A Traveler’s Guide to Jet Lag

5 game-changing travel tips

Whether you are a newlywed jetting off to your honeymoon, or a professional traveling for work, the exhaustion that can accompany travel is real. After over a decade of photographing destination weddings across the globe, I have five game-changing tips and tricks to ensure that no time is wasted when your plane touches down in paradise.

So let’s dive in….

Last week we traveled from Miami to the Maldives. This meant flights from Miami to Dallas, Dallas to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Male, an overnight stay in Male, and then a seaplane and a speedboat ride the next day. It was a long trip. Can you imagine? Over 40 hours in total travel time. P.S. We always fly within our airline network, where we have status. And, while we often get upgrades, we did not get one on this flight, which made the trip feel even longer.

So how did we manage hit the ground shooting as soon as we landed? Here are a few tips we’ve picked up over the years:

First: The body achieves what the mind believes.

While it might be the last thing anyone wants to hear, it’s true. If you keep repeating how exhausted you are, how long the trip has been, and how you need to sleep for days;  your body will believe you. We make a conscious effort to focus on the good, highlight the things that could have been worse, and program our minds and bodies to believe we have control over how we feel. We always tell ourselves and other people that ‘we don’t believe in jet-lag’. For us, it’s mind over matter. Saying it out loud to each other helps to set us up for success – and keep each other accountable when we slip up. The truth is, with the demands of our work schedule, we don’t have time for jet lag. So, it’s much more beneficial to have this mindset from the start.

While on the plane, we set our watches to local time at our final destination, and we keep that schedule in mind. If it will be daytime when we land, it’s best to sleep on the plane and vice versa. We always travel with noise-canceling headsets, eye masks, as well as melatonin supplements, to ensure we can sleep when we need to.

Pack your own food.

You can never be sure what will be available when you travel, and the food offered on this airplane trip was especially dismal. In addition to the poor quality of most airline food, I find it really difficult to stomach the amount of plastic waste that an international airplane ride can create. This is yet another reason to pack our own food.

For this trip, we had to leave home by 5 am, which meant that I was up at 3:45 making salad wraps and avocado sandwiches for the road. We traveled with two of each and they carried us for nearly 24 hours of travel, all the way through to Hong Kong. It’s never ideal to be left in a situation where terrible airplane food is your only alternative. The sodium-laden fare will only increase your chances of feeling terrible, so it’s best to plan in advance.

‘Baby’ yourself with a well-stocked travel kit.

On super long flights, we take baby aspirin. The flight from Dallas to Hong Kong was 16 hours alone! During such a long flight, your circulation can slow down significantly, and the baby aspirin helps prevent any issues that might result from remaining stagnant for so long.

We always travel with baby wipes (natural and biodegradable), and whether the flight is 45 minutes or 16 hours, we wipe down our seats, trays, screens and windows, each and every time. This will help ensure that you arrive without any extra germs or viruses you don’t want traveling with you for the rest of your trip.

We also bring along a pill container of supplements including: superfoods (I just discovered Stamba Supplements), B vitamins, apple cider vinegar, charcoal, turmeric, and more. These are vital when your nutrient intake is low, your immune system is challenged, and your routine has been turned upside-down.

Stay hydrated.

While I’m guilty of not drinking enough during flights because the lavatories gross me out (yuck!), I gulp down water during each layover and work diligently to rehydrate as soon as we land. Traveling with your own water bottle also ensures that you’re not contributing to plastic waste or waiting for a flight attendant. I like to add lemon to mine for an extra boost of vitamin C.

Sleep it off (eventually) and work it out.

Once we land, we hit the showers as soon as we can. Aah, that’s better. As difficult as it can be, we try to avoid napping at all costs. If we land at 10 am, we force ourselves to make it through dinner – even an early one – and wait until a reasonable time (around 9 pm) before going to sleep. This ensures that we fall asleep exhausted, which sets us up for a full night’s sleep. Usually, our schedule works out to where we land and have to be somewhere immediately to start shooting. We choose to view this as a blessing that gives us no choice but to get on the right schedule.

After that first night’s sleep, we make it a point to get in a workout the very next morning. While it is sometimes the last thing we feel like doing, we plan to wake up with enough time for at least 45 minutes of sweating. I like to go for a run and do some strength-training exercises. This gets me sweating, drinking more water, and wakes up my body once the blood is moving. Even though I may feel resistant before the workout, by the time I’m done, I feel clear and ready for the day that will follow.

The next time you travel, don’t let jet-leg waste any of your days. Go on the offensive even before you step on the plane. By taking care of your mind and body throughout the journey, you’ll have the best travel experience possible. After all, this is a time for discovery and adventure – you don’t want to spend it sleeping in a hotel room or wandering in a daze, but living it to the fullest!