My Best Travel Tips to Help Maintain Energy, Balance and Focus

Now that I'm on the other side of 50, I have to work hard to keep my edge if I want to stay healthy and make sure that traveling remains rewarding.

I've been busier with travel this past year than at any time in my life.

I've been to Morocco and Mexico. Vietnam and Vienna. Alaska, Las Vegas, Italy, France, Cambodia and many more places in between.

Indeed, it has been a fantastic year of adventures.

This makes me happy, obviously, and I am fortunate to get to do what I love. Travel is enlightening, thrilling and fulfilling in so many ways.

It also can be exhausting. And at the age of 51, I can really feel it sometimes.

I'll let you know now that this post is going to explain some of my best tips and practices for how to alleviate or avoid common travel issues liked lethargy, jet lag, exhaustion, sickness and problems like lack of focus.

If travel is important to your work or a big part of your life, you should make the lifestyle choice to equip yourself to travel as well as possible and thus get the most out of your experiences.

If you think about how much time and money you invest getting around for your adventures, you definitely don't want to waste time with "down" days. I've recently discovered a new product (I should say it found me) that is a welcome addition to my daily regimen and has helped improve my daily levels of energy and focus.

Receptra is a Centennial, Colorado-based producer of hemp-derived CBD oils, and the company sent me a sample of three of their products to review. So, what are CBD oils, exactly?

Cannabidiol (CBD) is the non-narcotic and non-psychoactive extract from hemp plants. (You don't get a "high" from it.) CBD oils are known to have positive effects on the mind and body. Numerous medical studies, in fact, have noted the effectiveness of CBD oils in helping the body maintain homeostasis or equilibrium. That is, it is good to keep your body in its "sweet spot" when it comes to mood, heart rate, temperature, blood pressure, stress and glucose levels.

These are all things that can get thrown off by a hectic travel schedule or an especially grueling leg of travel. I tried two Receptra products for more than a month before writing this post. I wanted to see whether Receptra Elite and Receptra Targeted Topical would affect how I feel and perform with my workouts, travels and overall day-to-day activities.

I tried a range of products from Receptra, including the "Active Lifestyle Extracts," which are CBD oils, as well as the Targeted Topical salve and even the lip balm.

Yes, these products are legal in all 50 states, and you can take them with you when you travel (if you order the 1-ounce bottles).

I often tell people: "I love the travel, but I hate the getting there."

Cramming my 6-foot-4, 192-pound frame into tight airplane seats, sitting around at airports and constantly adjusting my body clock to new time zones takes a toll.

Also, I just cannot fall asleep on a plane. I refuse to take a sleep aid like Ambien. I just have heard too many horror stories of the bizarre side effects, and I don't want to make my body dependent on anything for my regular, non-plane sleep. So, I do the best I can to get as comfy as possible during the plane ride.

I get up and walk the aisles regularly to keep the blood flowing, grab a few winks (more like nod off from exhaustion about one hour before the end of the flight), watch all the good movies and drink plenty of water while watching others in the cabin snoring blissfully.

Then, once I get overseas, there is the inevitable jet-lag period during which I snap awake at 2 a.m. and struggle to get a restful night's sleep. This could last a couple days, though I've got it down to one bad night typically.

To help stay in tune and keep functioning at near-peak levels, I have followed a good regimen that helps me recover as quickly as possible so that I have good energy and avoid sickness.

So, how can you avoid the blahs and other travel turbulence when out on the road?

Here are some of my best travel tips and tricks to maintain energy and balance.

I have been using all of these methods for several years, but I have also added a new product to my daily regimen that I wanted to tell you about.

1. Stick to a Fitness Plan

Focus on a combination of strength and cardio exercises to keep your body in peak condition. I work out six days a week. When I lift, I do deadlifts, squats and bench presses and then complement these main powerlifting techniques with other dumbbell, barbell, machines and bodyweight movements to ensure I maintain overall strength. I also run or bike three times a week to keep up my cardio fitness.

We all know the general benefits of exercise, but for travel it is also essential. You can keep up with busy touring schedules, enjoy better sleep patterns and can perform basic functions like lifting your own heavy suitcases.

2. Fuel Your Body

I try to eat a good diet, filled with lean proteins, fresh fruits and veggies and daily servings of nuts like cashews and almonds. I also use protein bars, protein cookies and protein powders to ensure I am getting enough protein. A daily protein shake filled with almond milk, spinach or beets and bananas and other fruits is a good way to have a post-workout treat that is good for you.

I also make sure to get my sleep, about seven-plus hours each night and a usually an afternoon nap.

3. Add Supplements

Here is where the Receptra products have been added to my toolbox. I already have taken vitamins and a couple other supplements for a long time. Every day, I take fish oil capsules, multivitamin and vitamin B. I also take two creatine capsules and use a scoop of amino acids to flavor the water I drink while working out. Now, I have been taking Receptra Elite CBD oil, as well.

Receptra Elite is one of three products in the company's line of "Active Lifestyle" hemp CBD oils. You can pick Active, Elite or Pro, and the difference is the potency; they offer 15 milligrams, 30 mg and 60 mg per dropper, respectively.

This is the first time I've tried CBD oils, and they helped me recover faster from workouts and feel better overall during my hectic day-to-day active lifestyle of exercise and travel.

I began to make health and fitness a priority more than two decades ago. My routine has become more refined as I tweak it over the years, and I like to think it has been working fairly well. But I had begun to notice a few things since I turned 50.

I needed afternoon naps. (OK, I do enjoy them, too.)

My muscles were more sore, and took longer to recover, after my workouts. This was more noticeable after I came back from a long trip during which I didn't have my regular workout equipment. I often don't have access to heavy weights on cruise ships or at boutique hotels when I am on the road.

When I came back and hit the heavy squats and bench presses back home, I really feel it for the next two or three days afterward. This delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) used to last only up to a day.

Hmmm.

I also have more general aches and pains in my knees and shoulders. This makes sitting on planes more of a problem in recent years.

While this is all to be expected, I thought all of these developments were affecting me a little bit more than I would have liked. This made me an ideal candidate to try a new product like these CBD oils from Receptra. So, I agreed to have them sponsor this post on my experience using their products to assist my active travel lifestyle.

My Experience with Receptra

After one month of taking two droppers of Receptra Elite daily (the recommended daily dosage is one to three droppers), I noticed about 10 days in that my body was less sore overall and I felt more relaxed and was able to focus on my work (writing articles and posts like this) for much longer stretches.

Also, my muscles seem to recover more quickly from the "day after" soreness that I am used to dealing with. Can this be attributed to the usual ebbs and flows of life and the energy and moods that we all experience? I can’t be sure at this point. But feeling as good as I did within the time frame that I started using Receptra Elite certainly points to some positive effects that I am enjoying by using it.

Also, I have found no side effects. The taste is not great. It's quite oily and earthy. I don't find it too offensive, but my wife, Colleen, deals with it by quickly chasing her daily dose with a sip of sports drink or Diet Coke.

I feel like I'm sleeping better and have more energy as well. I have actually got back to doing "doubles" or two workouts in the same day in recent weeks, with the cardio sessions including biking and running outdoors in the high heat and humidity that we've had here in New Jersey.

I have battled arthritis since I was in my mid-20s, and I generally have had good success at dealing with it using diet and exercise. This keeps my use of anti-inflammatories, such as Advil, to a minimum. When temperatures swing quickly, that's when I am likely to feel it flare up.

This past month, while on Receptra Elite, I cannot recall having any arthritis flare-ups, so that has been a pleasant result, as well.

The Targeted Topical is a salve to be applied to sore spots. Colleen has a particularly sore Achilles' tendon and says the topical treatment has worked quickly and effectively to ease the post-workout pain. She massages it into her ankle and calf area right before bed, and the relief is almost immediate as you can feel a tingly sensation.

I have tightness in my neck and shoulders that causes me discomfort quite regularly and pain occasionally. Colleen has been massaging in the Targeted Topical around my neck and shoulders nightly before bed, as well, and I honestly have had no problem in those regions for weeks. This is a glorious development in my life and especially notable because I have had a couple of long flights during this time frame, and it's usually plane rides in those puny seats that end up aggravating my neck.

Check out the full line of Receptra products to see what's available and might fit into your lifestyle.

If your lifestyle is anything at all like mine or if you can relate to some of the things I have discussed in this post, you will want to give Receptra products a good, hard look.

If your lifestyle is anything at all like mine or if you can relate to some of the things I have discussed in this post, you will want to give Receptra’s products a good, hard look.

They just might be the things you need to boost your health and wellness, whether you pursue an active lifestyle or just want to be you best self.

We also like the fact that these contain all-natural ingredients. They are made from organic, whole-plant pure hemp extracts and are available in all 50 states.

Thanks for reading, and remember to always . . .

Travel fit, travel happy and travel often,
JR