Reducing jet lag and coping with adrenal fatigue

“Give me your jet lagged, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free.”

I can’t believe I’m going to New York in less than 2 weeks!

I’m going to be writing about some stuff to prepare me for my trip.  Hopefully you’ll get a chance to go one day too and will find my tips useful, or you can just enjoy living through me vicariously!  Either way, please indulge me, I’ll be back to normal programming soon enough ;)

So, I’m a little bit worried about jet lag.  It has never bothered me too much in the past, but that was when I was young and before adrenal fatigue.

Actually I’m worried about energy levels for this trip full stop!

As per my usual MO, I have been scouring the internet looking for tips and advice to help me reduce jet lag so I can make the most of my week in New York.  You see, I totally forgot about jet lag when I booked my short trip.  I’m now desperate to minimise it as much as possible so I don’t lose too much sightseeing time either side of the BlogHer conference.

Luckily New York is the city that never sleeps, because I’m not likely to either!

Unfortunately for me, travelling east is the hardest on your body because you ‘lose time’ and all your body rhythms and daily routines are ‘pushed forward’, in the case of Australia to New York, by 14 hours.

There seems to be two schools of thought.  Work with nature or trick it with drugs.  I’m not too keen on the whole sleeping pills and other prescribed medicines, so it looks like I’m working with nature on this one.

There are some really great tips on Dietriffic on how to reduce the effects of jet lag which I’ve used to devise my plan.

Before leaving home

• Make sure I’m well rested before the flight.  This is going to be really hard!  I’ve got so much to do between now and then, and I need to make sure I’m looking after myself so the fatigue doesn’t hit me.  I’m getting back on my vitamins and supplements, especially Vitamin D.

• It will also help me if I start going to sleep earlier leading up to the trip and getting up earlier ie functioning slightly closer to New York time by reducing that hefty 14 hour gap by a few hours

• Hydrate, hydrate and hydrate again.  I’m terrible at remembering to drink water but this one is really important to make sure I bounce back from the flight faster.  I’m starting this habit now with two litres of water a day.  It will be good practice because I read here that you should drink one litre of water for every 7 hours of flight.  Maybe I better request an aisle seat!

During the flight

Ok, so here’s my plan:

• I’m going to set my watch (mmm, I need a watch) to New York time when we board so that if I do feel like napping I can try and nap during New York’s night time hours, but no too much because I actually want to be tired when we get there because it will be the evening and my body will be expecting it to be morning.

• I’m going to avoid alcohol and caffeinated drinks.  Well, I might have one celebratory glass of bubbles with travel buddy Fiona of My Mummy Daze, if they still serve it in cattle class!

• To improve my general comfort I’ll be wearing clothes that are as close to resembling PJ as possible without actually wearing my PJs.  I’ll be swapping my contacts for my geeky glasses and wearing my possum wool socks from NZ (I don’t think I’ll need my Ugg boots in NYC!).

• Apparently I should eat small meals, which shouldn’t be a problem because Qantas don’t serve dinner!  Just lunch, a refreshment and breakfast for a 21 hour flight!  I’m going to starve – wah!

After the flight

• We are arriving in the early evening (7am Melbourne time), so I think it will be off to do a bit of exploring after settling in to our Penthouse apartment to tire myself out!

• A good dinner of carbs will help encourage a good sleep, but the aim will be to stay up as late as possible before hitting the sack.

• In the morning it will be all about getting up and getting some sunlight to help ‘reset’ my body clock followed by a high-protein breakfast to keep me alert.

• Luckily I drink decaf coffee so I won’t need to avoid my daily coffee which is recommended until you’ve ‘caught up’.

So, sound like a good plan to you?

Do you have any tips for avoiding jet lag?

Laney x

Image via Flickr by Kullez