How To Stay Healthy On the Road

Good health is important to all Good Sam members. But with age, many must adapt to chronic health issues such as arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure that can affect the quality of your life and travel. Adding a few healthy habits to your daily routine can go a long way toward minimizing the impact of such conditions, helping you stay healthy, and improving your overall quality of life.

Healthy eating and exercise are the cornerstones of maintaining optimum fitness. Long hours spent driving or as a passenger can lead to joint stiffness and pain. One of the advantages of RV living, however, is having choices. You can decide how far to travel each day and how active to be. While you’re enroute to the next destination, a ten minute walk at a rest stop will rest cramped muscles and increase energy levels.

RVers also have the choice to avoid fast food where meals high in salt, sodium and fat jeopardize our control of diabetes and other conditions. Even in a compact RV kitchen, it’s easy to steam vegetables, cook rice and serve lean meat. Snacks can mean raisins, fruit or “gorp” (the hiker’s mix of nuts, dried fruits and chocolate chunks.)

Exercise should be a staple in every RVers’ daily routine. It not only raises energy, controls weight and helps maintain overall health, but it also improves sleep and combats fatigue and depression. An additional benefit is that activity slows the progression of disease.

RV Exercises Designed for Small Spaces: Did you know it’s better to exercise consistently five minutes each day than to attempt a 20–minute workout that quickly gets lost in the shuffle.

1.  Stretch your arms to the sky, then bend at the waist and lower your head between your knees for a few seconds.
2.  Draw circles on the floor with each leg a few times, like a ballet dancer.
3.  Lie on your back. Straighten your legs and raise them up as high as possible for a few minutes.

        

 

While these tips and exercises provide a higher chance of longevity, unfortunately, every individual is vulnerable to having the onset of unexpected health issues. And because Good Sam members are frequent travelers, you’re more likely to be away from home when you get sick or have an accident.
Because of this, the Good Sam Club has developed a medical and travel assistance plan with members in mind. Formerly known as Emergency Assistance Plus or EA+, Good Sam TravelAssist provides benefits tailored to members, whether they’re RVing in their home state or sightseeing halfway around the world including: assistance with transferring insurance information, replacing lost and stolen prescriptions, RV and other vehicle return, and many more important benefits.

With small preventative measures and Good Sam TravelAssist in your life, you can enjoy the RV lifestyle to the fullest knowing you’re taking care of yourself and your loved ones too.

Learn More About Good Sam TravelAssist