Detox and Fly, Preparing for 2013

As the season to be jolly makes way for the season to detoxify a closer look at how to detoxify can aid you in getting the best out of the detox you undertake and set you up for a great 2013. As a frequent flier taking time to detox physically will stand you in good stead for the road ahead and will protect you from the stresses of flying and help you build sustainable energy reserves.

Before the next latest diet detox fad takes hold try to understand some basic things about detoxification.
- Any time you have a state of more toxins leaving your body than are existing inside the body you have a state of detoxification.
- Toxins get inside the body from food water air, what you put on your body directly or indirectly and your internal and external environment.
- Toxins are produced naturally as part of the day-to-day metabolic activity of the body.
- Your body requires energy in order to detoxify properly.

When thinking about detoxifying decide in advance exactly what you want to achieve. You can detoxify the digestive tract, the blood, or the liver, which will reap benefits for the entire body. In reality all three are related and it's best to do an element of each to get the best result.

The lightest form of a detox you can do is an abstention from intoxicating substances or stimulating foods. In this way at least you won't be adding toxins to the load you already have and it may enable your body to start ridding itself of toxins it already has. Another form of abstention is fasting, it could be on juice, water or nil by mouth. This type of detoxification needs to be undertaken with a quantified practitioner and is not suitable for everyone.

After that comes the digestive tract detox, which is useful in any case as any toxins generated for elimination by the body need to pass through the digestive tract in some form in order to get eliminated. These type of detoxes tend to concentrate on soluble fibre which literally sweeps the large intestine clean and helps get rid of debris and undigested matter as it passes through.

The blood is a liquid tissue that gets everywhere in the body. It has an ability to clean the organs of the body as it goes about its job of oxygenating and supplying nutrients. Chlorophyll based detoxifiers are best-known to help cleanse the blood, you can also use certain herbs to help build the blood. Making sure you drink enough water when detoxifying the blood is also an important practice otherwise toxins from the body dumped in the bloodstream can make the blood less fluid. This can impair the removal of toxins to the sites of elimination.

One of the deepest types of detox you can do is a liver cleanse. The liver is the hardest working organ in the body. It detoxifies many substances and makes them safe for elimination by storing them in inert forms in the body. A liver detox is best undertaken with help of a nutritional therapist until you are confident enough to undertake it by yourself. Herbs and oils are best used to get any detox response from the liver, especially bitter herbs*.

Whatever type of detox you choose preparing properly beforehand is important. Preparation should always include consuming more water than normal to assist the detox process. Skin brushing is always a good idea. Making sure you are in a safe environment is also important (if you are back on the road and trying to detox it is not usually a good idea). Let important people around you know, so if your energy drops or you need to take a rest or some time out they can respond appropriately.

If your travel schedule is so hectic that you cannot find the time to do any of the detoxes above there are some short cuts you may find useful. They are simple to implement and they work every time if done properly. Here are two you can use right away and I give a brief scientific explanation of why they work.

Geophagy* - is the art of using clays to cleanse the body, it is an ancient practice seen as primitive but with validity in science. All effective clays have a negative electrical charge which binds to toxins (most toxins have a positive charge) and escorts them out of the body. You can easily buy these clay preparations and mix them in drinks and water to cleanse your body wherever you may be. In the Chernobyl radiation disaster one such clay (Zeolites) was used for this porpoise with great effect.

A High Alkaline Diet* - making sure you eat a high percentage alkaline diet as an ongoing practice. This works along the same lines as geophagy. A high alkaline diet leans towards introducing more negative ions into the body which in turn speed up the detox ability of the body.

The take-away for healthy frequent fliers is that there are detox tools for every traveller no matter how busy you may be. Seasonal detoxifying is a way to arm yourself against any harmful environment on the road and shouldn't be underestimated.


Resources

Bitter Herbs - http://evenstaronline.com/articles/bitters.html
Geophagy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophagy
Alkaline Diet - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_diet#Alternative_medicine




- Christopher Babayode
gplus.to/thejetspert

Airport spas - not the answer to jet lag but they might help

When your flight is cancelled or delayed, there's no better way to de-stress than hitting the spa. Airport spas are becoming more common,whether accessible to the general public or part of a first-class lounge.Treatment options are often tailored to people in transit-chair massages and othe abbreviated treatments for travellers in a hurry, though some airport spas offer full spa menus - so says http://www.Spafinder.co.uk. While airport spas may be great to help you on your way or help you de-stress from a gruelling journey they deflect from the fact that they offer no real answer to jet lag and frequent flier fatigue.

Preflight or post flight pampering, getting the glow how, escaping into a tranquil oasis are great stop gaps but they melt away in the face of the fierceness of frequent flying. If you take the subjects of jet lag and flier fatigue and break them down to their brass tacks it is nothing more than the body's inability to deal with stress. In which case going to a spa is a good thing because spas help you de-stress BUT not all stress is the same. There are 2 types of stress. The chronic and the acute. Acute stress is what you are immediately aware of while chronic stress is what you might call background stress, you might not be aware of it immediately but its long term effects are damaging, sometimes irreparable. While a spa treatment may well help you get over acute symptoms it does not help you deal with the ongoing chronic stress frequent flying exacts week in week out. This is part of the reason my popular refrain is "jet lag needs a new conversation and it needs it now!"

The truth of the matter is most people and quite a few frequent fliers only think of jet lag when they arrive at the airport or when it disrupts their routine. To my thinking this is like an astronaut attempting to take off for Space without realising he's going to need oxygen - he's not really going to be at his best when he gets there. Airport spas can be a nice stop gap but they don't face down the insidious issues around flying like dehydration, the harsh aircraft cabin, cosmic radiation exposure and a lack of oxygen. What is needed are solutions that handle all of these and are not reliant on fliers being in the vicinity of an airport to use them. You see the kept secret of the healthiest frequent fliers is that they see frequent flying as part of their lifestyle and build in lifestyle tools to help them stay healthy on the road and beyond. Spa visits can feature in that but they are not the antidote.

Sustainable, healthy, green, long term solutions are what is needed to fight jet lag and travel fatigue successfully. Are spas healthy? Definitely as is any measure that helps relieve stress. Are they green? I would suggest they are for the most part. Are they sustainable? Not really, only if you can afford to frequent them after every leg of your flight and choose the most comprehensive packages. At best I would say they are a good pick me up or girdle me 'loins for that make or break meeting. Now that I've shattered the illusion that they are the answer to your jet lag woes let me offer you some consolation with a links to lists of some of the best airport spas in airports around the world. Nice indulgence if you can get it!

http://www.spafinder.co.uk/spas/airport-spas/index.jsp
http://spas.about.com/od/dayspas/a/airportspas.htm
http://www.venere.com/blog/airport-spa/
http://www.executivetravelmagazine.com/articles/worlds-best-airport-spas


- Christopher Babayode
gplus.to/thejetspert

Frequent Fliers Are The Key To Jet Lag

In this article I put forward the hypotheses that discerning frequent fliers hold the key to eliminating jet lag and travelling well. The history of commercial aviation is such that air travel used to be the preserve of the privileged and the few. Industrialisation Globalisation and global work practices have created a mobile workforce and fuelled global travel, to the extent that frequent business fliers are the holy grail of the airline industry. The competitive nature of the global marketplace pushes results and productivity to the fore. Any advantage business fliers can gain over the competition can become a decider in the success or failure of the outcome. Thus successful business fliers are worth studying for clues on how to maintain success in a dynamic and changing global economy.

WHO ARE THESE FREQUENT FLIERS

For the purposes of our conversation we need to broaden the definition of frequent fliers beyond corporate multinational business executives. The ranks included journalists politicians diplomats pilots cabin crew athletes and showbiz personalities to name a few. What they all have in common is the need to be productive at the highest level in order to complete a task or sets of tasks in hand.
This last distinction is relevant because repetition is the mother of skill and the prospect of flying week in week out with jet lag is so unbearable for some, that they will find the best habits possible in order to minimise the impact jet lag has on their schedule and outcomes.
Globe trotting mileage and experience apart this method of trial and error is less than ideal, and not all choices are sustainable long term. However a few do manage to settle into a grove that is satisfactory and minimises the worst jet lag has to offer in their individual experience. While there are symptoms we all have in common, the individual experience of jet lag can include some variety. For this reason focusing on the commonality of symptoms and the commonality of the flying experience will yield the greatest benefit for all fliers to learn from.

ROUTINE

The most important thing you can observe about these well-traveled frequent fliers is that they have a routine and they do their damnedest not to deviate from it. I heard a firsthand story that Lord King used to fly from London to New York on Concorde with nothing but a bottle of water! The element of routine is important on many levels for the frequent flier. It helps the flier maintain a kind disciplined regularity in an environment that is anything but normal. More importantly routine is at the core of one of the most important functions a frequent flier can hope to master, the body-clock. Those who travel well know on a conscious or unconscious level that entrainment, routine and the body-clock go hand in hand. The human bias towards entrainment is a documented scientific fact, lookup the McClintock Effect* for evidence of this.

INTENSITY & ENGAGEMENT

The intensity of travel of global frequent fliers is what makes them such great guinea pigs. Their resilience is tested in the crucible of changing global factors circumstances and situations. Some have fallen by the wayside but others have endured and come out ahead. While resilience is part of the solution it is not the whole story. For all their diversity and the different walks of life frequent fliers come from, one other thing that can be said of them is that they are always engaged. Following an infographic from PC Housing* titled Mobile Dependence: A Growing Trend in Business Travel, my suspicion is that technology plays a role in keeping fliers engaged, as well as being an enabler of people who live a "jet set" lifestyle. This has a good and bad aspect to it. Engagement leads to expectancy of an outcome, with distance and other impromptu obstacles along the way getting to that outcome requires drive. Having this kind of drive on tap is handy when you land in Narita Japan and all you want to do is sleep but it is 9 am and you are set to "perform" shortly.

AN ATHLETES MINDSET

The successful frequent flier is the embodiment of an athlete in many ways and the more fliers can identify themselves with athletes preparations for competition the better. Plotting a routine that takes your rest nutrition and psychology into consideration deserves more than lip service. Those who fail to realise that frequent flying is a "competitive sport" requiring the attributes and the mindset of an athlete will struggle because the current culture around flying is not conducive to support healthy flying. If they want to stay ahead of the field and continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in performance and productivity adopting such a mindset is essential.
The few pointers above are signposts to everyone else struggling with the inconvenience of jet lag. It is for the many who are still waiting for the pharmaceutical industry to invent the cure all magic pill. Those who succeed in making the deal, impressing the prospects, winning the medal or performing to the highest standard are the ones who have managed to compete and minimise jet lag. When they do it time and time again without corporate burnout or fatigue it makes them worthy of learning from.
- Christopher Babayode
gplus.to/thejetspert

Location:Alameda Santos,Sao Paulo,Brazil