7/27/08 10:27 AM

I woke this morning, walked into the kitchen, and decided to not eat breakfast.  I'm leaving tomorrow on a plane for Disney in Orlando and taking my sons.   To make the trip in a healthy way, I've started today doing what I do. 

Sometimes, I don't even think about the things that I do but will occasionally catch my self while traveling and thing, "I should tell my patients this trick."

For this photo, I told my sons, "Line up, we're going to share this trip with my patients and readers."

They were working in the South Alabama sun, near 100 degree F heat, to get our lawn in shape.  Part of the beauty of travel is that it gives a reason to work with more focus.  You don't mind working hard when you know an exact time you will leave to go to a definite place for re-creation. 

Leisure is a verb to me that means doing something the renews the spirit and makes the mind happy or the body stronger.  Sometimes that means sitting.  Sometimes it means catching a plane to a place to go crazy.

I try to stay overnight with my sons once a month and more than one night every other month (can be with a relative or some simple place--sometimes even sleeping on the ground).  There's something beautiful about traveling together even with the uncomfortable trials will happen.  There's also something powerful in the way travel brings people closer.

Thought it might be helpful to keep a log of what happens during a week's holiday with my sons, so that you might see the many crazy things that I do to stay healthy during my travels.

One of the problems that I see with people working to keep or regain their health is the obstacles that they face while on the road.

I do not claim to have all the answers.  But, I do usually come home feeling healthier and usually have a wonderful time when I travel.  I've also coached many people who travel for a living and helped them find a way to travel and still find excellent health.  I thought you may find it useful to actually listen and watch a few of the things that go on with a trip with me that result in better health.

I'm very grateful to the people who trust me with their health (readers and patients).  I could not afford a holiday or even the camera that took this photo or the computer that I'm using now without their trust and willingness to compensate me for my expertise.

I usually combine travel with seminars (about one every other month) so that I stay on top of my field and offer my patients the best of care.  But this time, the trip is simply to spend time with my sons.

In trying to think how I might still give back to the people who trust me, I decided to log the trip with a daily (and perhaps even more than once a day) blog about our activities and how those activities relate to my attempts to stay healthy even when having fun, even when relaxing, even when travelling.

Since this will be a frequent blog, I'll only send this to you once.  If you want to stay up to date with this blog, then you'll need to click here and subscribe to the blog.  Or, you can just check back into the blog later and see the weird things that I do to stay healthy on the road.

I will never abuse your permission to send mail to you. I'm sending you this one notice that I'll offer daily personal details of my travels so that you might learn (but only if you go to my blog and subscribe).  I will not bother you again with this topic.

I do not expect you to adopt everything that I do on this trip. 

I frequently hold back some of my opinions and practices because those just starting on the road back to health might consider them just too crazy.  But, I decided to not hold back and just tell everything.   You can have more healthy travels without doing everything that I do.  Almost every time I travel, I'm looking for a way to have more fun, be more productive, and have better health on my return (as I do with the journey through a normal day).

So, for a start, one of the things I do is have a very low  calorie (or zero calorie day) the day before leaving.  This clears my head and makes me light for the road so that I'm less groggy and sleepy from the confinement of a car or plane or boat.

"How to have fun with your sons and still come home healthy and lean"-that's pretty much what we'll be covering.

So, I've lined up someone to be here at the house to take care of the dog a the dog and the cats and to make sure that any potential thieves will find someone at home. 

Now, I'm off to church with an empty stomach except for these things so far:

1.  Two glasses of distilled water (I just buy the kind in the jug at my local grocery store)

2.  Three scoops of Rejuvamin (more on this later)
3.  Two strips of xentropin to raise growth hormone levels.
4.  400 mg of SAMe to keep attitude and joints healthy.
5.  135mg of Armour Thyroid to keep thyroid in upper 10% of normal and to keep risk of thyroid cancer down (I had radiation as a teenager as old-fashioned treatment of acne).

6.  One cup of black coffee.  Lived most of my life without this one but started drinking it for a particular reason about 7 years ago (will explain another day).

7.  One baby aspirin

My sons will bring the scriptures and journals as well.

We'll talk again later if you go here and subscribe to my blog; otherwise, I'll only bother you again the next time something important and practical appears in the medical literature.

Peace & Health,

Charles Runels, MD