Coming to you live from my flight home from Dallas, TX after a week of early mornings, busy days, and late nights. Work travel is always fun, and it was so good to see my coworkers and reconnect with people, but I’m so happy to be almost home. I’m taking the next week to listen to my body to rest, relax, recover, and put my thoughts and plans together for a pre-covery routine for the next trip!
Step One: Sleep & Shower
Basic and most important, but they’re one routine and the most necessary. A quick hot shower to de-travel-germ-ify is essential. It also helps soothe all the stiff muscles from the cramped flight and from walking laps around the convention center. And alarms? Never heard of her. For at least a week after traveling, as long as I’m conscious by the time my work day starts, I’m a happy camper.
Bonus, all the steam in the hot shower will help rehydrate your sinuses. Especially this trip with the AC blasting everywhere and the recycled plane air, I’ve had the dry-air-sniffles for most of my trip.
Step Two: Hydrate and Healthy Meals
Traveling for work means Convention Center food with too much sodium and not nearly enough water. In the week/s following, I do as much as I can to balance that out. Swapping my coffee for tea, incorporating more electrolytes in my water, and making sure I incorporate more fruits and veggies. I’m not always the best at giving my body the nutrients it needs, but when recovering from the physical stress of traveling, I do my best to prioritize giving my body what it needs.
Step Three: Low Spoons Activities Only
Spoon Theory is a metaphor that a lot of folks use to describe how much energy a person has and how it varies from day to day. Certain tasks take a lot of spoons, others take less. For example, going to the store and grocery shopping takes a lot of spoons for me. So is cooking dinner or seeing a large group of friends. On low spoon days, I’ll order my groceries online instead, swap for takeout, skip social events or stick with one on one coffee dates.
After traveling for work, I exclusively choose low spoon activities to give myself time to physically and mentally recover. I don’t go out for the first few days, only takeout or simple meals, and the only difficult task I complete is emptying my suitcase, and even then I sometimes need help with it.
Step Four: IV Hydration – Something New!
More to come on this next week, but short version, I tried out a local IV bar before my trip, and I booked an appointment a few days after I’m back. It’s a new step in my recovery routine, but I’m excited to see if it’ll help!
