My most ambitious travel trip was over 30 years ago with a backpack, a passport, and a Eurail Pass, when I traveled to Belgium, Holland, France, and Ireland over a four-week period.  This of course was before the Internet, when everything was done using travel guides, writing letters, and making telephone calls.  Fast forward three decades, and planning a trip is comparatively easy as far as research, planning an itinerary, identifying hotels, and making travel reservations.

Traveling is something to enjoy and not dread.  If we have healthy nutrition, sleep, and activity routines at home, we’ll want to keep those up when traveling while still enjoying the uniqueness of the places we’re visiting.  But, because we are out of our routine, it’s best to do a bit of planning ahead to preserve our health and feel good for the entire trip. 

Staying healthy while traveling is important to me.  So, along with everything that must be done before “wheels up” such as creating an itinerary, confirming the flight, car rental and hotel reservations, checking the airline app for updates, confirming transportation during travel, checking the weather forecast and packing, these are 5 additional things I plan ahead in order to have a great trip and keep up my healthy lifestyle.

1. Stay Hydrated. Carry water wherever you go. I take my stainless steel water bottle everywhere I go. Hotel rooms and airplanes can sometimes be dry, so carrying water allows me to drink water throughout the day to keep me hydrated.  Not all restaurants in other countries automatically bring or serve water, and if you ask for water, you might be served a small 6 or 8-ounce bottle that you pay for, and that’s it, gone in a few swigs.  Of course if you are traveling in a country with a poor water system, you’ll always want to go for the bottled water.

2. Stay Ahead of Hunger, and avoid unhealthy food choices by carrying healthy, packable snacks in a purse, carryon, or backpack. The airplane food is generally not great for good health, and since I stay away from gluten, dairy, sugar, and processed foods, carrying my own snacks is a regular routine.  Apples, bananas, raw nuts, or a high quality bar are all easy to carry, and they take the edge off hunger so you can avoid eating what is served on the airplane.  I also carry herbal tea bags and just ask for hot water and lemon.

3. Make Wise Food Choices at meals, while still taking the opportunity to try local foods.  If you are planning to get an early jump on the day, you will want to make sure to have a healthy breakfast plan the night before.  Avoiding breakfast and just grabbing coffee will leave you susceptible to not making the best food choice later in the morning when you are out touring or in a work meeting.  On my last trip, I checked out the local grocery store on line before I headed out on vacation. I wanted to have a lunch picnic in the park in between museum visits, and also have a few breakfast options in the room.  Having a hotel room with a refrigerator and kitchenette is not always possible, but a good choice for good health if you can find one without too much added expense.  Our first hotel did not have a refrigerator, but the hotel staff kept our bag in the chef’s refrigerator in the main kitchen for us!  This saved time, money, and making less than optimal food choices.  We had our local flavors later in the day at dinner, and occasionally took an afternoon break at the cafes.

4. Plan Physical Activity into each day.  If it’s business travel, you might want to stick with your routine of going to the fitness center or pool, or walking or running outside.  You can check out walking and running routes ahead of time before your trip.  On vacation trips, you’ll most likely be touring around and getting plenty of steps.  If it’s a cruise or beach vacation, take the opportunity to try something new or not readily available at home. Plan fun activities into the day such as swimming, dancing, deck games, yoga on the beach, or a brisk walk on the beach. Check with the hotel about fitness amenities, and local activities before you go.  On this last trip I didn’t pack any fitness clothes or sneakers because I knew I’d be doing at least 10,000 steps each day by touring around, so I made sure to have comfortable walking shoes to keep me going.

5. Get Enough Sleep.  It can be tempting to stay up later than usual on vacation, or when socializing with work colleagues, but getting enough sleep may be even more important when traveling than when home, especially considering jet lag and time change.  Stick to your regular 7-8 hours of sleep as best as possible.  If taking a red-eye flight, bring an eye mask and try to sleep.  When you arrive, try to get accustomed to the new time of day and routine of the locals.

Have you traveled recently?  What are some of your favorite tips for staying healthy?  I’d love to hear from you.

Today I decided to write about someone in my life that I admire and has helped me in my life.  I could have chosen a wide number of people, but I chose the obvious one, my mom, after all, today is her birthday!  It’s a day to celebrate her. I’m so lucky to be with her today on her birthday as well, as we live in two different states and the timing was perfect, as we get ready for our flight together to Amsterdam tomorrow. We started planning the trio about four months ago after she told me that she’d like to visit the tulips. No time like the present!  After all the birthdays keep coming. 

Here are the things I admire most about my mom:

She was a working mother while we four children were growing up, working as a reading teacher in a junior high school 

She managed our family always with an amazing positive attitude and with a smile.  She worked with my dad as they say ‘in good times and in bad’. 

My mom and dad had lots of parties, always living in the moment and sharing themselves with friends and family.  And Mom is always the life of the party.  She is fun to be with and around.  She and my dad also hosted book clubs and bridge club gatherings at our house growing up.  Of course she is still involved with a book club.

She is well rounded and educated, and interesting, and always interested in learning from others.

She is an amazing financial manager, always handling the bills, the checkbook, the family finances, and the student loan applications to get every dime we could.

She is so kind and generous with her children and grandchildren.  She is always interested in the grandchildren, what they are doing, and thinking, and feeling.  She pays attention to them and try’s to draw them out to talk. 

She supports all of her children emotionally, and allows us to figure out our next steps and challenges.

She is active!  She does yoga and water aerobics, and plays Mahjong.  She goes to concerts, plays, fancy restaurants, garden exhibits, travels, and in the summer at the beach, she is the first one in the ocean.

She brought me to my first Tai Chi class this morning, so is still teaching me (at age 81 today).

Thanks Mom for your love and support.  I admire you!

Listen or listening are active verbs, not passive acts. How do you listen?  Of course we listen with our ears as the auditory intake of sound.  But how else do you listen?  If you are a musician, or a fan of music, this is an easy question.  You listen with your ears, eyes, heart, and with your whole body to the vibrations of the sound.  You are taken away by the music and the sound.  But music can also be played in the background, and we can be passively listening while doing something else.

When we listen to another person in our presence, how do we listen?  These days, many of us are not being heard, because those around us are not present to listening.  Dr. Ruth Westheimer was asked recently by skilled interviewer Christiane Amanpour, why we are having less s*x?  Dr. Ruth believes that it is because we are not listening to one another.  And intimacy in relationships requires communication. We are paying attention to our screens, and not to those right in front of our nose.  We are not communicating.  This is also causing an epidemic of loneliness. 

We think we are more connected with social media, but as a society are actually becoming lonelier.  So much has been written lately about this problem of loneliness, which is tied to increased depression, mental health, and suicide rates.  Loneliness does not seem to be an issue however, in the Blue Zone’s; areas of the world with the highest percentage of octogenarians, due to their close knit communities.

We listen not only with our ears, and eyes, but with our entire body. Body language is and an important aspect of listening and communication.  What is your body saying with certain postures? We could be showing that we are closed and not listening, or open, and attentive just by our physical body posture. Look at the person, lean in, uncross your legs and arms, and be open and present to them.  Listening to someone is a gift to them and shows caring.

Listening is something I’ve learned to do pretty well (if I do say so myself). It takes concentration, being present in the moment, and putting aside my own agenda, and judgments. 

Listening is one of the most critical skills of a health coach.  When I am listening to a client, I am present and completely in a space of empathy and attempting an understanding from their reality and perspective.  Then as a coach, I must question, not judge, but just act with curiosity to again listen for better understanding.

This questioning, without judgment, based on active listening, is what helps the client to question their own perception of reality.

Listening is a skill that must be practiced with intention, may I even go as far as to say, for our own human survival, and happiness.

Who needs you to listen to them today?  I’d love to receive your comments.  Thanks for listening!

I found myself teaching time management again today with a client.  This happens to me a lot, and it sometimes brings me back to my teens when I was first introduced to the concept.  During my high school years, for some reason Sr. Maureen Skinner (I will never forget her name) thought I needed structure and to learn how to manage my time. She created a one-page grid that I was to complete each day and each box was to be filled in with something meaningful and productive.  Maybe for those who know me, you are now having an ah-ha moment and nodding your head, thinking, now it all makes sense (why she is the way she is).  Each box on the daily grid represented a 30-minute block of time, and I learned how to complete the grid with my class schedule and lunchtime; these were must have’s each day.  But then, what else?  Study time, oh yes, I need to study.  That started going onto the grid and completed the grid, because you couldn’t have any empty boxes.  Going outside to hang out in the sun with friends, in her mind, was not meaningful or productive for the likes of me.  Wow, writing this now, I am thinking, yes, this explains a lot!

After high school, I was on my own to manage my own time, and let’s just say, the grid was not part of my practice.  But as my life got busier with college, work responsibilities, living on my own and deciding how to use my time, Sr. Maureen kicked in again.  I followed the Franklin Covey system for goal setting, and planning.  That’s also when I read Steven Covey, and then started teaching the principles as part of my job to staff.  I still have The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in my bookshelf, copyright 1989.  Putting first things first (habit 3) really stuck with me.  Learning about the 4 quadrants and the process of deciding what was important, urgent, not important, and not urgent, just added a whole other dimension of how I understood time management. I embraced it, but then I became a workaholic!  I might have taken it a bit too literally, or more likely I didn’t prioritize my own health and happiness as urgent and important.

After I figured out the balance, I became a Wellness Coach for a popular weight loss and wellness company, and of course, taught goal setting and time management as part of group sessions.  We used the S.M.A.R.T. goals format. You most likely know it, use it, or have heard of it: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely.  I also taught how habits are learned, and how to create helpful habits with a cue, behavior, and reward habit loop.  Then we started moving from SMART goals to teaching how to create intentional actionable behaviors.

Somewhere along the line, I was introduced to the Big Rocks theory.  Do you know this one?  It’s a great visual.  If I fill up a large glass jar with large stones from the beach and ask you if it is full, you might say, yes, it is filled to the top, and it is full.  But wait.  Next I take pebbles and sprinkle them in between the spaces of the big rocks and fill the pebbles to the top and ask you if it is full, you might say, yes, now it is full.  But wait. I then add sand, and ask you if it is full.  By this time, yes, of course it is full.  But them comes the water.  It is finally full with water as I could demonstrate if we keep pouring water in, the jar would overflow because there is no more empty volume in the jar.  The big rocks represent what is important, appointments, commitments, exercise, self care, whatever you determine to be the most important for the day based on the goals you’ve set for yourself.  If I put the sand and water in first, there would be no room at all for the big rocks.  Of course the sand and water represent things either necessary for life, or pleasurable for a healthy and satisfying life, but putting those first (laundry, email, social media, TV, as examples, sorry, no judgement) will not get you anywhere in achieving your dreams. This is a great way to think about your priorities and having a balance for a “full” life.

Now in my own business as a Health Coach, I use many of these same practices for goal setting and time management with my clients for healthy lifestyle change.  What do you think?  What kinds of practices help you with goal setting, taking action, and time management?

If you are interested in getting help with time management, or creating new healthy habits, get in touch and we’ll talk.  Visit my website and contact me.  www.maryellenzung.com

I didn’t know this was a thing, but over the years I’ve met many successful, goal oriented friends and business leaders who choose a word or theme of the year, and for the past several years I’ve done it myself.  It helps to keep a focus for the year.  It could be an overarching priority, an intention for a goal, or a spirit with which to make decisions, or behave in general. 

I first encountered this theme or word of the year in my early business career working for a woman (younger than I) who had just started her own company.  She’d attended Wellesley College and Oxford University, and presented her business plan for the company to a professor at Stanford University who told her the plan was flawed and wouldn’t work.  She did it anyway and built a great company that helped working families with back up child care.  It quickly grew from the East coast to the West coast, and eventually was bought out by the number one corporate child care company in the country. I believe her success was due in part to creating a culture, which included a theme each year that provided a specific overarching operational focus.  One year was a focus on the teachers, one was on the children, one was on the client.  Of course all constituents were important, but somehow having the “year of” theme’s helped us all speak the same language and reach specific targeted goals around those themes.  Brilliant!

This year, I decided that 2019 would be the year of being heart centered.  I’ve been practicing being in the moment and purposeful, but being heart centered seemed to go one step beyond. I had to think about what it really meant to be heart centered.  The intention was to listen to my heart, my intuition, and to try to act upon what my heart told me to do.  With this focus I’ve been even more present to people in my life and to myself too.

How about you?  Do you have a theme or word of the year?  What do you think of this idea for achievement of a goal?

A new beginning is right around the corner for me.  You see, I’ve had my own business as a Health Coach for the past five years, however, I still held onto my part time job as a Wellness Coach with WW (Weight Watchers reimagined). It was comfortable, fit my schedule, and I really enjoyed the work. 

After attending the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2013 to learn more about nutrition, my coaching business was launched.  I'd always planned for this day to come, and now, after thirteen and a half years working for WW, I have finally let go. The safety net is gone and I’m now committed full time to helping more people with their personal health and happiness with my health coaching business.  

My training as a health coach allowed me to heal my own ills including digestive issues, joint pain, fatigue, systemic inflammation, leaky gut, and IBS through diet and lifestyle change.  I work with individuals in a personalized health coaching program, and with groups for whole food seasonal detox and cleanse programs, as a way to jump start their knowledge of using food as medicine.  My Healthy Lifestyle Lunch & Learn Programs help to educate and motivate more individuals through their employers. 

If you are interested in working with a health coach, please visit my website at www.maryellenzung.com and get in touch. 

I sometimes feel foolish, not just on April Fool’s Day, but anytime I sit down to write a blog post. There’s the back and forth questioning in my head of which subject to write about, what do my readers want to learn about, is this boring, interesting, informative, different? That self-doubt creeps in every time.

I think I am a better listener than a talker or writer, even thought I do stand up in front of crowds and do talks on all kinds of health topics. Listening and picking up cues is what you want when working with a health coach, but I know I also have to teach and inform as well as listen, encourage, motivate, and support. 

So, I have felt the fear, and I’m jumping in, really pushing myself to do something uncomfortable, which is to write a blog post every day for the next 30 days. There, I said it.  Now, let’s see if I can do it.  I just decided to do this blog post challenge two days ago without really thinking it through (making excuses). I will be traveling for about 10 of the 30 days, so if you are following my blog posts, you’ll hear from me from the Neatherlands.

In a way I am feeling proud of myself for feeling the fear and doing it anyway.  Do you have self-doubts?  How do you help yourself in this area?  I’d love to get a conversation started.