Healthy Holiday Essentials - Yes, they exist.

Travelling is for splurging right? Yeah, if you want to be back at square one with your health and fitness. All-fit, all-babe, always travelling Faya from fitnessontoast.com shared with us her healthy holiday essentials. After all, she's the babe in the know:

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve partnered with O2 Travel for a really exciting project which is currently taking me to the beautiful city of Lisbon, Portugal (Europe’s #1 city break destination!). I’ll be taking part in all things ‘health and fitness’ whilst I’m out there, with a full schedule of active tasks and fitness-based exploration laid out for me! I’ll be sharing my cycle tours, runs, walks and swims of the city, along with the fabled delicious (& healthy) restaurants too! Keep an eye on my Twitter and Instagram to see the mini-updates, and I promise a proper post rounding up the experience here too, soon.  As a little preview, I thought I’d put up my ‘Holiday Travel Essentials’ insight into what I usually like to pack for these little weekend blog trips.

I took on this project because I wanted to help de-mystify the confusion that exists around posting snaps and emailing whilst abroad. These days, it’s not just keen bloggers that post content online from overseas; we ALL love to share our holiday experiences with friends & family, and whilst pictures might tell a thousand words, data-intensive videos tell a thousand pictures! “Errr but Faya, isn’t that going to be mind-bogglingly expensive?!“

Hmm. Confession time: I used to be roam-ophobic. I’d instantly switch off ‘data roaming’ even before I stepped foot off the plane, and only ever got my internet fix from the nearest free wifi hotspot. Through bitter past experiences, it had been drilled into me that I’d certainly pay eye-watering sums just to send a mere picture message to my Mum. Roll forward a technological decade and times have very much changed, but so many people still fear the unaffordable ‘roaming monster’! O2 Travel is today’s solution, and unsurprisingly, it’s O2’s data-roaming-in-Europe proposition. It lets you use ALL the data you need in a day for a wallet-friendly £1.99 per day, so that whatever your experiences are on the continent (even with 50 funky videos uploaded to Instagram), you’ll only ever end up paying £1.99 for the days you use data with O2 Travel. No upper limit, which is MUCH more 2014!

That was the bit I had to tell you, and I actually wanted to tell you too! So now here’s my little list of goodies that accompany me for these journeys…

1. PHONE: Samsung Galaxy S4 loaded with my O2 Travel App (which has saved me a lot of research, by letting me download TripAdvisor, city guides and maps to my phone – Handy! – get it at the App Store).

2. PASSPORT & WALLET (Panama wallet in Nile blue, and Panama Passport Cover in Nile Blue, both Smythson).

3. MUSIC: via my favourite headphones (Bose QC 20i earphones, with a bit of noise-cancelling for a calm, screaming-children-free sleep on the plane!)

4. A5 NOTEPAD: Picked up my gorgeous cream-coloured one at Wimbledon last week

5. MAGAZINES: Men’s Health isn’t visible, but believe me it’s packed safely under my clothes. I’ve also included this month’s Red Magazine, in which I’ve written a feature about an active Surf Trip to Peniche (fairly close to Lisbon, as it happens!)

6. SNACKS: To avoid eating processed, artificial foods with refined sugar (which are guaranteed to make your blood sugars jump all over the place) why not bring some healthy snack along on your journey! I’ve got nuts (walnuts brazils and cashews) and chia seeds (to help raise the nutritional game of what I might find abroad), and a pack of Lindt 90% dark chocolate. See my previous post on travelling healthier HERE.

7. WATER: Absolutely crucial to stay hydrated, especially in those overly-airconditioned flight cabins! Here are my thoughts on the importance of water…

8. TRAINERS: Crucial, obviously! My trusted companions through holiday runs, hilly hikes and lazy walks. I’ve gone with a patriotic version of the Under Armour Speedform RCs (this version is as yet unreleased, but my friends at Under Armour correctly guessed that I’d love the Swedish colours :D)

9. TRAINING CLOTHES. Some ‘Virus’ range compression gear from Mayfair & Fifth, plus some Under Armour tops and leggings.

10. BIKINI: My latest find from Seafolly to help me through the spa journeys :) !

11. MEASUREMENTS AND STATS: Since I tend to walk a lot, ‘touristing’ around new cities, my Misfit Shine helps me stay on top of how many steps and how much daily exertion I record. Doubling as a watch, I wear it on my wrist, and it also keeps a check on my sleep patterns! It’s in the evaluation stage, and will get a full review on the blog soon! For now though, it’s certainly a pretty little thing :)

12. TOILETRIES; as per picture! at the top!

13. THE SUITCASE? My absolute favourite, the Rimowa Classic Flight, which looks so deliciously retro, but is so sturdy, functional, and feels quite glamorous too. Really perfectly sized to carry-on to any flight, and include all that I’ll need for the weekend!

Bon Voyage x

Written by: Faya from Fitness on Toast
Credit: http://fitnessontoast.com/2014/07/05/my-healthy-holiday-essentials/