab in my worst case scenarios, can I have it on me at all times. So this is where you may put other medications, grabbing like the little like, I don't know what to describe this as like the little single container of it or like maybe having like a pill container where you can put them in a smaller container so you don't have to carry like full bottles, that can be extremely helpful.
What I don't have in here to show you right now is I also have this little like vial and you can do this with like a little baggie, or again, one of these small pill containers, but this little vial has like my enzymes in it. I usually keep that in my purse and that way I have my enzymes on me as I'm on my trip and they're even smaller. So it's really easy to grab and go. If I'm not going to carry a purse I'll like take one stick in my pocket and I have it with me and so that's one way that I do that and kind of plan ahead.
Now from a toilet stall standpoint, the one that I use is by squatty potty and it's the Porta Potty squatty is what it's called, but it lays flat so it comes in a little bag but it lays flat, you just put it on top of your suitcase and it pops off you can hear it pops out and locks and it forms this nice little stool. Pretty lightweight, like it does add probably two pounds, maybe three pounds to the weight of your suitcase, but it is just like a normal stool so I can put this under the toilet and use it and you can't put a lot of weight on it. You have to be careful compared to like a normal school, but it's very easy to travel with.
I even have do to mess down. I even have some clients who will have this and put it in a big work bag and carry it with them to work like you can carry this in a lot of different ways and be discreet with it because of the little like bag that it comes in. But you could also find other options like this. I know some people will use those little foldable stools that aren't necessarily for the toilet but for like your house. So yeah, I think you can get them at the dollar store for just a few dollars, those are really lightweight and plastic and you can keep those in your bag and carry on with you. But those are some of the things that I personally carry. And how practically this looks is I put it all together, throw it in my bag, and it's there for me if I need it.
Some other things that you can keep in mind as you're putting together your travel kit and your travel plan are, you know, relaxation. So one is relaxation and ease, relaxation. And rest can do wonders for the gut even more than all the strategies and plans. And so think about how to make your trip even more relaxing, how to bring ease to your days, that is going to make such a big difference. And so avoiding like overly stressful situations advocating for yourself as you're planning your trip. And building in moments of relaxation can be such a benefit, and really turn a trip from being ruined because of symptoms to being really well enjoyed and your body being supported. Plan ahead and embrace flexibility, planning and organizing is not meant to put you in a box where everything has to fit into the perfect, you know, checklist. What it should do is to help you think through some scenarios, think through situations and be prepared with what you need. So again, that you feel confident as you're going through the trip, you may not need everything you planned and there may be more that comes up that you didn't plan for. But having that plan in advance will help you be more confident and even feel more prepared to embrace that flexibility and tow with the flow if you will in those scenarios.
And then learn as you go so that you can build your travel plan. When it comes to travel and strategies, there is going to be different strategies that work for you then what works for me how I've developed my strategies and how I've put together plans that do work for me, it's just by trying things each time I travel and taking note of what works and what doesn't work. That's what you can also do is like actually embrace the learning experience, it might not be perfect the first trip, but what can you take away from that trip to then try again next time. So again, it's sort of like that screw up mentality with food that I mentioned, where if you're just thinking about it as black and white, I can either travel as excess or I can't. And then the moments where maybe things don't work out, it puts you into that I can't do it mentality, which is kind of leads to the world. Why do I even try, like maybe I shouldn't travel at all right? That spiral in that mindset doesn't get you anywhere. But getting into the mindset of learning and just embracing that experience, then you can take away the gray areas, which would be you know, maybe this didn't work. It's next time, let me try this instead, or this actually did work. But then this didn't really work. So I'm going to keep this and then try something different to help with this scenario. Or I wasn't prepared in this situation. So instead of avoiding that situation forever, I'm going to really spend some time thinking about how I can support myself in that situation. That type of mindset, and that type of mentality is really going to help and we'll help you get forward and get a travel plan that does work for you in the future.
So I hope that this episode is helpful, I know my brain is swimming, just even talking about it so I would love to hear your thoughts! If you have questions, if you have something that you want to share that's really helped you with travel, head over to Instagram @erinjudge.rd or the community on Facebook and share with us what you've learned. If you share on Instagram I'll share with the community just so that they can also learn from you and what you've experienced.